New Solar Fence Post Lights [FAULTY] Right Out Of The Box - Can They Be Fixed?
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- Опубликовано: 15 июн 2024
- Three boxes of new solar lights, with bad "Faulty" lights in each box. Let's find out why they don't work, [TEARDOWN] and attempt to make them work properly. To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: / mrcarlsonslab
#restoration #electronics #repairing 
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To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab
Hi Paul, would it be easier to just replace the circuit boards with the ones from your old fence post lamps?
I'm trying to locate the 40/60 solder, instead of the new solder, which I found out requires a higher soldering iron temperature!!
Good diagnose- I'm a fan of led solder Weller soldering station
What does it tell us:
1- Chinese made is a complete failure from parts selection to design and assembly
2- Q control - if only there is one ! (Better resolder all boards)
3- Stay away from Chinese electric stuff - this one is only 1.5V
Mr Carlsons has just find himself a new project : redesign the board (2 layers & add some radio telemetry to 😂) & propose it a DIY retrofit
My wife loves solar lights. I spend my life repairing them!
Years ago we had a looong walkway to the house. I put up low voltage light. We were in trees and solars would not work very good. The darn raccoons would take the tops off and get the bulbs.
But the neighbor had one wild chicken that showed up one day. The chicken would always find the bulbs in the woods and scratch around them. When you saw a bare spot there was always a bulb in the middle off it.
This nonsense went on for 6 or 7 years till the chicken died. Had no clue they lived that long.
It is hilarious now that I look back. 😂
nophead? Are you the one who created the Mendel90?
@@matthiasmartin1975 Yes I am.
@@matthiasmartin1975 Yes I am.
@@dougtaylor7724 Yeah, chickens live for about 10-12 years.
I like the way Mr Carlson says 'solder' rather than 'sodder.' 👍
I worked in a Western Electric, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, and Celestica manufacturing plant for 26 years where we made telephone switching systems. No one from management, to engineers, to technicians to production employees ever "said" "solder" instead of 'sodder even though that is the way it is spelled.
US American English is "sod-er". British (and mostly Canadian) English is "SOL-du".
Without going into a major Doctor's dissertation, modern US English is older than modern British English. "Say what?!" you say? It's true. After the revolution, the USA isolated itself from the British empire (until WWI). However, during this time, British English (thanks to merchants) in an attempt to sound fancier for high society, added many French methods to English. Which is also why things like "color/colour" and "theater/theatre" changed. Many pronunciations also suffered. This is not to say that US American English hasn't morphed as well, due to its world-wide mass immigration influencing the language and culture.
With that said, US English is King George' III's English, and British English is a result of their French renaissance thereafter.
@@richardkelsch3640 As an American this has me "chuffed".
@@BixbyConsequence There's nothing wrong with preference, as both ways of pronouncing it are correct. Enjoy it as SOLder.
He's said it both ways over the years. Is that kind of bipolar, or something?
Quality control at it's finest! A fix worthy of Big Clive!
Yes!
Exactly what I was thinking. 🤣
Big who?
@@HansDelbruck53 Big Clive, RUclipsr famous for reverse engineering assorted Chinese tat and leds
@@zebo-the-fat big clive's video camera has no zoom feature.
When they switched to lead-free solder these kinds of issues started popping up everywhere...I've been using juicy lead based solder for over 50 years without any problems at all :)
That lead free crap just puts more e-waste in the landfills.
Case in point, the Xbox 360 released shortly before the stupid EU policy came into effect (but was fully compliant) and four out of five original run units required a warranty repair. The most popular DIY fix was to overheat the unit with the hope of partially reflowing cracked solder joints - tended to work for about a week.
Same. I started in the electronics game in the 1970s when I was still a kid at school. I have been doing it ever since and all the way through I have been using 60/40 lead solder. I have enough stocks of it that even if it were to be banned in my country (which it isn't at the moment) I would not have a problem.
The lead-free stuff is complete garbage.
