This panel can put out close to 100 watts kzfaq.infoUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.

your videos make me so genuinely happy. lots of bad news cancer, heart break, death has come into my life these past weeks and I know you're just a normal guy making videos for fun but believe me when I say I'm not exaggerating the direct impact these have on my life. it's remarkable how happy I become after seeing one of your little take downs and talks of some cheapo eBay electronics. so thank you Clive, it may seem insignificant to you but these make my life better.

I really want to see a video tour of your "garden" with all your solar lights going! Maybe you could do it when you hit 250K subscribers! Keep up the great videos!

I love how the cell was actually socketed inside. A rare sight

Thank you so much for what you do here! I have been training with an electrical engineer and I asked for help with a diy project of mine. I'm self taught through trial and mostly errors and a lot he says goes over my head. This channel is just the kind of things I do. And you speak layman 🤣🥰

First time I’ve watched one of your videos. . . . absolutely loved it. You really dig into something. I can only imagine what you do when you get a new car !

I had a parcel with one of those yellow non-compliance stickers on it last week. As it turns out it's nothing to do with safety standards or the like, it's just about tax. It saying that while the parcel has been redistributed from an EU country, the parcels origin is outside the EU and so could be liable for import duty or VAT. Which is much less exciting...

I have a set of Bright white LED's in my bathroom (no windows, just ceiling extractor) that uses that same construction (with a waterproof 3xAA case). They have been able to cope with all of the dampness in the room without any issues. They look fantastic wrapped around the edge of the mirror and can light the room when I don't want the extractor to come on with the ceiling light.

Thanks for the detailed description of the circuit. I have been given some of these to repair from a family member. The chip in it the current version is now marked as a "6N607" - and of course there is no data available on it on the web! BUT there IS now a considerable amount of information on the YX8616, which looks to be identical to the 6N607, - and your reverse engineering of the circuit was right on the money. Thank you.

I have one like this but it came with a 600mAh battery, non-dipped led icicles, and after about 6 months outside it died due to corrosion on the leds. thanks for reviewing! I found data sheets on the yx861a ic!

i have garden lights that are controlled from one central unit that powers 10, 12V bulbs, i want to run two small wires from the end to the lights, over the gate and into the back yard to power some other lights, since the garden lights don't supply enough power for more than 10 lights, and only turn on at night i'll use the signal to turn on a transistor to power additional lights from a different power source. my question is do I use a mosfet or an NPN transistor? they both seem the same in this instance. also, if i run a string of 1w leds off a capacitive dropper (with a 68v zener diode so no high voltage), how will the voltage change going through the transistor? thanks!

😂 My wife bought something VERY similar from Amazon a few years back and they never actually worked. Only yesterday did I finally get around to opening it up and once I did I thought to myself "I wonder if Clive has taken one of these to bits?" 'Lo and behold, one search later, and I find what looks to be nearly the exact same thing. Only difference I've noticed is mine seems to be lacking any sort of control chip...which would explain why the mode button does absolutely nothing (I think anyway, from my understanding of course) 😅 I will double check once I'm able and update if I've given any incorrect information though. My thought process was really just to steal the solar panel from the unit and apply it elsewhere depending on how well it works.

The "non compliance" is probably because they have sent it through a European postal service (NL post, Sweden Post or Swiss Post) but from outside EU. The sticker is essentially a notice for the customs that they should check the parcel.

They dont look bad at all :-) I like the sealing, they have pushed the boat out with this one, very neat too :-D

I have a set of these lights outside on my pergola, and even in the dead of winter here in Canuckistan, the dam things are still on in the morning. Crazy really.

Is it true that Big Clive's garden is visible from space, at night?

You should do a video of your garden one night. I would be interested in seeing the solar lights in action.

The notice on the package is not related to any properties of the stuff inside. Some sellers, especially the bigger ones, ship stuff in a 2-phase way: first parcels for many customers are sent in one common box to a place in Europe, whereby individual parcels are sent to the recipients using local mail. Probably this optimises costs. And when essentially forwarding the parcels without customs clearance, they have to put a sticker on, informing that the goods are of non-EU origin and are to be customs cleared despite coming from a location within EU.

Clives garden must be like blackpool illuminations with all his solar lights ;);)

Re non EU compliancy. Most likely possibilities: 1) Lead (not lead free) solder. 2) Maybe some ship with NiCad battery (cadmium). Both metals have very low thresholds to comply with RoHS(2). No RoHS = No CE mark (though most Chinese suppliers selling on ebay take no notice.) Maybe they feel if they put a non-compliancy sticker on them then they will avoid trouble...

