Hacking more Poundland solar lights with new LEDs.

Some more variants on Poundland's fantastic solar lights for 2016, and these ones were just begging to have the original cold white LEDs replaced with a colour that matched the glass to give them a much brighter and more saturated colour. Of course, I also added the clear all-weather tape over the solar panel area to avoid water ingress around its edges.

[@DoItYourselfMusician]

No cold white LED's escape Clive's house alive.

[@mankee2211]

so when do we get a garden tour? must be a magical place :)

[@bradburyrobinson]

+Dave P I can't even imagine how bright Clive's garden must be! Best guess is the scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase puts the lights on the house.

[@bami2]

I don't know why but the term "poundland" still cracks me up.

[@criartoros]

3 better

[@dwDragon88]

I wonder how many of Clive's excellent mods have been "borrowed" by the manufacturers to fix their products.

[@jamespatrick6939]

+dwDragon88 next summer you'll see this coloured leds garden lights all over Poundland, Clive´s choice solar garden light

[@Rich96c4ce]

You have amazing dexterity while soldering! Thanks for all the great videos.

[@timopomer]

thank you so much, i always play your videos while learning for completely unrelated subjects. relaxes me and makes me feel smarter than i actually am

[@mnelson10000]

I like the pale ones, too! Might be cool to have some of both running

[@kerrytrantham6197]

BEAUTIFULLY DONE! THAT BLUE! I also get these in California, as I had mentioned in another of your videos! Great job, Mr. Clive! Cheers

[@bikingmnviking3801]

+Kerry Trantham You stole Ave's Avatar!

[@andreamitchell4758]

where do you get them in california?

[@JerryEricsson]

There is something about that blue light that has always been magical for me! I can still recall the first time my folks took us to town to look at the Christmas decorations, it must have been 1956 or perhaps a year either way. I was very young but the impression of one house on our way home, it was a small farm house near the road just outside a tiny village that was done in all blue lights, that blue glow, it just stuck in my mind as the most fantastic thing I ever saw. Still does, we do our house in all blue lights now so others can enjoy the view. I bought some blue LED lights with a standard size cover to look like the old lights, they contain blue LEDS as well, in fact this year when we put them out, half of them failed, so I went through and found that the LED closest to the resistor blew on both strings putting half of them out. I didn't have the flat top blue LEDs to replace them with so I used a bright 3mm blue LED, they seem nearly the same as the flat bulbs but a bit brighter, if you know which ones they are you can see the difference.

[@codebeard]

Is the stake at the bottom of the light translucent? I am wondering if it's a waste to have light coming out of the bottom like that - I wonder if a bit of foil could be put in the bottom to reflect it back out the sides.

[@JerryEricsson]

Way back in the mid 1950's my folks took us to town (we lived 25 miles from the nearest town) to see the Christmas lights (yes some people decorated for Christmas in the 50"s here in the Dakota's.) Since we didn't even have electric power on our farm, this was truly a wonderland for me. I was entranced by one house that had all blue lights, they seemed to glow somehow magically, (I am a 1951 model so I was young at the time) and since then I have loved the glow of blue lights in the dark night sky. Our house decorations for Christmas were blue, but now that we are nomads, I have yet to set the motor home up with blue lights. I have them, just haven't installed them as of yet. I even purchased a 100 watt LED light in blue, man how that glows in the dark room when hit with 32 volts! I also have a red, yellow, green and of course white so I can go multi color should the urge hit me. There is a movement trending across the land at this time to display blue lights at night to show support for the police who have been under attack by Black Lives Matter movement as well as our idiot in the White House (WHO shall soon be gone, THANK GOD!) So that blue one really turned my crank, thanks a million for your videos I always seem to learn something from each and every one.

[@big8news]

Jerry Ericsson well the new one the White House you'll wonder why Clay's videos don't play as fast cuz I'll be throttling the internet as of December 14th of 2017

[@stridermt2k]

Thanks to the ideas I've picked up from your channel I can hardly wait to get some new solar lights to try your techniques on! Great stuff here!