Completely agree. However, the best solder in the world can't fix piss poor assembly/parts quality/ quality control.
China, india, taiwan..... They're all capable of incredible engineering at manufacture. We just don't want to pay for it. The people importing this stuff only want the cheapest. It's a race to the bottom
Smooth, creamy Pb is the best.
Feels like a BigClive video working on solar lights
Just what I wanted to reply!
Last time it was like a Technology Connections video (the guy loves bimetallic strips), this time it is like a BigClive video (cheap stuff with LEDs and solar)...
Very true - but BigClive abhors cold white LEDs.
Who the hell is Big Clive?
@@HansDelbruck53 Type it in the search bar and you will find his channel...
@@HansDelbruck53 Worth watching. Though it's a lot simpler, yet very entertaining.
Suggest that when the circuit board was pressed into the holder the assembler pressed it in the middle (not the ends) and stressed the board enough to damage the solder connection. These units probably still worked in the assembly plant, but with all the movement in shipping ended up as a open connection. Still fun to watch!
After repairing a number of these, I can tell you that it was a cold soldered connection, it looks good and works for a little bit, then quits, opps! it came back on again, nope it quit again, ad infinitum.
Standard treatment for solar lights: seal plastic/solar panel edge/join-up w/ something like clear nail varnish.
Cover the top with 3M clear UV safe tape.
If you don't plan on using the switch to turn on/off or switch operating mode then bridge the appropriate terminals on the circuit board, eliminating the switch.
Coat the board and components - nail varnish/laquer/conformal coating... Coat the battery terminals w/ grease.
I always open up my lights and shoot the electronics with a CRC brand spray conformal coating. It usually gives a year or two extra performance. Batteries are still a problem, but I am still have one five year old dollar-store lamp runnimg on its original battery!
UV & water kill these things, and the batteries are only good for a few hundreds cycles (ie at year or so). You do get some that surprise you though.
My biggest issue with these is crappy batteries, I cut one open, it was half empty
The on off switches are usually the first thing to become intermittent. Bridging (short circuting) them is a very good idea. If you don't seal up every opening not only can moisture and water get into the lights but tiny little spiders will nest in there because the lights draw a steady food supply at night.
Having Mr. C work on solar lights is a bit like sailing _Arleigh Burke_ for a weekend fishing trip, and I'm here for it! 👍
I remember when I was a little guy I' watched him to Sunday afternoons....all but forgot that, thanks. BTW: If I'm not mistaken about Arleigh (and him being the same one), he actually lived across the street from my grand mother back in the day.
@@Rev22-21 I should have specified _USS Arleigh Burke,_ the naval destroyer (DDG-51). That's neat though!
@@McTroyd Could be a way for the Navy to make some extra cash.
Maybe Shariar should have a go...
Man, even when you cover something as simple as these LED lights, this channel rocks!
Fun little videos like this on simpler circuits are useful for beginners' learning. Wouldn't hurt to see you do more of these because you do a great job explaining the circuit and components.
I can’t say I’m surprised. Everything is made so cheaply these days.
Yeah, these look like trash. Looked them up online (note that Noma are now owned by Canadian Tire and they sell Noma branded products) - the price on their web site is $64.99 CAD for the six. Reviews are average at best. I'm amazed that anyone would buy just one set of them, let alone multiple sets.
What a waste of money, buying such trash only encourages manufacturers to make more cheap trash that will, sooner rather than later, end up in the nearest landfill.
Made in China no daught.
@@SlartiMarvinbartfast 64$ for that shit ? for real ? damn...
Cheaply made products have been produced throughout all of civilization. Think of cheap tin toys from the early 1900s. Hand held transistor radios from the 70s. Cheap handheld electronics from the 80's. The cheap stuff gets thrown away and forgotten about. The good stuff is usually too expensive for most people to afford, or at least expensive enough to encourage proper maintainence. People don't want to spend the money to buy the nicest things in 2024 and they didn't in 1924, either. But if you do have the budget you can buy stuff right now that will last 50 years. The best example is cars. Even in the 80's you'd be lucky if your car drove 100,000 miles. Today we say that cars are cheaply made (plastic, etc.) but they last 250,000 miles. Which is it? Cheap or great? I think this is called selection bias.