Regarding solar energy, recently in my town the council replaced all the street lighting lamps with new low energy LED lamps. but it got me wondering why street lighting don't use solar functionality as a primary source of power which would effectively be free power. Obviously they would still be connected to the mains for secondary or back up power when there hasn't been enough sunlight. They are often highest item a street so a solar panel on the top would seem to make sense. But I have only seen it in use recently, in some road traffic signs which illuminate as a vehicle approaches.

I think those were originally called "Linear Mounting Technology" LEDs here in America

My guess regarding the sticker: The (yellow?) sticker you got is by the postal system. It's referring to EU article, where one country first receives the package and sends it to another EU country without checking the contents. This means it's not compliant to the inter-EU postage standards and first has to be checked by the customs of the country of destination. Otherwise, they wouldn't check it because they think it's from another EU country. Example: China sent it to UK through PostNL. It first arrives in Amsterdam, where it is sorted. They put on the sticker and forward it like local EU mail (with an RS...NL code).

that battery is probably most of the cost of the unit

is your house visible from space at night?

Cool Video Clive. Keep up the great work. Nick.

I love watching this when I'm high

HAHAHA, I could just imagine your garden with these lights and all the others you have put out there, bright as day in the pitch of night. :)

I get these yellow stickers "non compliant goods" or something whenever I order B22 or E27 LED bulbs from Hong Kong, kinda annoying. I guess it's because they can burst into flames for no reason.

The sticker probably said the description of contents wasn't conforming European regulations. Meaning it was probably just marked as "gift" without any detailed description about what was inside. I've had that many times. You'd think they'd open it to check the contents but they don't. It's kinda odd.

This is the datasheet for the YX861, which seems to be basically the same part: www.docin.com/p-447833179.html I went ahead and mirrored the PDF: www.dropbox.com/s/yil7bn6d8c3oajr/YX861.pdf?dl=1 Protip: searching on baidu.com can be a good way to find info on some of the more obscure Chinese ICs.

I got a set like this from poundland! At least £3 though and I think maybe £5 in April 2020.

Your videos have inspired me to jump into doing fun LED projects. I bought a similar set of these string lights and hacked it to bits in order to use the string of LEDs inside of a Welcome sign I'd built. The sign only lasted about a year in the weather (it was made of wood that wasn't very well sealed or protected) so it's time to rebuild it. The lights and circuitry still work fine but I bought, on your recommendation, a huge quantity of 3W warm white LEDs and I want to use them instead of the cold white original ones. I also want to drive it with 2AA batteries (so 3v) rather than the single 1.5v cell from before. This is my first LED project and I'm really quite a novice with electronics, so pardon me if my questions sound dumb. I've got the new LEDS all connected in parallel. They all light up from both the naked batteries and from being connected to the solar panel circuitry. Everything seems to work, except that when the panel is absorbing light the LEDS are supposed to turn off. Instead they just get dim. They do turn off properly when using a single battery like before, but in that case the LEDs are significantly dimmer. I've ordered a 3v solar cell to hopefully fix this issue but now I'm not sure if the other circuitry is robust enough to handle it. So, what is happening that causes the LEDs to stay lit when the solar panel should be charging the batteries? How do I determine the specs of the solar panel I have currently? Can I just swap in the new (ostensibly higher capacity) solar panels directly? Are the components cheap enough that I could just reconstruct the whole thing from scratch?

can you make a video how to steady the light? without the button switch. i want to steady instead of blinking etc.

Great video .I have a set of these and cut through the copper wire accidently in one place. Is it possible to rejoin the copper wires to get them working again?

I've purchased some of the multi-colored versions of the copper wire sets and have been very pleased with the strings. The ones with discrete color LEDs have some great colors, too. (The colored resin-dipped ones, not as nice.) By the way, could you measure the current drain of these, both at battery voltage, and string voltage? Get an idea of run time. It is unusual to see a full capacity NIMH cell in a solar light, as you noted. Looks like a good unit. Thanks, as always, for these videos..