[@viciousslayer]

clive, thank you for your videos mate. i learnt more from electrocity (thanks to AvE too) from you than from my actual school (schools in brazil are REALLY weird). they're always p interesting, your solderings skills are a legend to behold, and the best ones are when you do stuff like plugging leds into the mains. keep 'em coming mate, cuz i love 'em.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

+Vicious Slayer Good to hear - have you done any electronics projects yourself? :D

[@viciousslayer]

+Benjamin “Ozias” Esposti not yet. I'm mostly scavenging for parts from old dead components around my house xD

[@OrinAdamthwaite]

Sunny, Hunter Valley NSW Australia. Great hack! Surprised these lights are still getting made with cool light LED's when the warm light LED's look so much better.

[@mrclucker1969]

Even on the camera, you could see the improvement - very nice hack.

[@Neolith100]

Clive, I have been watching you since that firework doll got so popular. Clearly, you're a man of much soldering skill but seriously... "helping hands" for god sakes! Helping hands!

[@j4ck3t]

As always, Good tips on how to improve led lights, This time it looked so simple I might just do it myself.

[@ODX171]

Nice hack Clive. Gonna look at the Dollar stores here in Canada to see if we have them.

[@7homas0wen]

My favourite stake lights I use in the garden have finally started to give out after a few years. I recently fount new ones that looked identical with the same stainless steel frame and glass lens. I was wrong they look identical but are the same cheap shitty generic ones put into the frame of the light I already own. It has this really bluish tint directional led that doesn’t light up anything and what it does light up is blue and dim. This video helped so much I have replaced them with white leds which are 360’ of light instead of a directional light pointed into the ground.

[@Jim-si7wz]

They are such an improvement maybe the manufacturers should watch your channel Big Clive.

[@Pillysrule]

Love the shoutout to Perth! Thanks again for all the awesome videos!

[@Blacktronics]

So, you grow garden lights instead of plants?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Blacktronics Yes. They're much easier.

[@Blacktronics]

+bigclivedotcom I very much support the notion to stop plant enslavement

[@cardboardboxification]

Good way to conserve water here in california

[@FDJustin]

I kind of like the variety of having the white LED's in some of them, and the coloured in others. At least in this video.

[@dedasdude]

Hi Clive! try to scuff the plastic lens of the leds to make the light spread out more! What i always do for projects like these is to chop the bulge off with a dremel, right close to the junction. Then they spread light much better!

[@agentbertram4769]

Hi Clive! have you tried putting a small disk of cap-scrap or silver foil in the bottom of the unit. It reflects the light that ends up making the plastic stick holder glow, back up to the glass diffuser. Another tiny improvement. Here in Argyll we have suffered quite a lot of snow over the last 24hrs. I blame TTIP!

[@jimbola77]

Dang that looks 110% Better!!!! I gotta do that thank you for sharing.

[@dextrodemon]

thanks for the shout out, love from perth australia (which is coldish and cloudy atm)

[@iamdarkyoshi]

"Its not like Nevada" I live there! Lots or rain and even snow lately. Snowfall translated to spanish is actually Nevada though, wtf... Also Clive, does your Yihua soldering iron have a loose fitting tip on the element? Because mine (like seemingly all others) does, so I tried wrapping some aluminum foil around the element and after trial and error, found a size that fits perfectly. And MAN does it make the world of difference. Its thermal performance on large joints is very impressive!

[@iamdarkyoshi]

***** Yup, Reno! I have been wearing shorts all week because I can. I am not the smartest person here... But yeah, its been pretty silly lately. Nothing like South Dakota where I used to live.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Luke Den Hartog It does appear that improving the thermal connection is good. I'm going to try copper loaded grease soon.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

bigclivedotcom Never thought of copper loaded grease. I have actually thought of using some thermal paste, but aluminum foil is going to conduct better. I tend to be using that massive ~8-10mm chisel tip type thing that mine came with, and I can desolder an 8 pin chip on a double sided board by heating up one side and bending it out, and then doing the same to the other side. At 350 degrees...

[@nicgreen4234]

+Luke Den Hartog I am trying the 5mm "tabbing" wire used for solar panel busses. It's tinned copper so conducts well. However I've broken one ceramic element already trying to remove an overly snug fitting tip, so I will try the alfoil method too. Apparently the design they are copying had a thin metal tube shim as standard. Clive, does the copper grease handle the temperature OK? BTW Has anybody else had the USB 8W iron "rejected by custom" or is my supplier (winddeal) playing for time?

