hacking a Action Solar-light

[A3V]

I found this solar light at Action:

Solarlight Action NL
Seems very hackable:

includes:

• 40 LED panel; 40 white led in parallel
• 5.5 V 200 mA solar panel
• 1 x Li-ion 3.7 2000mAh cell (in battery holder: can be removed )
• PIR Motion sensor 3.3V
  Signals:
  -Q1 / R2 = probably battery polarity and discharge protection
• Solar charging IC (could be C3130) pins seems to match functionality:
  
• R8 (3K3) is probably RiSet

There is one 8 pin logic chip.

• Signal at Pin 2 is connected to the PIR
• Signal at Pin 3 is connected to voltage divider R4/R5 to detect sun light, (LEDS will switch off when there is sun light)
• Signal at Pin 4 is connected to the button (ON/OFF/Mode)
• Signal at Pin 5 to R1 is driving the leds via Q1/Q3 (N-channel Mosfet A2SHB) R7/R6 (2x 0.1) Ohm
• Q2 = voltage regulator 3.3 V To pin 1 of logic chip and PIR element

Hope to make some mysensor thing out of this soon.

Greetings A3

[OldSurferDude]

@A3V I had the same idea as you! Different company but same board for ~$13.

What I found was the solar panel was anemic and the battery was pretty pathetic, too (~700mAh).

For it to be a MySensors device, you'll have to add a radio and software (which means a computation device like an Arduino Nano).

Using the MySensors libraries, I couldn't figure out how to get the Nano to go into a mode that was less than 10mA. This meant a more powerful solar panel and higher capacity battery.

I didn't figure out, like you have, how the charging circuit work so I got an 18650 battery charging board. (75¢)

I put a soil moisture sensor and a DHT11 humidity/temperature sensor on it and ditched the idea about motion sensing and lights.

Because I was completely new to MySensors, getting the software to work was a challenge, but do-able.

I'm using an RPi (that I already had) as a MySensors MQTT gateway and sending the readings to a linux computer running the MQTT broker. This passes the readings onto Home Assistant which is running in a virtual box on the same linux computer.

I bought the computer for $90 (now $100) on Amazon because RPi's now cost upwards to $180 for a bare bones SBC! YIKES!

Yup, this project got out of control but it works really well! Well, except that DHT's temperature seems to be completely uncalibrated and no two give the even close to the same temperature.

Have Fun!

[electrik]

@A3V Great thanks I've also bought one and will add radios and sensors to it. Maybe I'll even make the light controllable from the arduino instead, or don't use the light at all. I paid 8€ for this complete light that gives a solar panel, battery and charging circuit. Buying the components is already more expensive I would say