Kind of tired of solar garden LED lights since they don't seem to last too long before breaking and when they do work they really struggle to stay on until late enough in the winter. They don't seem to have improved at all for 10 years either, I can buy a set online now and I bet it's identical to the one you have here 7 years ago. Thinking about connecting my garden 12v light supply to them. Do you think I could do that simply by just using a buck converter to put the 12v down to 1.5v or so and then connect it up to the battery terminals shown in your video? I've seen another video connecting 5v from directly to the LED light string which sounds odd to me since I figured that would blow them with no resistor but it seemed to work. But i figure my method of using the original hardware would make sure nothing is missed would be better. Might sound over the top but at least then they'll turn on when i switch my normal garden lights on.

I heard "So, I went on the internet..." and now all I can think about is Jeremy Clarkson saying "I've been on the internet, and I found this!"

I ran across and subed to this channel about two weeks ago and have found it quite interesting. most of the videos I'm left just wondering "why?" other times I'm hoping you've found a back alley Ebay seller that has developed a device that will cut my electricity bill in half or be able to maintain an erection indefinitely with no adverse effects, so I'll keep watching. I would like to suggest that when you mention an Ebay seller you would shoot a close up screenshot of the sellers name and listing to make it easier to look up the product you're showing, I ordered the LED head lamp you took apart a while back and it took some time to make sure I ordered the same lamp. Since you seem to know a lot about LEDs maybe you could show me how to build a cheap but efficient grow light panel/bar. I grow vegetables with T5s now but marijuana will be legalized by next year here in California so I'm gona give that a shot and premanufactured lights are outrageously expensive. Keep the vid coming they are very entertaining.

Do you know what the power draw of these lights are? Will be interesting to hear how long they run on a charge.

YX8616 1.2V rechargeable battery applications Current: 200MA Features: Boost, light control, charging / lit, flashing (a string of lights) Features: Blinking frequency adjustable duty 1/2 Packages: DIP8/SOP8 Periphery: L+C+R Operating Frequency: 1.2V 79KHz / 2.4V 61KHz Couldn't find an actual datasheet, but this is as close as you are going to get, with application notes and pinout- detail.1688.com/offer/520831491609.html

I have same ones but one for my grams she shed I helped my dad build been holding up great I finally decided to use the other one I bought tangled so bad took me hours to untangle snd before I was almost done it comes apart amd idk how the wire reconnects to nfle the rest work

Thank you for your video can you show a video how to connect a wire as one has come out there are 3 altogether xx solar lights x

They should have put A diode over that power switch so that the battery keeps getting charged when the switch is open. For the rest indeed it's A really good LED string!

What is causing my lights to only stay lit for about 5 minutes? Been solar charging them correctly....ugh

I don't think it's a "sealer" that they used over the soldered wires. Look up "solder splice." TE Connectivity makes SolderShield splices.

Bought these. Supposed to have 8 modes. They only flash or stay on steady.

I know the sticker you mean ""goods not fulfilling the conditions prescribed by articles 9 and 10 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community" It's put on items that orginiated outside the EU but went through another EU country on the way. its to let customs in your country know that it's not an EU originating item so customs charges may be due.

Hi I want to Run 20 micro light string from a solar panel, for my fairy garden just to come on at night can you tell me what I need to do this . Tia

For the IC try YX861A for the Datasheet.

You got the chip number wrong. It's not a YX8616 it's either a YX861 or a YX861A. Mine has the YX861A in it. If you google either of those numbers, you'll find a number of datasheets for the chip on the web, however most of them are in Chinese, but there are example schematics that are easy enough to read.

I'm looking into getting a similar solar led light string thing, but a colorful one. A question is the battery just a rechargable 1.2V AA battery? If so then would it be fine if I modified it to take 2 rechargable AA batteries for more capacity and runtime?

I got a very similar set to yours with the same looking circuit board and right out of the box it didn't work when I opened it up I noticed that the one positive wire was not stripped or soldered at all so I fixed that and also the negative was soldered to the side of a capacitor which is weird I've never seen that ever before so I tried to take it off and put it in the negative spot that was marked but it's still not working maybe I should put it back on the capacitor what do you think? Ahh got to love Chinese electronics no information on nothing and usually backwards

Hi Clive, I have 6 sets of these, worked for 2 years, now all the batteries are dead I thought, what If I chomped all the solar panels off, fed all the wires together into a single one of the solar modules and connected a DC 1.2 volt wall water to the battery input of that one module, this should allow all the lights to get power and still keep the auto on at dusk and flashing mode (as opposed to wiring them all to a 3v power supply) any thoughts on that?

