Convert LED solar powered lights to plugin?

[atgcpaul]

My wife, bless her heart, bought a string of LED outdoor lights that is solar powered. They worked fine inside. They charged up fine from the indoor lighting and would stay on all night. Then I installed them outside. It worked for about a day and a half. I don't know if it's too cold for the little NiCad battery inside or if it's not in an optimal location to charge the battery--east facing porch.

Anyway, I just bought a string of LEDs on a BF sale at HD. There's nothing special about the plug. Looks like the regular string light plug with fuses inside. I was thinking there would be a transformer like there is for indoor LEDs but there isn't.

I have a bunch of regular Christmas string lights. Could I simply cut the plug end off and then splice it onto the LED string (after cutting the solar part off)?

Thanks,
Paul

[LCHIEN]

i would say possible but not likely. the strings of LED lights with 50 or so lights are typically in series to divide the voltage amoung the many lights.

A solar string usually has low voltage in parallel because of the battery.

[tfischer]

If you disconnect the solar cell, and replace the ni-cad battery with an appropriate power supply (1.5V x the number of cells) it should work.

[LCHIEN]

If you disconnect the solar cell, and replace the ni-cad battery with an appropriate power supply (1.5V x the number of cells) it should work.

agree with that.

[gerti]

If you disconnect the solar cell, and replace the ni-cad battery with an appropriate power supply (1.5V x the number of cells) it should work.

If it's NiCad that would be 1.2V per cell. Probably a good number for NiMH as well.

[Daryl]

For your original plan to just plug it in, you will need a current limiting resistor. Figuring out the value is beyond me but probably available someplace on line.

[capncarl]

i

not intending to divert this thread, but, I was curious about led voltage and googled it. Discovered Electroluminescent wire. Will this replace led light strings? I've seen some used in some car tail lights and was blown away with how good they worked but couldn't tell what it was. I gotta have some of this stuff.
Sorry for the interruption, but had to blurt this out before I had a senior moment and forgot it!
capncarl

[atgcpaul]

not intending to divert this thread, but, I was curious about led voltage and googled it. Discovered Electroluminescent wire. Will this replace led light strings? I've seen some used in some car tail lights and was blown away with how good they worked but couldn't tell what it was. I gotta have some of this stuff.
Sorry for the interruption, but had to blurt this out before I had a senior moment and forgot it!
capncarl

Those are pretty cool but I wonder how long the luminescence lasts.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

[atgcpaul]

So I copped out. I couldn't find anything around the house that would work. I took the original battery out. 1.2V NiCad rated at 500mAh and replaced it with a charged NiMH rated at 1600mAh. It ran fine last night. It seemed pretty sunny this morning and it's running strong tonight. I'll keep another charged in the wings if I need it.

[capncarl]

From what I've seen the cheap solar lights have sorry batteries. The higher end butterfly/bird yard solar lights that my wife has all over the back yard seem to have better batteries and run for several years while the cheaper $4 ones don't make it very long. With a cycle like this, completely discharging and recharging with a tiny solar collector it takes a forgiving battery.
capncarl