The council put the same thing in my road. Cars and motorbikes used to compete for who could clock the highest speed. It came down after a month or two.

Ask the council nicely if Clive can have them for an autopsy.. might be an interesting video.

👍

Or the Lifepo4 battery in them have died from the cold temperature.

@@KuntalGhosh Doubt they had LiPO batteries

Good point. If we glue paper airplane wings on it, what are the odds it will do a left bank turn into the trash can?

Plastic where it should be metal. Metal where it should be plastic. Peak China.

That sounds like WAY too many steps for Chinese manufacturing. I would rather presume they just hot glue gunned everything like they usually do.

Just chiming in here to note Temu also doesn't seem to be (as of right now) registered in the Netherlands with the revenue service (Belastingdienst). This seems a bit scammy...

Don't buy from Temu.

They add VAT on in the UK.

The fact you have the app is already a concern. Did you just press "yes" to everything, or did you stop to consider whether they really needed to track your location?

@@tin2001 The fact that you assume people have the "app" is concerning. Your comment was as useless as it gets.

How i know?

@@jayyydizzzle You said "I" meaning "me" - that is incorrect. the correct answer is "you" meaning "I"

@@asedcopf I'm aware. Op asked for somebody to tell them: "how I know" It was a joke haha

There's nothing quite like DC to eat wet connections and wires.

There are many of those panels being sold on aliexpress. I checked that out and it cost 7 bucks each

@@sihamhamda47the problem is for one good panel there is at least 10 claiming the same specs and failing. We rely on people like Clive to point us to reliable equipment.

You know what happened the last time the president went against the grain. Don't think it wouldn't happen again, assuming we have any say over who gets elected. That's a big assumption.

There is! I didn't actually see that. I'll update the description.

I'm glad you spotted it too. I thought I was seeing things

Yeah I would be curious how well they hold up for cooling if they are sealed water tight?

they've got to under drive those LEDs or that thing would just melt away right?

Its only 5W so its fine. Pointless over design just wastes resources and money.

But still will lower the LED life Some LED may be pop

No O-ring or peripheral sealing. But, it has heat sink fins? Maybe it’s a carbon filled plastic😂.

@@backgammonbacon Plastic is better than metal for the environment how? Don't just make something up either.

Plastic heatsinks are a waste of resources.

I don,t see from Clive's schem how the MCU even gets an accurate voltage reading of the cell voltage to guesstimate the cell's SOC.

@@vkristof1 Several ways the MCU can figure it out. First is from the 2K/10K resistor divider, at least while the sun is out. The solar panel will be forced to BAT + 0.3V or so due to the battery voltage forcing the solar voltage down through the Shottky diode (or the Zener + Schottky diode if the battery protection circuit has disconnected it). Second, from the 100 ohm resistor part of the circuit, you see that goes straight into the MCU. The Zener only caps the voltage, so the actual voltage on that pin is in fact very close to the actual voltage of the battery. Third, those 5 LEDs through the 220 ohm resistor going into the MCU. The MCU is using that ping to turn the LEDs on and off by setting the pin to an output and then logic 0 (very close to ground)... perhaps as a power dump, not just for pretty LEDs. But there is nothing stopping the MCU from changing the pin mode to an input and using the ADC to read the voltage. It will be the BAT - (LED-drop @ 5uA) or something like that.... that will be very close to the battery voltage too. And finally, the supply voltage of the MCU itself (if it isn't that pin in #2) can usually be internally connected to the ADC, allowing the supply voltage to be read that way (again with an internal reference to calibrate it). #2 or #4 is the most likely point. I didn't look at the MCU data sheet but most of these sorts of MCUs can internally connect their ADC's to any of the pins, and many have internal voltage references to calibrate the value against to calculate the actual voltage. Note that the LiFePO4 battery has a *very* *low* impedance. A little 5V solar cell even with full sun can't pull up its voltage very much above the voltage on the charge curve for LiFePO4 at any given SOC. -- If they needed another pin they could in fact use method #3... I use method #3 all the time with really tiny 8-pin PIC chips. Basically multiplex two functions onto one pin, an input function and an output function. It only takes about 20uS to switch the pin mode and do an ADC reading, and switch it back, so a person wouldn't even notice the flicker on the LEDs. The varying supply voltage on the MCU is not an impediment either. Most MCUs in this class have very wide supply ranges. Like 1.5V to 5.6V (for example). So as long as it has an internal voltage reference (which most do), the program can figure out the actual voltages. -Matt

@@junkerzn7312 Thanks: I hadn't though of changing the direction of the SOC LED I/O pins and don't have current experience (& pin mixing) on low-end/low-pin count MCUs.

Looks like it aught to be better than that to me, clearly not top shelf last forever quality but still (and surprisingly for a retailer of Chinesium grade) not terrible. Add in a desiccant pouch in the battery compartment and glue it up all around on that glass so its got a reasonable seal, or make darn sure it will shed any moisture that builds up inside and I'd think you'd get a few years out of it. The solar cell looks pretty good, though I wonder if the glass is really up to being hailed on or taking a snow load, so assuming that plastic isn't the sort that dies after minimal UV exposure or something...

Winter or summer?

@@rimmersbryggeri First one, then the other. Though not necessarily in that order.

@@zybch In the order of your liking? From what I have heard summer doesnt last that long in britain though. That's might be apocryphal though.

@@rimmersbryggeri Might or might not. Just about every British KZfaqr I watch says it’s two, occasionally three days long.

It's getting harder, but I still try to read them all.

Clive's a good feedback boi. Setting standards! ✌🏽

Reminds me of self-driving cars in Michigan where in winter during snowstorms the entire environment is a featureless white. Good luck in winter when the high temperature is below 0° C for weeks at a time.