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Nic Green My tips do have a sleeve in them already, but they are still loose on all four of my genuine Hakko irons, which have a slightly thicker element. Not as loose as they are on Yihua ones though. Speaking of tabbing wire, I can solder wires or reclaimed tabbing directly onto 18650s now. Naughty... I have a spotwelder but no proper tabbing wire...

[@Space_Moth]

aaaand now I've got a set of 6 of these lamps on their way to me. No idea what I'm going to use them for yet, but looking forward to having a play around and attempt an upgrade!

[@jimmysegovia2688]

dang, that is really nice their partner!!!! I put a blue led in a solar light it looks really nice thank you for sharing.

[@firstnamelastname4752]

I've owned 5 of these for the last year in Australia, only one has stopped working and I think it was water seepage. Also they still remain on for about 5 hours at night, despite being in a partially shaded area.

[@BenjaminEsposti]

Woah, that blue one, and the green one ... omg ... These would make such great hanging ornamental lamps!!! Haha I might have to get some of these and make those! I'd love to see a vivid red one too :P

[@TheSpotify95]

Great video, Clive! By the way, where do you get those blue and green LEDs from? eBay? Further, where do you get that nice screwdriver set from? And btw, I have quite a few solar lights as well. None of them have those button cells - they all tend to come with AAAs or AAs. Though I did buy some dirt cheap ones previously and they came with button cells. So the cheaper ones come with button cells and the more expensive ones come with AAs and AAAs. (Though even so, the AAs and AAAs are usually only 600mAh, so I replace them with better ones when required.)

[@bigclivedotcom]

+spotify95 Search eBay for strawhat LED for that style of LED. The screwdriver is a common "9 in 1" set.

[@TheSpotify95]

Okay, thanks for the info :) Should be able to get a cheap joblot of LEDs off the internet :D Thanks, I remember you saying in a previous video (in the comments section) about the screwdriver set - looks like a good one to have as you can easily change the ends if required.

[@SpeedyRampage]

Im here warching from Perth in Western Australia! I'm quite surprised you even know of this place :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Kealan I visited Perth a while back.

[@evilboat]

+Kealan Also watching from Perth and was surprised to hear it mentioned.

[@jez9999]

+Kealan Maybe he lives in Perth Scotland ;-)

[@southjerseysound7340]

I remember you having trouble getting the solar panels out.I've found if you just heat them in a toaster oven ever so slightly the hot glue will easily let go and you can slide them out without damage.You dont need much heat and I didnt keep track of the temp but I'd say heat them to just about when you cant hold them and you are good to go ;)

[@anon1726]

The Hail was pretty wild where i was, i think it didn't last too long but they were pretty big and there was alot of it. Quite the heavy rainstorm. It was even snowing today which was pretty odd. Nice video though Clive, thanks.

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

With all the outdoor lights you hack/mod, test and buy i just have to wonder what your yard or patio looks like at night?

[@vforvenom2299]

Pretty good idea, the coloured glass with white light will absorb a lot of the wavelengths. But when you add the similar coloured LED then an extremely high percentage of it should make it outside of the glass because it's already within that spectrum. It created a much more intense colour, I would say it's worth it. The factories probably can't be bothered though as they make the heads of most of these solar lights very similarly and then they just modify the base for the different glass colour or even put clear ones there also. That little battery is funny also, but I guess for England that's all you can expect to charge with the small solar panel in a day. Here in Australia we have full AAA sized batteries in these small solar garden lights. At the same time everything comes with it's drawbacks, you can't really just walk around here in Australia for too long outside unless you want super tanned arms and face and risk skin cancer also. So there are always a drawback to everything.

[@dallasdorrington7449]

I just love this hack Clive very nice. I of course live in the city you mentioned (Perth) and yes we do get more than our fair share of solar radiation being dumped on our heads. I must say all Perth people love the winter month's as we get this stuff that fall's from the sky and makes the ground wet. I think you call it rain, I'm not too sure on that as we don't often get it that we forget what rain is. It's 19:30 on Monday May 2nd and for the last 4 days we have had that stuff that fall's from the sky and wets the ground. Mark that as Perth is getting some rain. YeeeeHHaaaa!!!!! PS; I have made heaps of joule thief's and have them all over the house running 1.5 volt AA and AAA batteries nice and flat. I even done a Duracell D size and after 5 weeks it is still glowing brightly.

