Blinking LED problem

Bill Barnwell

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My problem is I had an blinking LED that would light off of a solar pathway light but would not blink. What I found: even though the pathway light has a 1.2vdc battery that powers it, the LED is 2.4-5-6 vdc, and the boost in voltage is done with a small transformer called a joule thief and this devise was causing the LED not to blink because it was messing with a IC in the LED that made it blink. Went looking on the small circuit board but was unable to find a joule thief but did locate what I thought was a resistor, which I found strange as that would limit voltage not boost it, further investigation I discovered it was a devise call a converter which is marked the same code as resistors and is shaped pretty much the same and it boosts voltage like the joule thief but is much cheaper(hence why they are used in cheap LED solar lights). How I cured that problem by removing the converter and replace it with a small piece of wire, added a battery holder that was 2 AAA instead of the standard built in one and used 2 rechargeable 1.2vdc batteries, secondly in tied 2 solar panels together in series, now the batteries charge, and the LED blinks but it also blinks during the day and pulls it's current from solar panels. This isn't really that much of a problem other than it doesn't charge the batteries enough and they only come on for about 30 to 45 minutes. Any thoughts to curing this problem would be more than appreciated, Billcity water tower with catwalk.JPG
 

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Bill Barnwell

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I would prefer to repair the circuit I'm using where would I place the LDR in the circuit to block the solar panel from feeding the Led, what ever feeds the led is working but doesn't seem to stop the connection between the Led and the solar panel, any info if not to technical would be appreciated, seems like the extra voltage did something to the circuit, Thanks for the reply, Bill
 
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GAP

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Bill Barnwell

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Wire a blinking LED into the circuit across the battery they come in other colours.
10 x LED 5mm Cool White Slow Flashing Blinking Strobe Ultra Bright LEDs 1Hz Mod | eBay

Should blink all the time as suggested use a LDR in series to switch it on and off as required.
Wire a blinking LED into the circuit across the battery they come in other colours.
10 x LED 5mm Cool White Slow Flashing Blinking Strobe Ultra Bright LEDs 1Hz Mod | eBay

Should blink all the time as suggested use a LDR in series to switch it on and off as required.
here is the circuit I'm using out of the solar light the to 2 wires white crossed over black go to the solar panel, the black wire going out the left side of the board and the white wire going out of the right side of the board go to the battery pack, the two black wire going out the bottom of the board go to the led. So where are you suggesting on placing thiscwt circuit.JPG LDR? thanks Bill
 

GAP

G Scale Trains, HO Trains, 1:1 Sugar Cane trains
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LED across the battery pack terminals.
LDR = Light Dependent Resistor resistance varies with amount of light it is exposed to.

This is a simple darkness sensor using a couple of components but you may need a larger battery than 1.2V

How to Make LDR Darkness Sensor Circuit Simple DIY
 

Bill Barnwell

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A up date to this time wasting venture, after putting all the components together, is when the problems started, cure one get another. after taking the wasted time to try each part to see what was causing the problem I found that the sealed chip wouldn't handle the extra voltage. That's why it was cheap, so I have invested about $4.00 in parts to build my on circuit that I got with help from Josehf Murchison of Instructables, live and learn, Bill