Hey clive, I bought a head torch recently on Amazon that was so badly wired, the spring contact(s) in the battery pack started glowing red hot and smouldered. Interested? :P

If you are talking about the yellow sticker with: "Goods do not meet the requirement of Article 9 and 10 of the contract for the foundation of the European Community" or something similar, here's a bit of info on why it is there and what's the purpose of it: thomas.vanhoutte.be/miniblog/explained-yellow-sticker-on-package-goods-do-not-meet-the-requirement-of-article-9/

Hi BigDaddyoClive, Love your videos for some time now. always a good antidote to a bad day. I have a similar Copper-wire LED string solar light. but sadly the power out to the LEDs are so feeble, it barely glows even in the darkness of night. I'd like to get more of the units I have and was wondering if you'd be able to recommend and suitable mod to bump up the voltage and get a little more light out of the LED strip. I'd be happy to send you a product to glean your expert mittens over (I might even include a mystery 'confectionary treat'). keep 'em coming

i bought a set at home depot. had them fir a month and they stopped working.

Any thoughts on how to disable the dusk sensing part of the circuit? I'd like to install this in a child's cubby house but have it operate during the day

Hi I want to run 20 micro lights from a solar panel can you tell me which solar panel I would need for my project

Quick question pls... We recently had some really hot days and I have one of these (colour LEDs) that just stopped working. I think my solar panel got 'hit' as you described. They were working well until our week of 25+ degree temps and the solar panel was in full sun. My question... Can I replace the little solar panel with a usb or direct battery power supply? I don't mind loosing the flashing sequence but how do I know how much voltage and current the led string needs. The LEDs look like yours in this video. The battery says it is a 1.4v & 800mA. Sorry for the newbie stupid question and thanks for the videos? 👍

Guessing by this video you might be able to tell me how to make these fairy strand lights permanently dim. I bought a strand that has 8 settings but not one is just dim. Mine plug into 110v (US) plug outlet with a USB plug going to the controller box (has remote too). All setting options are to busy flashing or just flat out too bright. Thanks for any solution to permanently dim them. They are LED lights.

I have a few sets of these lights and wondered how to make them a little brighter. Do I replace the batter cell with a higher capacity cell? Your light set had a 1500 mAh cell. Would it be brighter with a higher mAh cell?

Clive, I have these lights and although great in winter they are poor in the light summer evenings as they only turn on after dark. Can i bypass the photocell?

All well and good so far, Clive. However.....Could you go to the last LED on the string and have a look at it. Are the two conductors of the power line exposed?I bought a couple of sets very similar to these (indoor/outdoor) and they have the conductors exposed as the manufacturer has just simply cut them off and not sealed them up. After the first shower of rain the battery could be shorted out and possibly rendered useless.Maybe you could check yours to see if that is the same?

I have this light it’s the wire broke in two pieces now can’t fix ten lights are working try to fix with joint but no luck

Love these Vid's Thanks

I'm interested in doing my own garden type solar small solar panel with led light strip. To charge up battery and turn on at night how do I go about wiring up a solar panel and can you get 12 v as batteries or will 50 om resister allow normal single battery to power them. Or can I use old phone batteries in series to get 12v batt

Im really sorry about my stupidity but i can't understand if the thing is on or off... When i press the on-off button nothing happens. Now im going day after day pushing the button 1 time and waiting all day...

I have pretty much the exact same thing and am using them in a small home project. I finished using the length I need so will I be able to cut the extra off without any issues? The ones I have do flash and do all the fancy stuff

That sticker means your package came from China, even it was shipped via NL or SE post, and therefore it doesn't fill EU's free trade agreements.

Anyone know how a person would change a solar fairy jar lid from steady to chasing or twinkling?

So, if the switch is in the off position, the battery won't charge from the solar?

i have a quick question for you i want a color changing led to replace a my light bulb but it has to be bright and i wanted to know if you knew of a good cheap one?

That cell is an 18650. so it can be upgraded to I've seen "3500 mAh"

Hi nice video I have a set of these which have been broken near the end (opposite end to solar) and have stopped working.Would you know what I need to do to repair them. I already tried joining and separating the two ends?? Thx

Is there an update on how these lights have performed in the garden? I'm really curious if they've held up!

I'm looking at a bunch of these that have the LEDs alternatively (+ -) wired in parallel to the two power wires. This enables them to run on AC, or flash alternatively by running different polarities along the wires. Also, there's no polarity on the wires which makes hookup easy. You can snip off any length, or join more lengths at the end, and it still works. But since it's current fed the intensity will vary. Two things puzzle me: how do they reverse the polarity of the wires, and what good does the third wire do?