[@andymouse]

I'm so glad it's not just me that does this !

[@Jbrese58]

Quite nice,lad. The colored LEDS to add some UMPH to the units. Thank you for pointing this out. Also,thanks for mentioning the crooked installation of the LEDs. I never realized that fact. What to expect form China,huh?

[@blackdragonx1186]

Lol I was going to say something about here in NV too. It rained and hailed here in vegas yesterday. But yes, way more often than not, it's sunny.

[@maxximumb]

Clive, what voltage / current do those tiny solar panels put out? I was wondering how many would be needed to charge a 3.7v 18650 battery.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Maxx B You'd probably need three in series with a diode. Probably better buying a cheap 5 or 6V cell on eBay though.

[@PianoVideosJustForU]

The blue looks very nice, I wish I could see what kind of green you are talking about because I am moderately green colorblind (greens look pale or white), however they still look better then the white LED.

[@GadgetReviewVideos]

I made the mistake years ago and bought wick without flux, I finally figured put why it sucked (or didnt suck) and just used it with a liquid flux pen and wet the wick with the flux first. So i didnt have to toss the wick to the can. The flux in the wick makes a big difference.

[@ZillionPrey]

awesome as always, would love to see more "usb soldering stuff" or anything for use outdoors

[@ethanpoole3443]

There is really no such thing as a good USB soldering iron, USB ports simply do not provide the necessary wattage for effective soldering without extreme compromises and limitations (you almost meet the bare minimum with a 2.4A charger, but even 12W is shy of the bare minimum of 15-20W you need just for minimal very light soldering). There are cordless soldering irons, which Clive has covered before (somewhere I still have one from the 80s), and which can be an acceptable option for small jobs and occasional use. But for most field repairs I usually just use a butane torch for soldering everything from small connections on a through-hole PCB to large RF connectors as they can effectively be dialed down to provide just a little heat in a pinpoint area or set wide open when you need to deliver a lot of heat quickly and they are quite affordable, have good runtime, and take less than a minute to "recharge" with butane refills when finally empty.

[@richbooth8948]

+BigCliveDotCom kicking it old school. I love these kind of projects. We have Dollar Stores and Family Dollar. I like Dollar Stores but Family Dollar has lots of things at way more than a dollar. Also just got a Five and Below where everything is... you got, 5 Bux or less. There is also Christmas Tree Shops that sells beachy-garden-entertaining type things on the (relatively) cheap. Lots of LED/Solar hacking opportunities. Thanks for posting your vids. Lots of us look forward to them!

[@bentearne4057]

Shout out for mentioning Perth!

[@mattnottingham3663]

Cool. Just out of interest (and I'm sure you've been asked before), what make/manufacturer is your screwdriver?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Matt Nottingham It's a very common type called a 9 in 1 set. I get mine in the UK from Poundland, who do a really rugged version.

[@mattnottingham3663]

+bigclivedotcom OK, it looks way more rugged and expensive than poundland!

[@Nookster]

Just hail? Lucky you, two inches of snow in Dundee tonight!

[@BowersElectronics]

Are you sure that is a booster? at least on a board I was looking at it seemed like a "comparitor" if thats the right way to put it. It seems to detect when the voltage output of the solar panel is less than the voltage of the battery, and thus switch the LED "ON" At least thats what it seemed like from my analysis.

[@Rkdgsd]

Nice video very helpful please show us a garden tour

[@chrisleech1565]

Clive, you guys have it good at your Poundland outlets. I would be over the moon if our so called "Dollar Stores" here in Canada had anywhere near the neat LED stuff you are sourcing there. Perhaps a headlamp and maybe a few flashlights if that :-(

[@bikingmnviking3801]

+Chris Leech What country you in? We have those all over the place here in America at the dollar stores (which is worth even less than their british pound sterling)

[@chrisleech1565]

+BikingMNViking in the comment :-)

[@bikingmnviking3801]

yeah, I should stop reading once I am so tired my comprehension is that low.. problem is you don't know you're word-drunk! Thanks for your understanding. (someone asked me, after 6 or so back and forths which state I was from. True!)