What can Temu provide that AliExpress cannot? Genuine question.

​@@emilen2 a slick interface

@@tyttuut Temu wolf warrior: All the better to distract you with, my dear.

​@@emilen2 Less honesty. More scammers. Cheaper, shittier products that AliExpress sellers would be too ashamed to sell. Serious security and privacy concerns in the app.

Please film it with stop motion animation for the light to stop working and then falls off the wall.

Haha 😂❤ ​@@doctoroctos

In my experience, these lights do quite well in our equally pretty dark and long winters here in Germany, but if the weather gets really bad for 3-4 days (not only some rain, but really dark all day one), these lights tend to be completely discharged.

@@doctoroctos Like Solar Fucking Roadways did with their installation? :)

I'd like to see how it goes in a hot Australian summer - discolourisation of the solar panel in particular.

I was thinking it would be useful for me in that exact setup. How are you going about implementing the PIR?

I bought one with a P.I.R. though the solar panel is much less impressive. It does a decent job of lighting the driveway.

It's supposed to be the last line of defense before a battery fire, not an actual battery management system.

Or magic wands with IR emitters - Luminos!

Yes, I get your pointer😆

they prolly planned a twin 3Ah cell model for more sunny places but sell those halfed capacity variation to like UK and other low sun irradiance places because the PV wouldn't stand a chance to charge both cells.

I guess that's why Tesla cars, which switched to this type of cell a couple years ago, charge so slowly in the snow belt.

They just design them to last long enough that you'll have left your positive review on Temu/Aliexpress/eBay/....

yeah, the (seeming) voltage measurement of the PV rail doesn't make sense as a cell SOC indicated. Unless the MCU also can read the voltage on it's supply rail...

£32.

Draining LFP to "flat" will ruin the cell. 2.5v to 3.65v are the limits for these. When they first came out, 2.0v to 4.0v were common BMS settings, but the cells will rapidly degrade using those values.

They're all in parallel.

It's on the PCB.

Infrared. The sensor is on the LED array.

I've not tested it yet.

It depends on where you are. None of them are great in typical dull British winters when they're needed.

Maybe a bit too big and heavy for shipping and the video area.

1.2A on a Sunny April day and about a tenth of that on a cloudy day.

White LEDs will start conducting at around 2.5V. The fully charged cell will be around 3.6V.

AND: it's expensive. temu is cheapest crap besides ali ect. none of the chinese garbage sellers is putting proper brain in their products. an alu/zinc cast housing with (deeeep) fins is the best you can get when it comes to led lighting.

The remotes won't have the range necessary unless they're really close.

@@gary_rumain_you_peons I'm thinking of the days when people would complain that their neighbour across the street was managing to change channels or volume on their televisions, owing to them sharing remote codes... :P

@@twocvbloke The remotes would have to be compatible with the TVs. Not even sure if the signal would pass through walls.

@@gary_rumain_you_peons I don't know about where you live, but here we have these things called "windows", and in days before double glazing was a thing, the glass in said windows passed infra-red signals quite easily...

@@twocvbloke Odd to put a TV directly in front of a window.

Aluminium.

It's OK. But I didn't test it in a real world scenario.

It was just the size of the stuff being a bit too big for the filming area.

The tiny MOSFETs have a very low on state resistance that means they dissipate very little heat.

The intensity and current draw will gradually reduce in a curve.

Tested in April. Video made late April to early May.

Lead voltages are a bit lower but LiFePO4 are constant current charged at, ideally, 0.5C so the actual charge cycle is different and current critical as anything over 1.0C is too high from the data I've been using from EVE (who now quote P - power rating not C - capacity on newer cells). So a 10Ah cell charges at 5A 3.6V CC and can discharge at 20A down to 2.5V I tweaked my lead charger to work with lithium but it's an electronic charger, not an old school transformer, rectifier with current limiting resistors - these are a bit risky for LiFe cells/batteries.

you need to serial gang up at least 2 LiFe's to match lead acid voltage. so 3,2V ×2 = 6,4V is about same as 3x 2,1V lead acid cells. so 6V, 12V, 24V ect. could be charged off of lead acid charger but you need a balancer for LiFePo because they can't pass-through current to self-equalize all cells like lead acid can. so 4S LiFePo at 12,8V nom. could also be 1V + 1V + 0,8V + 10V =12,8V. that'd go horribly bang in notime. everything lithium in series needs a balancer AND if not in lab conditions a BMS to avoid destruction or battery fire.

My solar garden lights work fabulously during the summer, in the winter it’s clearly been a nice day if I get an hour of illumination from them.

Theoretically yes. (Making sure the cell voltage were very close first.)

and then you had to double the solar module to actually charge the 2nd cell.

Answer: *one winter* at

I didn't know snow was from the Sun.

@@BromideBride that is the theory. You and I will go out of our ways to protect our lipo/life batteries but _the people_ just buy these and plop them in the yard. Just next door to me, a neighbor put one of these at their entrance. It almost certainly has a li-ion cell but it's been several years and the bugger still works...

Autonomously powered lights are valuable on farm roads, private drives, camp sites, or other temporary installations where utility service is not easily available.

@@abitofabitofabit4404 I would think if you're posh enough to have a private drive, you can probably muster the finances to put some electrics into the ground. Camp sites usually provide mains power to caravans & campervans, so I guess you're talking about the bare minimums kind of places. As for farm roads, they are public roads, right? Then it's up to the municipality, which doesn't typically order directly from consumer-facing Chinese cheapytown sellers. Temporary installations, sure. I personally think the best bet for these lights is in a back garden that doesn't have electrics, as for a consumer (as opposed to a professional installation company) it can be quite annoying to install electrics in a garden.

Infrared sensors like that cancel out ambient heat by default.

It's from Temu and the listings change all the time.