Garden Lighting

Right, so they've got some on evilbay for £2. They are not weatherproof, but I could mount it in da shed by da window :nod::nod: Part 1 OK.

Part 2 - it's got three wires (red, black, green) so one has to assume, working from your previous post, that two of the wires power the device, and the third is the switched live.......................possibly :worried::worried:

Power will come from a leisure (boat/caravan) 12v battery, being charged / re-charged a solar panel ....... with a fuse in the in the live side :clap::clap:

So the plan is (when I've built the railway line up beside the patio and path) that every evening, the pathway will be lit with five little lights, and the spare one will be mounted over da shed door >:)>:)>:)>:)
 
What about cars? Most cars these days have a sensor which switches the lights on and off depending on ambient light. :happy:
 
If you pick up a security light detector. Avalable from q+b..on its own . It has 4 wires /terminals.. live neutral and earth and SWITCH LIVE. ..Iwired mine to a single socket..so the when it dected movement /a train running.. at night it switched the power on to the single socket...into which was plugged my 12 volt car battery charger powering the lights in lazy grange bay
 
pugwash said:
What about cars? Most cars these days have a sensor which switches the lights on and off depending on ambient light. :happy:
Click to expand...

Well, perhaps upper-end cars do.. especially in EU-rope..

Possibly a BMW, or Audi item.. About £76, plus fitting, I expect?

Mines so old, I have to trim the wicks, and adjust the flow of water onto the Carbide!! ;):D:D
 
mike said:
If you pick up a security light detector. Avalable from q+b..on its own . It has 4 wires /terminals.. live neutral and earth and SWITCH LIVE. ..Iwired mine to a single socket..so the when it dected movement /a train running.. at night it switched the power on to the single socket...into which was plugged my 12 volt car battery charger powering the lights in lazy grange bay
Click to expand...
Cunning...................
 
PhilP said:
Well, perhaps upper-end cars do.. especially in EU-rope..
Possibly a BMW, or Audi item.. About £76, plus fitting, I expect?
Click to expand...
Well my 15 year old Jaguar has one (made in England), and the cheap Renault Wind did which I recently sold (made somewhere between the English channel and the Med) as does the Ford Fiesta (which could have been built anywhere) courtesy car I got from the Jaguar garage while mine is being serviced. Plus I remember good old-fashioned scrapyards. :talking:
 
Like wot I said - evilbay £2 (well £1.98) to be precise

and we're talking Sterling, none of that European rubbish - that's the money, not the switch which will be Chinese :D:D:D:D:D
 
MMMMmmm, it says dusk to dawn, but presumably it is located internally - OK, maybe a bit unnecessarily pernickety, so dusk will be when it gets dim indoors (or in da shed as that is where it would be located).

It's quite pricey, but it can handle a fair old wallop of current.

On the other hand, you don't then need to buy a solar panel with controller, just a panel :wondering::wondering::wondering::wondering:
 
It doesn't have an internal sensor, the scc detects the falling voltage as darkness falls on the solar panel and after a short period switches on the load. You can programme it with times too. I can honestly say it really is worth it, It handles everything for you and protects the battery from over-charge and over-discharge. Mine controlled about 30 leds for the station and buildings from a large leisure battery. I wish I had taken pictures before I pulled it all up for our house move however I will be using it at our new house without a doubt.
I looked at so many different options myself, very similar to all those already shown. This charge controller was by far the simplest and cheapest when you factor in a separate charge controller and circuitry to control the lighting.
 
OK, nearly convinced - what solar panel did you use?

I only ask this because one manufacturer was making a song and dance about the way the diodes on the panel were set up :confused::confused::confused:
 
It was a Biard one, I'm 99% sure this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monocrysta...=1466799965&sr=8-1&keywords=biard+solar+panel
Quite expensive and maybe a little overkill but really does a good job of keeping the battery charged. I also got a pair of MC4 extension leads as the controller was in the shed with the panel about 10ft away. Use nice thick wire and don't forget to fuse as close as possible to the battery. There's not much else needed.
 
Ah, thanks - the lights arrived while I was on hols - just the power bits to sort out now.
 
Right, I have bought a solar panel kit with a control box, crocodile clips and fuse :clap::clap: . Looking at the control box, it isn't as sophisticated as the £45 offering, so I have ordered a 12v dusk 'til dawn switch.

The switch has three cables marked, 'Load', 'Neutral' and 'Line'.


AAAAAAgh now,

Load - is the cable to the lights, presumably on the positive side.
Neutral will be the other side - just to provide a return from the switch?? so I run a second neutral out to the lights?
Line - is that the input live from the battery (via the controller) ?

o_Oo_Oo_O
 
Rhinochugger said:
The switch has three cables marked, 'Load', 'Neutral' and 'Line'.




Load - is the cable to the lights, presumably on the positive side.
Neutral will be the other side - just to provide a return from the switch?? so I run a second neutral out to the lights?
Line - is that the input live from the battery (via the controller) ?
Click to expand...
Correct but to clarify;

Load is to the light, live (AC), line is the live (AC) input.

Neutral is the return and can be common from the line and the load; it is just a convenient terminal to link your neutral wires.

There is a switch of sorts, whether manual, or optical, between the line and load of course.


I realise that you are using DC power though, which is when you have positive and negative....
 
Talking of quality, we once had a contract spec that said '1.5% of the total order shall be not to spec'.
The supplier wrote back say that he didn't know why we wanted some not to spec, and stated that it will cost extra if we wanted stuff not to spec.
 
Gavin Sowry said:
Talking of quality, we once had a contract spec that said '1.5% of the total order shall be not to spec'.
The supplier wrote back say that he didn't know why we wanted some not to spec, and stated that it will cost extra if we wanted stuff not to spec.
Click to expand...
MMMMMmmmm.... a novel way of specifying tolerance (in qualitative terms)

The opposite side of the coin was the MoD who did not want to talk KPIs. Their view was that anything less than 100% was a failure, and not acceptable under the contract. You can see that as an exam question, 'Discuss'. :wait::wait:
 
OK, so in the end, I bought a fairly cheap PV 'package' that included the panel (make yer own fixings), a controller (not sufficiently intelligent to tell night from day) and the leads with crocodile clips to the battery and most importantly, it was the only package that I could see that included an in-line fuse.

So all was fine and dandy, except my motley collection of old boat / car batteries refused to take a charge, until I dug out the largest of all (which I used for an electric trolling motor on the dinghy) and that was still up to 10.8v (last used about 4 years ago).

The second, and much more expensive, dusk 'til dawn sensor is working - got my money back on the first cheapo - and I took one of the six lights and installed it on the shed above the door, to shed light on the padlock in the dark.

All worked very sexily last night.

Now I have to wire in the five lights that will be mounted on the side of the railway embankment alongside the path and patio. Three lights installed so far..........more embankment to be built yet..................:smoke::smoke::smoke::smoke:
 
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