home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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Initial report suggests success... the controller dongle is lighting solid blue indicating 4 hours on time programmed (still). It should turn itself on for 4 hours mid morning when I first turned it on yesterday. If it was still screwed up it would be dark or flashing on and off.

Overnight was in the 30s (laundry room in the low 40s).

I am optimistic that first USB PS is/was flaky.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

Ding, ding, ding.
I think we have a winner.
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JR.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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The grow light turned on as programmed so that all appears sorted. 8-)

Next is the postmortem... I don't think I can put humpty back together after disassembly but I am curious to see if there is an obvious fault.

JR
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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took apart the USB charger... one almost dodgy (?) looking solder joint on a catch diode in the HV switcher section, but nothing else obvious.

The USB charger/regulator chip is FT8371A from a chinese IC company HIENSEMI..... their webside has a pretty chinese girl wanting to chat... :lol:

I found the data sheet but about all I can figure out is 5V 2A part (I don't read chinese even a little).

I could touch up that diode solder joint, but like I said humpty is not going back together.

I might be able to give it another chance to fail, but not sure why.

JR

[edit- we can stick a fork in this post mortem, I touched up the one questionable solder joint and it still fails over night. Time to place it in the circular file and move on. :lol: /edit]
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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Latest driveway franken-lamp experiment variant. I upgraded the batteries to 2,000 mAh Nimh batteries. These lamps come stock with something like 300 mAh nicad, I was running 600mAh before, but the typical nicads get tired after a year or so.

So far despite some overcast and rainy days the franken lamps have been still rocking solid at 5AM for over a week. This morning at 6AM one was already off, and while i was checking the second winked off... It didn't seem very light outside but these are more sensitive to light with 2x the solar cells in series, so probably still had some battery left. The lamp that was on was bright until it turned off.

Ironic perhaps but now that I no longer stay out late partying, I finally have driveway lights that are up to the task. :lol:

JR
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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Are there lots of late-night parties in Hickory?

If you were still up doing that I might suggest sequenced approach lights.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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mediatechnology wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2020 7:03 pm Are there lots of late-night parties in Hickory?
The last time there was, they were at my house so I didn't need to worry about the drive home.
If you were still up doing that I might suggest sequenced approach lights.
it is under control. 8-)

JR

PS: Back in the day I would have to drive 20+ miles on the interstate (at speed), so the last mile was not the hard part. I have always considered myself an above average driver, still do. :lol:
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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The 2000mAh nimh batteries in my driveway lamps are not living up to my expectations. Reportedly my freezing weather should not bother them, but the results show worse performance than previous nicads with <1/3 rated capacity.

JR
[update- I just charged up my old 600mAh nicads and swapped out the underperforming nimh batteries. Putting the two outdoor nimh and, two that were indoors powering my TV channel controller into the recharge station, the outdoor nimh were pretty deeply discharged even after several hours of sunlight. The two indoor nimh batteries were still mostly charged (2/3 to 3/4 full).

My suspicion is that the problem is not ambient temperature, but perhaps related to recharging profiles. Apparently slow/trickle charging nimh batteries is not trivial. My bench charger claims nimh/nicad capability. These will work fine in my remotes.

Next experiment may be 1000mAh nicads...

JR
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

Post by mediatechnology »

You might want to pay Battery Bob a visit: https://www.batterybob.com/

Bob has sold me several unique batteries the last couple of years and would have a wide assortment of Amp/Hour and chemistries for you to experiment with.
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Re: home improvement turns into science fair projects?

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mediatechnology wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 5:27 pm You might want to pay Battery Bob a visit: https://www.batterybob.com/

Bob has sold me several unique batteries the last couple of years and would have a wide assortment of Amp/Hour and chemistries for you to experiment with.
I have some 1000mAh nicads already on order. The 600mAh nicads were pretty much all night long when fresh, so more mAH capacity shouldn't hurt.

The 2000mAh NIMH batteries were a fail (my suspicion is charging incompatibility), while people do advertise NIMH batteries for solar lamp applications. I think I saw somewhere that NIMH do not appreciate deep discharge, which is SOP for solar lamps.

JR
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