Daily DIY

Construct a small, portable solar panel that will charge two AA rechargeable batteries in a day or two. Use the batteries to make any battery-powered device solar powered.


By: kinz1jg

This instructable will show you how to make your own solar battery charger from very simple components. It is taken from my documentation provided with a kit I supply - you should easily be able to source the same components yourself of course.



If you have any comments on how to improve the documentation then please do not hesitate to say



http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Electronic-Widgets-Inc




By: DoveP

A solar-powered LED lighted cookie jar reminiscent of the Sun Jar disigned by Tobias Wong.



Components:

1. Ikea glass jar (AUD$3.00)

2. Solar garden light (AUD$10.00)

3. rechargeable battery (AA size)

4. Blu-tack

5. Tracing paper



Tools:

1. screwdriver

2. Utility Knife


By: cre8tor

I thought I was going to need a masters in EE to figure this one out, but surprisingly no. The avid backpackers at Yosemiteoutside needed a better solution to their short iPod battery life. In comes this simple and easy solar charger. A handful of parts and seven steps later they had an easy solution to a problem plaguing a lot of us. Follow the linkage to see the steps and figure out how to do it yourself. – Travis Hudson

Instruction Page [Via Lifehacker]

Give your Gameboy Advance a little solar power.


By: bmlbytes

Make a very cheap, relatively easy to construct robot which will wake up any time you shine a desk lamp on it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQjmZaHMCZ8




By: leevonk

Turn a flat sheet of anything flexible into a parabolic reflector.


By: Tool Using Animal

I saw the Sun Jar by Tobias Wong at Suck UK Design and thought it would be a perfect instructable project. Unfortunatly I’m no EE and need help with a wiring diagram and parts list. Hopefully we can come up with a design that is easily scalable so people can make different sized Sun Jars or vary it’s brightness and battery life. So I guess this is a Instructable request stub hoping one of the gurus out there can fill in the details.


By: paranhos

Do something useful with your solar powered garden light. Instead of lighting up the garden path at night for that opossium raiding the trash, bring the light into the house. Use it as a solar powered night light.



I mounted two garden lights on the roof with wire extensions of the leds brought into the house. Just the solar cell unit with built-in batteries are on the roof. The led (Light-Emitting-Diode) that makes the light is in the house. The solar lights are mounted on top of a swamp cooler on my roof with the wiring brought through the vent.


By: botronics

The secret: Just do it. They’re designed for that.

Nearly all power tools use a "universal" brushmotor that doesn’t care if it gets AC or DC.

All you have to do is put 4 or more 12volt batteries in series and plug your tool in. I usually like to run my tools on about 70 volts DC (five batteries). They’re a lot quieter that way and still have enough power.

If you want more power, just add more batteries. I think the gearbox of a circlesaw chatters less when it’s running on DC. The batteries don’t need to be nearly as healthy as what you’d need to power the same tools through an inverter.



Warning: All the warnings about tools, batteries, and electricity apply. If you want to get hurt you’ll find a way, just like you would have without all this expert guidance.



Here I’m using a totally motley assortment of scrap batteries wired in series with my car battery.

If you have mismatched batteries the weak one will discharge first and need to be removed.

A lead acid battery is dead at 10.5 or 11 volts. Recharge then or it could stay dead.

You’ll have to monitor them with a multimeter and write on the batteries with a sharpie so you remember what to expect.

I’m using one or more wimpy radioshack alligator clip cables, which make a decent fuse.

Don’t try to put your solarpanels in series with your batteries for extra voltage. They can’t deliver the starting current your motor needs. When the motor stalls that puts the whole series voltage across the solar panel which can be bad. The same effect means you want to take the weak battery out of the series as soon as the tool starts feeling weak.


By: TimAnderson