@@JohnGotts Just because we had cheap and nasty trash 100 years ago doesn't mean that we need to keep on making the same wasteful, consumer and environmentally unfriendly mistakes time and time again. The source of all the world's problems is greed - it lines the pockets of the rich and it denies most other people a decent wage, meaning that they have to buy cheap trash or go without. These problems could be fixed if only the greedy rich weren't pulling the strings of politicians all over the world.
The accelerator is interesting. You just taught me something again.. You encourage me....
You look like me disassembling my wife's powered Christmas Snow Globes. We do what makes the lighting pretty and keeps our better half happy.
Absolutely.
I like the fact that you can make such an entertaining video out the simplest electronics. Thank You
My pleasure!
I installed lights like these, got fed up with the quality so I gun drilled each post and added a diagonal hole at the base, used common low voltage wiring and they all became low voltage lighting tied to a larger power supply with an auto on switch.
Had the reliability soldering course a few years ago . Working for a military base base , on the course, it was said that the military and NASA do no not use non leaded solder.
Same with medical devices.
Vibration would soon show with none leaded solder(too brittle)!!
Who would have thought a simple solar light repair could be so interesting...Cheers
Dead solar lights are the best kind according to Big Clive.
I've been repairing electronics for many years and I've got to say, I can't stand lead free solder. Whenever I come across it, I remove it and use regular solder. Another great video!
I've only ever used lead free and never had a problem.
@@michaelscott8388 You must have the soldering aligned at with the gods and your tongue at the correct angle. 😂 I find the stuff total crap.
Give me lead in my solder till I'm dead!
I use/deal with both all the time. The various lead free solders require a higher iron temperature depending on the alloy. Quicker to to boost the temp on a repair than change solder. Time is money. 😎
Always gives me a laugh to see a component lead coming straight through a nice cone of solder and making absolutely no electrical contact with it like in the vid. Those LED legs were either really oxidized or they were using too little/too weak a flux.
I laughed out loud at myself and here is why. When you used the close-up lens and started soldering, I moved my face to about one foot to my laptop screen. As you finished the soldering joints on the LED I blew a puff of air at it. LOL Now that tells you how engrossing your videos are when I think I'm holding the soldering iron. Thank you for sharing your passion for electronics.
Hi, it's nice that the Chinese company was gracious enough to send a bad unit in every box for you to work on!🤣
makes me think that they threw one bad unit into each box just to move them along ...
@@jpkellyburbank acceptable failure rate is 17%... that's a minimum, of course.
I know you're extremely busy. Just wanted to say we miss you here and patreon! I know I'm not the only that appreciates all the hard work that goes into what you do.
What happened to patreon then I thought he was doing classes.
He is! In fact he's currently sharing some amazing projects that he's pulled from his personal creations from the past. I prefer higher quality detailed videos and classes than lesser but more quantity.
Here in the UK, I found that all the solar powered security lights from LIDL shops were non-working out of the box. I featured getting them working again on my channel. Basically the battery had become over-discharged so the BMS wouldn't allow them to power up enough to re charge.
Easy fix, take them out and recharge.
I was asking myself the same question when you were DE soldering the driver chip. Why not just swap out the boards? Then I realized the old board wouldn't be held in place by the little towers and you'd have to spend time re-engineering the mount. So everything worked out great. Fun video. I love fixing stuff like this.
Don't you just love dopey problems like this? Thanks for the video. It was fun.
