Garden Light

scottiebabe My wife LOVES these lights.  We have dozens of them.  She's even insisted on buying replacement batteries for them - although I could have bought new lights for what I paid for the batteries.   Every Spring, I spend a couple of hours with a small brass brush cleaning the battery contacts for them - prior to deployment around the yard.

I don't know if it is in the correct category - if it was meant to be scored, it should probably be in a "project" section because here it could be overlooked...

And as of garden lights (and other solar powered equipment - for example mole repellers), yes, their quality can be terrible - with contacts corroding, batteries malfunctioning and enclosures being destroyed by being run-over by lawn mower (this last one being usually not closely related to their quality)  

They have come along ways there are now sooo many styles and figurines. I even have a solar windchime 

each of the birds has a color fading led 

It doesn't matter to me where it is posted, but I was just sharing for fun

Nice job scottiebabe. For spring clean, I took apart old failed ultrasonic deer repellent modules, and have similar observations. The solar panels were fine,  the batteries were still in decent shape. The enclosures let in bugs and moisture , causing corrosion on component leads. 

I couldn't identify some of the ICs on the control board, but experience hints the PIR sensor dont last more than 3-4 years at best.

Hats off to you for finding a nice module to recover and recycle the lights.

Last summer when the coyotes were active, I put out solar fence lights to detect critters inside my fenced backyard.  They have been working reliably but maybe I should open them up and check for corrosion.

They were pretty clean before I started.  I'll get some after pics tomorrow.

  Yes.  We have the hummingbirds... and flamingos... and hummingbirds on their own stakes... and angels.  We got a lot of solar lights. 

ralphjy Ug!  You have reminded me of another uncompleted project!  I took one of these apart to make a solar motion activated nightlight for the garage people door (as opposed to the big garage door).  I tried using the light as it was, but it didn't get enough light inside the garage to work well and inside the garage was where I needed the light - so I would stop walking into things before the other motion light sensed me.   Gr-r-r-r.  I sense another mini-project poking at my squirrel brain.

I have these lights every few feet on my deck and in the backyard. For me, they last amazingly long, 7-10 years. Failure mode seems to be the plastic overtop the solar panels degrades and greatly reduces the charge current , and the really old ones will have the plastic eventually crack from uv exposure. 

If they are working well, opening them up to check for corrosion may invite premature leaks. Id wait for them them to start acting up before looking for problems.

At what point in your evaluation of a issue do you do the investment math. Discount store light cost X. Time and energy cost Y. If X>>>>>>>Y i will invest.

You have more perseverance that moi. Just the rust alone would give me cause to abandon taking on the project.