I don't understand the purpose of the inductor. If its resistance is small, then it is connected in series with the LEDs and the battery. The LEDs would be lit all the time. Even if it has high enough resistance for the LEDs to stay dim, it must be passing a small current through the LEDs all the time. What happens if you take it out of circuit?

Hi Clive, I have 4 sets of these in the garden that I got from Amazon, but 2 of the sets now default to the annoying Demo Flashy mode when they come on at dusk, The board looks slightly different, more "Proffesional" with smaller components, but I wondered if I could bridge a pin on the chip to give me constant "on" (ie no flashy flashy) but still come on at dusk. any thoughts? Many thanks from a fellow lampie.

I am trying to do away with the solar and hardwire six of these together. What I am finding out is with the LEDs every other one is reverse polarity. When you hook up the correct voltage only every other light turns on. If you flip the wires around the ones that were on are off and the ones that were off are on. It seems inside that chip it very fastly alternates the current down the strand so to activate a solid feature where all the lights are on. I know a little bit of electronics but looking for some help to hardwire that control chip and wondering if it can handle 9 volts rather than the 1.5 for my continuous strand of 6 sets. Any help would be greatly appreciated as that is the exact model I have.

I have the same lights you show on this video. However, they don't really charge very well because the wire leading from the solar cell to the lights is too short to be able to put the solar cell where the sun shines openly on it. I need to extend the wire in order to move the cell when it can get direct sunlight. What kind of wire and voltage would you say is needed to make an extension if I clip the write between the solar cell and the actual lights? Seems it is diff to find such wire or I am not looking for it using the correct name and voltage.

How do I make this LED strings plug in instead of solar and battery as they are? My dog chew the solar panel and busted the whole thing 😭

There is anyway to remplace the solar panel?

I recently bought a solar light like that and im very curious how come a single 1.2v 1000 to 1500 mah AA battery power so many little led for almost 10 hours? does the chip multiply the power from the battery to light many led at once without eating to much juice from the battery?

Thank you so much it work

Um ! just wondering why they used ni-mh and not Li-ion (phone battery)........I have some ni-mh running solar lights in the garden, and they have been running for years, could it be that Li-ion don't last that long.......Um.

great video, you seem to be the guy to ask, the insulated wire on the led's. the same thickness in silver... where can i buy it from, i have searched all sorts of names, but cant find it.. i just want the wire to extend my micro leds, as i use 3v and 4,5v micro led's..but want the wire on its own, on a spool if possible ..please can you help..thank you..

Hello my solar led wire wa cut off by kitties,hot to connect this wires please help

Thank you for the video! I wonder if you could help... We have set up a very similar solar light system (same circuit by the looks of it) but after some time the small Li-ion cell stopped charging. So, thinking that the cell had reached the end of its life, I replaced it with 3 NiMH AAA size cells in parallel (so 550mAh x 3). Strangely now though, the start of the LED chain is bright but several LEDs along and the light has faded gradually to nothing. The output of the controller is 0.98V with no current flowing, so I'm wondering if the internal resistance of the 3-cells in parallel is too much for the circuit and LED chain? Very grateful for any ideas you might have!

Are these lights still working , its been a year ....

How has this fared in the garden?

Sir can you connect the lights that comes with battery to a solar light?. If so how. Thank you.

I have cut mine when cutting grass by accident, any idea how you can reconnect the wire?

Could non-compliance be ROHS? Thanks for the mid-week BigClive fix.

I sure would like some more dubious Hitachi adult toy rip-off clones off of ebay, hahaha

Hi Clive, My contumacious cat has chewed my GDEALER tiny light set. Again. I refuse to buy a third set. Is there a way to repair the wire?

I do not no how ebay handles stuff in the uk but in the states if you get something and its not as the photos show ebay will tell you to return the item at the sellers cost and since the sellers are in china you will get to keep the item as right away the seller will offer a refund if you demand it sometimes even send the photos part or if they do not ebay will refund the price when they see return shipping is more then the item cost. even when I order stuff in the states from one to a nother if the return shipping the more then the item value ebay will refund it and I keep the item.

It seems pointless to have a solar panel on the device since it will most likely be ON at night. Doesn't do much good. Maybe you should put a diode across the ON-OFF switch so it charges the battery in the daytime when there is light on the panel.

I guess its not up to EU standards because it used tin/lead solder. :)