Is my solar-powered shed-light screwed?

If you meausred that voltage with the cells disconnected from battery, then the panel's dead. If it was connected, could be panel or battery, more likely battery.

NT

That is no good at all. Are you sure that the connections to the panel are not corroded somewhere? I'd have imagined a lot more in these days we have just been getting.

The voltage sounds like it is completely wrong as presumably the unit has several cells in series to give enough to charge the battery. Brian

NiMH cells generally have a modest self discharge rate such I doubt they would retain a charge for the best part of 2 years.

Otherwise I agree with NT.

ing away garden tools after it's dark - but over

the winter the light output has gradually gone from p

athetic to completely absent. I've just taken a look at it t

o see what's wrong. Measuring the output of the solar panel on a bright afte

rnoon,

I found it about 80mV, which responded reproducibly to me covering over the panel, dropping to about 30mV.

You need to measure the current flowing into the battery, not the PV output voltage. Bill

My experience with solar powered garden lights is that the battery terminals seem to get green s*it on them. It is usually the positive side, dunno why. Cleaning the terminals up works - mostly. Must be worth a look?

Plus the batteries they come with are often S**t and the whole solar shed light experience can be improved by replacing the battery with something better from a reputable manufacturer.

I suspect the battery or that water has got into the on/off switch.

Probably not worth the cost and effort in replacing the batteries if cleaning the terminals does not work. Those things are full of liquorice allsorts.

I have a similar one and it mostly worked ok until I broke the hinge on the panel so had it gaffa taped at a bad angle, eventually it stopped working. I brought it indoors cleaned the terminal connections and had it sit on a window sill for a week or two and it charged back up. I since installed mains LED floods so have put it back in area thats little used and so far seems to work ok.

That is true, but if he took out the batteries and measured the output it should surely be higher than the battery voltage unless its got some very clever control circuitry inside it, which given the cost I'd suggest is unlikely.

Personally, I hate solar lights, they are particularly useless for most jobs. Brian

I recently dismantled one of the more modern solar lights costing £9 including postage. If I had purchased from China I could have got 2 off for around the same price. The unit had a (small) solar panel, 16 LEDs and a PIR detector. It contained a well made circuit board with around two dozen surface mount components including a multi-pin (14?) IC and a