A 16.6% failure rate is extremely high and even the 11% for bad solder joints is high for an item with so few components. I can see why the solder joints for the LED can fail. The board holds being rigid, the backing plat being rigid, and the short legs on the LED put pressure on the joints if the LED is not perfectly centered in the hole provided. If the joints don't fail when they put the bottom plate on the shipping bumps and bangs will do it. Great little video as usual, Jersey Bill
If they hit the led, when putting it together, as if the hole is not perfectly over the led in first try, they likely damage the fragile lead free solder joint
I would not be surprised if the other lamps will fail soon. You should check and rework all for long lasting. 😊
This was one of my favorite videos to watch!
"But, what fun would that be?" Love it!
BigClive would be proud of you!
BigClive is a great fella!
My experience with Noma products is that they are crap and fail prematurely.
yes those ic's are interesting devices. the inductor value determines the current, i think the frequency stays the same. the brightness increases, if one holds a strong neodymium magnet close to the inductor. this saturates the inductor and reduces the inductance. one can even slightly discern, if one holds a bit of iron very close to the inductor (decreases brightness, increases inductance), or a bit of brass (increases brightness slightly, reduces inductance). this also should show up, in the current draw of the circuit.
interessting
Very interesting! 🤔
also, the solar charge input, is quite sensitive in turning the led off. it also turns the led off when connected to battery + . also, with a resistor inbetween, upto 60 K, with the specimen that i have. solar input connected to battery + with less than 60K , led off. this can be a LDR. the charge or sense input, can also be used to make the led blink with a resistor and a capacitor. there are datasheets with several application notes.
Nice video, great to see such a simple repair can reduce garbage going to the landfill.
Every solar light I have ever bought I took apart. Put good enloop rechargeable batteries in and also sealed all the gaps with 100% silicone caulk.
Did you suck out all of the moisture first as well?, because if not whatever was in the air when you sealed them will condense when the temperature drops and so rust the PCB and components.
Seems like a waste of good batteries given the solar cells will oxidise and the plastic coating will become opaque with about a years worth of UV exposure. I have swapped 1.5V to 3V panels to try to resurrect these things, they are so poorly made. I don't know why I look in Aldi special buys each week and check out the latest post/gutter/path lights with a thought to buying them on the assumption something today will be much better than something I bought 5 years ago for quality/longetivity/ design and end up getting disappointed again 6-12 months later. The last thing I got about 7 months ago uses 18650s and is certainly brighter, but by maybe 1am they are dim enough to be useless, and the large solar cell is looking a bit opaque already... (of course it is winter here now so likely not getting a full charge compared to 6months ago).
Had fun watching. THANX
Thanks! A very illuminating video! 🙂
That was pretty cool thanks for sharing Brad
Thanks Paul... This was fun...
great soldering work
I really enjoyed the video !
Thank you!
Well, amazing as Paul can even do a very interesting video with a simple 4 component pcb. Well done.
73 from CT9 territory 😂
Mrister Carlsons lab you are good at restoring antique radios and alignment of antique radios my friend
Each time my wife buys a batch of these solar lights, I have to take them apart, short the switch out, coat the battery springs with a generous dob of silicone grease, also coat the PCB, and then reassemble with Eneloop batteries.
My box of Eneloop batteries arrived today (actually 2 boxes). These have no switch, so I guess they figured that part out.
Great video. Thanks.
"Very, very dim!" - I hear that all the time. Thanks for the video.
Great video Mr Carlson sir thank you so much for the sharing this video sir 👍 😊❤❤
While watching these videos, i like to call out what I think is wrong, before Mr Carlson reveals what the culprit is. Fun game.
As ever, Mr Carlsson uses a bit of domestic fripperry to provide an instructive lesson in electronic function and repair.
The problem is emblazoned on the batteries. MADE IN CHINA😂😂
@@mikemccormac9368 Note that while some of the worst batteries are made in China, they also makes some of the best.
The issue isn't the country, but the availability span from cheap to expensive. If producing in China, you get what you pay for so make sure you specify you want to take the cost of good components and wants good factory QC.
@@perwestermark8920 True. I mean some of the best phones are/was made in China. Iphone, Samsung etc.
