8:42 Some people also recognize SOS as "Save Our Souls" not sure if the instructions were unclear, missing or if you didn't see them but the SOS mode puts the light into a emergency mode. Simply leave your light plugged in and in SOS mode and as soon as the power goes off the light will turn on. You can simulate this mode by unplugging the device while it's in SOS mode. The light should automatically come on. This mode is great for when you have the light permanently mounted and plugged in in a location where you will need light in case of a emergency power outage. Where I am from the power tends to go off alot and these lights really helped me deal with that issue. I own 4 of them. I do believe they should have named this mode something other than SOS since most of us recognize SOS as a communication message. Emergency Mode would have been more fitting.
Thanks for the video really helpful. Brother gave me two lightbars he was going to throw out. Found battery terminal corrosion and broken wires. Using an external power supply both units could not be turned off. Your schematic helped me figure out that Q2 was bad. Replaced with 2n3904 from my parts bin fixed this problem. On all the batteries I cleaned the terminals and had to add distilled water to top off their cells. Using a battery charger at 200ma over night, they all read 4.28 vdc. Reinstall batteries and both are now working as designed. Thanks also to Edgar on the SOS info, that function works too.
June 2024, I just purchased this light and it is made different now. Looks the same, but the battery inside is different, I'm guessing because technology is always improving and changing. Anyway, if your considering buying this light, here is my experience with it. You still have to charge it 24 hours for the first time you take it out the box. No big deal, I plugged it in and forgot about it until the next day. Then any charge after that, takes about 8-10 hours. I use the light bar in a dark closet so it's not like I'm turning this thing on every day and leaving it running for hours. I might go in the closet 3 times a day for a few minutes at a time if that. So when it's fully charged it stays very bright for over a month without having to recharge it. Also, I did not use the screws that came with it. I went to Walmart and bought some of that 3M double sided sticky tape, I think it was $3.97 for a roll of it and I got the one rated for 15lbs of holding strength. I just cut a strip of that tape off and stuck it to the back of the light and then stuck that to the wall. Holds easy, no problem and I can always remove it if I want to. Lastly, in my instructions, it says you can just leave the light plugged in all the time and it will run the LED's continuously. So if your hanging the light near a plug, you could just leave it plugged in all the time. It does say to not run the light while charging, but that is because if it's plugged in and you turn the lights on, the power goes directly to the lights and not to recharge the battery. If your not using it wirelessly, you can just leave it On and plugged in and you will have light all the time. Just know if you turn it off, it will take 8-10 hours to charge that battery again. I like mine as it gives off plenty of light for a dark room. There are more powerful wireless LED's on the market, but I liked the fact that this one is a long bar, so it spreads the light out and projects it to a wider area in the closet. For reference, mine was $19.99 at a Ace hardware store.
8:42 Some people also recognize SOS as "Save Our Souls" not sure if the instructions were unclear, missing or if you didn't see them but the SOS mode puts the light into a emergency mode. Simply leave your light plugged in and in SOS mode and as soon as the power goes off the light will turn on. You can simulate this mode by unplugging the device while it's in SOS mode. The light should automatically come on. This mode is great for when you have the light permanently mounted and plugged in in a location where you will need light in case of a emergency power outage. Where I am from the power tends to go off alot and these lights really helped me deal with that issue. I own 4 of them. I do believe they should have named this mode something other than SOS since most of us recognize SOS as a communication message. Emergency Mode would have been more fitting.
Thanks for the video really helpful. Brother gave me two lightbars he was going to throw out. Found battery terminal corrosion and broken wires. Using an external power supply both units could not be turned off. Your schematic helped me figure out that Q2 was bad. Replaced with 2n3904 from my parts bin fixed this problem. On all the batteries I cleaned the terminals and had to add distilled water to top off their cells. Using a battery charger at 200ma over night, they all read 4.28 vdc. Reinstall batteries and both are now working as designed.
Thanks also to Edgar on the SOS info, that function works too.
i have never seen a lead acid battery this small. like the video and the science..very cool.
June 2024, I just purchased this light and it is made different now. Looks the same, but the battery inside is different, I'm guessing because technology is always improving and changing. Anyway, if your considering buying this light, here is my experience with it. You still have to charge it 24 hours for the first time you take it out the box. No big deal, I plugged it in and forgot about it until the next day. Then any charge after that, takes about 8-10 hours. I use the light bar in a dark closet so it's not like I'm turning this thing on every day and leaving it running for hours. I might go in the closet 3 times a day for a few minutes at a time if that. So when it's fully charged it stays very bright for over a month without having to recharge it. Also, I did not use the screws that came with it. I went to Walmart and bought some of that 3M double sided sticky tape, I think it was $3.97 for a roll of it and I got the one rated for 15lbs of holding strength. I just cut a strip of that tape off and stuck it to the back of the light and then stuck that to the wall. Holds easy, no problem and I can always remove it if I want to.
Lastly, in my instructions, it says you can just leave the light plugged in all the time and it will run the LED's continuously. So if your hanging the light near a plug, you could just leave it plugged in all the time. It does say to not run the light while charging, but that is because if it's plugged in and you turn the lights on, the power goes directly to the lights and not to recharge the battery. If your not using it wirelessly, you can just leave it On and plugged in and you will have light all the time. Just know if you turn it off, it will take 8-10 hours to charge that battery again. I like mine as it gives off plenty of light for a dark room. There are more powerful wireless LED's on the market, but I liked the fact that this one is a long bar, so it spreads the light out and projects it to a wider area in the closet. For reference, mine was $19.99 at a Ace hardware store.
ac input is labeled plus and minus?