[@chrisleech1565]

No worries the screen is no good substitute for paper, just a helluva lot more convenient. Good diversion Clive's channel though I find myself complaining regularly as I have to buy everything from Ebay...no cheap hackables, even at the Canadian Dollar Tree :o

[@big8news]

Chris Leech does Canadian have a 99 cent only stores they sell pretty cool stuff there

[@linksmith1057]

Good desoldering wick is usually also easier on the board. Desoldering guns I've seen rip pads right off the board. Also, an extremely skinny soldering iron tip I can put into most through holes though the braid of the wick and it sucks any left behind solder out of the hole. I only use that thin iron tip just for that purpose because they don't last long being so tiny.

[@ethanpoole3443]

My goodness, what have you been witnessing for desoldering guns? I repair vintage electronics and test gear regularly and have to deal with foil traces whose adhesive is very weak and I would never reach, as *my* first choice, for my desoldering wick over my desoldering gun because by the time you finally get all the solder out of a plated through-hole with the wick there is a good chance you have already destroyed the foil trace and plated through hole (and probably still did not get the component lead fully free unless you butchered the component beforehand). By comparison, a couple seconds with a good vacuum desoldering gun and the hole is completely free of solder, the component lead free, and virtually no chance of damaging the fragile foil trace or plated through-hole, or even the component itself (if such is a salvageable component). I have never damaged the foil with a vacuum desoldering gun, it may happen some day, but it certainly is not par for the course.

[@linksmith1057]

+Ethan Poole I work in a factory that pays $10 an hour. Has less to do with the guns and more with the employees. I still don't like them myself though.

[@bikingmnviking3801]

+Ethan Poole ditto that

[@theatheisthammer]

absolutely fantastic -n-+hpg

[@haggisman5553]

Hey Clive :) would red leds work OK? contrast between the red and blue would be funky :P or hack one with RGB led :P home bargains has some good solar lights and they still give the AAA battery :P handy to have n just replace with a tiny one :P

[@Effay513]

hacked ones look awesome

[@twocvbloke]

I keep thinking of picking up some of these lights to hang in the weedy cherry tree to give it some "life" (it' diseased so it's kind of weak), modified of course, only problem is, it'd cost about £5 just to get to one of the nearest poundland stores...

[@CitizenKaneNZ]

What if you put a cold white + a blue in the blue pot, and a warm white + a green in the green pot, just to get a fuller spectrum of light coming out, might make it look a bit more rounded out.

[@franksmith7271]

I like the one on the far right, any idea what that color is? Yes I'm colorblind, but it still looks 😎. EDIT: ok he said its blue...

[@johnberry5339]

Another great tutorial Clive, I had a space to add a AA battery in mine and that's what I have done. I connected it to the original smaller cell in parallel is that correct? and will it be able to charge both batteries? thanks ... John :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

That should work, but the solar cell is not going to make much of a dent in charging an AA cell.

[@johnberry5339]

Ok thanks Clive, you also mentioned in another tutorial that you can change the inductor. mine is - green, blue, brown? silver is that 560 micro henrys? .... Thanks again Clive and have a great day.... John from Doncaster, :)

[@johnberry5339]

Hi Clive I said I added a AA battery I meant to say AAA would it still not make much of a dent? Thanks abain :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

Yes it's a 560uH inductor. Quite high, so they must be aiming for a long run time at lower intensity.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It depends on the amount of sun and size of panel. But the tiny panels don't put out a huge amount of current during the day. That said, it's usually easier to get the AAA cells than it is to get the more specialised button ones.

[@klumpy103]

Cool white LED's, gotta love them- easy and cheap to produce - useless for anything....lol reminds me of fluorescents 'bus shelter blue' not a pleasant look

[@CoroaEntertainment]

What would they look like if you gave the leds a light sanding... thus giving them a frosted bulb look?

[@ciaranfarley]

do you just use youtube capture on an ipad to make these awesome videos ?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Ciarán Farley-Toone (cTurtle98) Yes.

[@ciaranfarley]

what do you use to hold your ipad up to take the video?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Ciarán Farley-Toone (cTurtle98) A dedicated shelf.