I think the biggest culprit here is cheap solder. I'm a huge fan of pure A grade, bad for me, leaded solder.
I did call out replacing the inductor along with the 4 leg ic when I learned it was a different value.
I did that with Mr Rogers with I was 4. It was fun.
I like these home item repairs videos.
Mrister Carlsons lab your RUclips videos are awesome my friend
Thanks, that was a fun little video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@ 4:00 -- Well I knew Mr. Carlson was really a being from another planet of super-geniuses and he just tipped his hand and forgot not to shift into hi-speed muscle mode on camera!
Bit of trivia. The original NOMA back in the '50's made talking stations for model railroads. They used a small 78 RPM record and a mechanical transducer. They also made Christmas lights as well. Looks like the name got sold and the quality went away.
Bit of annoyance, is it me or is RUclips doubling and tripling the number of commercial interruptions?
Thanks Paul for another great video. I’ve fixed several of these over the years. It would be great to see you redesign a solar light that works well. Keep the videos coming.
Well, that was enlightening...!
Another fun great video, i took an electric shop class in high school, we wired houses first year and then did electronic second year. build things like battery chargers. house alarms, basic things loved the class. watching you inspired me. did some soldering and fixed my guitar and just perchest a battery operated clock kit from amazon .gonna give it a go. cheers and love your channel !!
That's some high quality manufacturing....
Fun upload, Mr Carlson. With these solar lights, I find that with the four pin led driver chips , usually YX8018, QX5252F , the legs are made from a coated steel material. At the faintest whiff of moisture, the legs rust into oblivion. For any sort of longevity, I would coat the entire board in a conformal coating, even clear nail varnish or a thick coat of silicon grease. The other weak spots are the battery terminals, and water ingress around the little solar panel.
Such a simple device but I learned something. Now I understand solar light controller. Thanks Paul.🙂
Mrister Carlsons lab you new Solar Fence post lights are awesome my friend
I think they look terrible. Plastic, cheaply made and nasty.
Another awesome video
Cool vid Mr. C
Garden lights, I’ve kept many running over the years. Quite a few were DOA too. I had one with an intermittent inductor, managed to find one that worked. Lots of battery corrosion and rust issues. These lights are often not well sealed, allowing water to seep under the solar panel and into the electronics. Faulty soldering on a few brand new lights. One failed to switch on and I found the chip was dead. I replaced it with a board I kept from a light with a dead solar panel. A bollard light had a badly installed board which was pushing on the cover. One post broke off and allowed the battery to fall out. Filed a corner off the board and glued the post back. It went out later on and I found a couple of broken traces. Fixed a good few sets of solar Christmas lights with similar faults too. A few post lamps were saved by using battery springs I saved from dead lights.
Some designers failed hear you could actually open it up without wrecking it and you were able to get the circuit board out well done sir
Yes, I'm surprised they don't glue them together.
I’ve learned so much from watching Mr Carlson’s videos over the years. I think this is the only video where I shouted at the screen. I was exclaiming “No! No! Don’t remove the IC! Compare inductor values first!”
It seemed very likely that it was a mispick when populating the board.
sounds like your enjoying summer
Always sharing a interested videos Carlson sir 😊
I appreciate that!
some of that rubbery plastic can be mended by using your soldering iron and also using unimportant pieces of that same plastic as filler material, I repaired a ripped car bumper this way and it looked great.
Just don't use your good tips for that. Save the old, worn out ones for melting plastic.
You can also melt some zigzag metal wire into the plastic. Yes and stay away from the good solder iron tips.
That was an Enlightening Episode !! 👍
🇨🇦🤓🤟
I’m tickled to have this as a recommendation .. first time visiting. This is gonna be interesting! ✌️
He's got the box. Oh wait, wrong channel. Seriously though, thank you Mr. Carlson for all your fantastic teaching!
You are welcome!
7:51 Some plastic that is not bonded by superglue can be heat-welded using a soldering iron. If you need extra plastic for the weld joint, the same kind of plastic is best to use as your "welding rod," but if you can't determine what kind of plastic it is, try using an old plastic zip tie.
32:46 I was hoping to see the scope used to check the IC that underperformed at 26:36
BigClive would likely suggest using some fingernail varnish to waterproof the PCB to make it last longer.
Flooring Urethane works very well too, and you just dip the board in the can (multiple times.)
HI! This is an excellent video to show everyone how easy it is to fix ones solar lights. Good job! Previously I needed my solar fence post light to power up a three color LED that slowly oscillated and morphed from blue to red to green using the same circuit as yours. So, to start, I removed the original LED and soldered in the tricolor LED. The new LED did not work! So why? After simply testing with my power supply, it was determined that voltage needed for my three-color LED was 3.0- volts, but the solar powered light only yielded 1.3 volts output. How to increase the light's voltage with only a 1.5 volts supply? Where the LED was originally, I added a capacitor and diode to the circuit board in order to voltage double the power for the new LED. The oscillation is there, so a voltage doubler circuit was perfect to get the tri-color LED to work for year!!
Nice one 👍👍👍👍
If I start a band we are going to be called the Micro Henries.We'll use the inductor symbol as our logo.
I have to check my LED's with a cheap Chinese ESR tester to verify they work and the verify the cathode and anode pins. I bought a bulk pack of 200 cool white LEDs and checking them in the ESR tester verified they light so I installed them but some didn't work in circuit. So I pulled them out and tested them again in the ESR tester, they lit up but I noticed the pins the ESR identified as anode and cathode were reversed from their physical appearance (flat spot, anvil, post, lead length) in the ones that didn't work. Most of the LED's were ok but some were reversed in this manner. I reinstalled them in circuit based on the ESR pin findings and then they worked fine.
Good basic stuff😊
saving them from the land fill because no one else was ever going to fix them all interesting watching thanks
Those ICs: quite sure it's something like YX8018 ("solar driver").
Hi,
I have been fixing old solar lights. Some 4 legged it's have different circuits inside. To have some fun, I saved some LED's from broken Christmas light strings. I found that the LED colour matched the colour of the jewel lens. So now I have multi colours lights. I also tried using the fairy light strings in them, with good results.
- Myran
Looks like the first bright one had 300uH inductor.
Like they just used components they had lying around. No quality control at all.
..and you noticed at the end.😃
Cool video Mr. C. Really not much to these little solar lamps. Thanks for the tutorial. 💡
No problem 👍
The quality control works, one faulty unit in every box, nice.
Superb QC on their end.
The same guy was working that day and built all the defective units, lol. Happy Father's Day!
This is the reason why I and many many Canadians refer to CanadianTire(source of Noma stuff) as "Crappy Tire".
A veritable wealth of junk to be found there, though, to be fair, junky stuff like this will be found everywhere if the sourcing is from the lowest cost manufacturer.
Love the vid, made me chuckle as I have had to fix a number of these(driveway lights and post lights) for cold solder joints.
Maybe they just mixed in one naughty one with every box, so people would be less inclined to bother returning them
Hallo Paul,
Toch helemaal uitgekeken.
Je hebt er toch weer een mooie video van weten te maken.
37, pe1krx
Glad you enjoyed!
And here I thought I was the only one who did things like that. There used to be a store in town that resold a lot of "returns", usually from the Jungle site; sometimes from Costco, and the electronics, always needed resoldering. Sometimes incorrect components were installed, but it was usually bad solder joints. Once in awhile, I'd come across a real gem, but most of the time, I ended-up with a lot of things, useless for me, that worked. I have to confess that I've never used a $6,000 scope to troubleshoot any of that stuff, but I might have fun using my Tektronix 465M to investigate deeper. That'll have to wait, though. I'm building a vacuum tube oscillator test fixture for old FT-243 crystals that'll test the fundamental, harmonic, and overtone frequencies. I like using tubes whenever possible, as opposed to semiconductors. It's a lot more fun.