[@ciaranfarley]

wow cool

[@jayamd3579]

im in Blackpool, that hail was fucking awesome! closest we have had to snow in donkey years

[@skrame01]

Very cool you've got a good eye.

[@StimorolChewingGum]

I actually prefer the "ice blue" colour of the white LED + blue glass to the "deep blue" of the blue LED + blue glass. But that's just my subjective opinion of course :)

[@TheAudiostud]

May I ask " Where you bought your Screwdriver you're using" thanks enjoying your vids 10/10

[@bigclivedotcom]

+TheAudiostud My usual driver is called a 9 in 1 set. I get them from a UK store called Poundand.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Butterball The silver and black one with the changeable bits.

[@TheAudiostud]

thank you Ive a PL in Dunstable

[@bigclivedotcom]

+TheAudiostud You'll find it in the DIY section labelled as a DIY-Time mini computer screwdriver.

[@magicaardvark1]

Thanks for the tip on these lights Clive. I have a load of them now, all fitted with colour appropriate LEDs. The blues are totally the best. These newer high intensity LEDs are beautiful.

[@vistron888]

I've found solder suckers to be pretty useless. They can splash solder everywhere and they rarely remove all of it which means leaving a very thin amount that is much harder to heat without applying more to the joint anyway. Better off heating with a decent amount of solder and pulling the component away.

[@bikingmnviking3801]

+V T That's how I did it my first ten to 15 years, usually on a tree stump.

[@johnberry5339]

Hi Clive, I was wondering if it's possible to charge these small button cells manually? the sun has got his hat on where I live.Thank you very much... John :)

[@bigclivedotcom]

Yes, you can top them up from a low voltage supply if you use a suitable resistor to limit the current to about 10mA.

[@johnberry5339]

bigclivedotcom That's great, Thank you very much Clive and have a great evening... :)

[@7homas0wen]

bigclivedotcom hey I have had many of my lights stop working so I take the rechargeable battery out and put a normal one in and I have found they don't detect if it's day or night and by the way is the censor built in the solar panel and if so where can I buy p them ? Thanks

[@bigclivedotcom]

The solar panel is also used as the light sensor. Look for signs of the internal coating of the solar panel being eroded, and also for corrosion on the PCB inside.

[@Gazgit555]

You are the light of our life's muka , even tho you are a warm white lover. I'm a cool white man me self. It's lifestyle type of thing I think !

[@HerrLavett]

great result. and easy.

[@SuperSonicSpeedGuy]

I think I'm gonna buy some of these just to hack up now, improve my soldering skills :)

[@neilsimpson79]

Clive, do you have competitive neighbours that try to outlight you?

[@DanB95]

Clive, can I have some of that hail you said you've been getting? I'd prefer that over the random night-snows we've been getting. ;_; Also, the blue one came out fantastic.

[@wimwiddershins]

Here in Perth today I talked to a Pom who complained about the rain. Not much sun sadly.

[@lazyjackal5528]

Could you use the slow color change LEDs in these pound shop solar garden lights? I have a few that use the 4 pin chip and i was wanting to make my garden a bit gayer.

[@bigclivedotcom]

+LazyJackal you need to add a diode and capacitor to allow the RGB LEDs to work.

[@lazyjackal5528]

Well that explains it. The LED would just light red, briefly sort of shift to yellow and then fade off into obscurity on red. Thanks clive!

[@kenyon337]

I could see BIG differences

[@viperlighting5174]

maby those straw hat whites are cheaper than blues and greens or they just want to use all the stock they had either way your mod makes them so mutch better great fun :)

[@FennecTECH]

I perfer the clour of the white ones Especially the blue it looks like ice blue and glimmers in a wonderful way

[@CommandProMC]

How many milliamp hours does each tiny battery hold?

[@SigEpBlue]

Desoldering wick is great stuff! I bet I go through a few dozen meters of it a month lately (lots of old electronics restoration work). A word to the wise: if you get the stuff at Radio Shack, those cheap bastards *didn't put any flux on it!* And it's been that way for DECADES! No wonder they went bankrupt! ;)

[@bigclivedotcom]

+SigEpBlue Yeah, the flux-free braid is a common problem.

[@Abhorsen6930]

+SigEpBlue Well that explains why it's always a nightmare to desolder things using that wick! I knew it was sold so cheap for a reason... I eventually just got a handheld vacuum desoldering tool four about $5 US.