Jungle site. 😂 I'm going to use that if I may. 😁
@@TimHollingworth No problem. I think it's public domain 🙂
The IC is a dedicated LED driver, and this type with 4 pins is probably a newer version of the common HH004F.
The HH004F in TO-92 package works very similar, can be fed with 0.x to 5V (burns out at 6V, don't ask how i know), the output is also a squarewave signal arround 350a400Khz, and it works with a inductor between 2.2uH and 10uH (regarding the internet), but when i tested it with a much bigger inductor, it worked fine.
The squarewave signal didn't changed that much when i used another value of inductor, but during my test a few years ago, i could power more then 20 5mm white LED's from a single AA 1.5V battery (non rechargeable) and these had a fair amount of brightness. The HH004F is widely available, and i bought mine in a package of 50 from Ebay for a few euro's (euro has almost same value as the dollar at this moment). For this "simple" component, the nice looking squarewave without ringing was also something that caught my eye.
You're awesome man you're a good technician just to let you know that I keep forgetting but I want to refer people to you
So much like the videos Big Clive was making back in the day! Those 4-pin solar light boost chips have been around for quite some time.
If the canopies on those lamps are HDPE (the plastic in Jerry cans) there's no reason CA glue wouldn't key onto the texture of a break enough for you to get the lamp back together. You should, of course, consider any CA repair imminently frangible.
Great video as always Paul, very informational and it's great to see products being fixed instead of throwing it in the trash. I do want to say one thing, and it's unrelated to this video, but your playlist for the GRRS has a lot of videos that don't appear to be part of the series. Just wanted to let you know in case you didn't.
I have similar (spots) only with 18650 battery inside and a power LED. I also take them apart and is a little more complicated inside than the ones you have. I replaced the wiring because that was of ridiculous low quality and removed/disable the on/off switch. The battery is rated 1200mAh but this are Chinese mAh, it is actually 700mAh.
The demonstration in this video using the scope to show us how it operates was really a nice touch. Is this circuit similar to a joule thief circuit? Actually normally it would impossible to power a LED using one 1.5v cel. Nice video and subject. It is sad to notice that quality control is only used at the packaging, that seems to be fine.
So, Mr. Carlson, excellent video. Always love your stuff. A few points. First the 4 pin chip is some variation of XD5252, datasheets are readily available as are the components for roughly $1.50 US each. As for why the solder joints failed, I suspect it's because at assembly time the LEDs are slightly moved to fit into the hole. This normally wouldn't be a big issue except for that plastic conduit which keeps it fairly rigid and makes the primary vertex of movement directly at the solder connection. Add to that low quality solder which likely has very little maleability and you end up with a recipe for solder joint disaster. Manufacturing defect. I would have suggested leaving out the sleeve. It was likely added to help in the part placement process.
$1.50 each? You're paying way too much!
Mass produced in a country far, far away. No sample testing. I can't imagine someone getting a box that does not have a faulty unit. On the bright (LOL) side, it's fun to trouble shoot even the simplest electronic devices. Well done.
Looks like the same PCB used in the Dollar store lights that I sprinkle in the yard, that seem to last several seasons. I think corrosion and battery failure usually gets them, new lights are cheaper than new batteries.
I did come across the spec sheet online for the solar light IC once, you would get more out of it than I did.
I don't really expect much QC on items in this price range. I think all these products are lucky to get a second look by the assembler before the screws go in.
Thanks for taking us inside, I enjoyed it.
There is zero inspection these days on goods leaving the factory. It's cheaper just to throw them out the door and deal with the few that come back (usually returned at the customers expense). Even expensive products seem to be the same
When you can buy some versions for $1, QC is just too expensive. I still don't understand how they can sell them for far less than I can buy the parts.
Correct, there is no quality control on units like this. China churns them out by the thousands every day - it would be impossible to have enough people to check every unit. The customer is the QC. If you get a dead one you take it back and they give you another one. Cheaper to do it that way and practical from a production perspective.