[@bikingmnviking3801]

+SigEpBlue If you're doing that many get the dedicated desoldering vacuum iron from RS. They had a 50% off deal a month or so ago so I finally got one. I had been eyeing this thing since the 80s..dunno why I never went ahead and bought it ($35-$45 seemed a little steep is probably why) but now I'm desoldering on Easy Street. Handles connectors well, too. I scored a bunch of 12vdc sla 10ah batteries for just $11. Now I need to hook them up to the solar panels I bought.

[@SigEpBlue]

BikingMNViking I have a number of vacuum desoldering tools, and they get used even more than the wick! I'm thinking about getting a Hakko desoldering station, actually. Looking at the 472D-01 now.... :)

[@bikingmnviking3801]

SigEpBlue even better, i just watched a video of EEvlog put a generic rhino one through its paces, looks like a dream on multiple layer boards!

[@alaric_]

how about a video about hacking solar light with slightly larger battery and led light?

[@kokodin5895]

I would really like to see different color combinations Red LED in Yellow glass Blue LED in Yellow glass Green LED in Blue glass Purple LED in Blue glass If i am correct that would make quite nice collors at night

[@bigclivedotcom]

+kokodin Sadly not., LEDs are usually single wavelength (except white) which means that a colour that didn't match the glass would be very dim.

[@kokodin5895]

+bigclivedotcom Yes, but that depend on two things 1 how thick the glass is 2 how far on the spectrum light color and glass pass trough collot are If i am not mistaken, this glass is not that thick to block much light, it is design to iluminate quite brightly its surroundings and look pretty while doing this. And i don't think that this particular glass would change or block light color that much.(from my own tests, white leds do not play nice with real polarisation or color filters) Besides i proposed next closest color.I am simply curious how much the led would overpower the glass filtering.

[@carlyonbay45]

Poundland lights are actually expensive - asda are now selling this type of light for 79p

[@Kune35]

I'd like to see other colors like putting a red LED in the blue lantern.

[@dannyfrickenboy]

cmon clive, NEVADA?? You should have said FLORIDA it is the sunshine state after all! LOL

[@melikrasniqi1511]

Hi, can you tell me, wha tis that for legged chip? Thank you

[@mulgerbill]

Really could have used some wick today. What's done with it when it's all clogged?

[@bigclivedotcom]

You can find wick on eBay.

[@andymouse]

hi ! where can I get an English data sheet for the garden light chips? I think they are interesting

[@IIGrayfoxII]

I also use the goot wick which is from japan and it is one of the better ones out there. I got a cheaper generic one and it sucks.

[@WaterLines333]

YOU SAID NEVADA CORRECTLY! HOLY SHIT! Wait . . . a guy from the UK could say it correctly, but people from Utah and California still struggle to say it?

[@BedsitBob]

How do the forward voltages compare?

[@roryos]

I dunno, you did sound a little dejected when you were talking about how little sunshine we get over here :(

[@scottfirman]

are those actual glass,or plastic?

[@bigclivedotcom]

+scott firman Both. Plastic core with broken glass wrapped round it.

[@BierBart12]

So I was wondering what kind of soldering iron you use...

[@bigclivedotcom]

+Bier “Bierbart12” Bart It's a generic Chinese Yihua iron. This channel is firmly "use what you've got."

[@KnaufL]

you can find one on this page,I have this one and its great for the money.Of course they have different style plugs

[@AureliusR]

+bigclivedotcom FYI -- Goot Wick is a top-quality brand, and most likely the stuff sold on eBay is a knock-off. I find the difference between eBay wick and good-quality brand-name wick to be immeasurable. If you put a little liquid flux onto wick (with a flux pen) it makes it work even better, if that were possible.

[@KnaufL]

***** I have also noticed that.Its not worth fiddling around with bad chinese wick

[@ToasterCoasterAdventures]

dick smith electronics here in Australia used to sell solder wick called "Dick Wick" yeah you saw that coming, love your clips Clive

[@7homas0wen]

Bought this but stainless steel and a AA rechargable from big w in Australia for $1 or 50p

[@fromfin90]

wellk time to buy some leds and lamps!