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RE: Spring Clean - Eligibility

Fred27 — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:03:58 GMT

E14 is a nicely run community. If you've gone with the spirit of things then I'm sure it'll be fine. Enter anyway. If it missed the mark then you might not win, but you'll have had fun and have a finished project too.

Spring Clean - Eligibility

PorcupineZZZ — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 06:41:04 GMT

Hello!

I’m new to this website, I came across the Spring Clean project/event while scrolling on my phone and I have some projects that I haven’t finished or even started but I don’t know if it counts as origina since it’s either modding something or building a kit. Would those be eligible?

RE: Spring Clean - Eligibility

PorcupineZZZ — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:27:08 GMT

Thank you so much for the clarification! Much appreciated!

RE: Spring Clean - Eligibility

JoRatcliffe — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:25:22 GMT

Hey PorcupineZZZ , I am glad you found this competition. If the modding/kits involve electronics / electronic components and you are finishing a project you started previously then those sound eligible to me 🙂

RE: Garden Light

DAB — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:14:08 GMT

Great save.

Garden Light

scottiebabe — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:33:23 GMT

One of the solar garden lights was in desperate need of some spring cleaning.

The top rubber button cover had rotted over time and began to leak when it rains.

Almost all of the internals were in dire straits.

Before taking everything apart, I tried tinning the batery contacts with fresh solder to see if that was the only issue, it was not.

Even the solar charge/led driver IC (qx5252) had two of its leads corrode away.

I made a brief attempt to solder to what was left of the lead frame with limited success. Eventually with some cleaning and scraping I was able to make a connection.

I also tossed something together with an ME2108 module.

When the solar panel stops sourcing charge current Q1 turns on lightly. As the output of the me2108 module rises M1 starts to conduct and provide a “low” resistance to ground. Q2 pulls the gate of m1 low, thus disabling the boost module, should the solar panel starts sourcing current before the battery dies.

Surprisingly the solar panel was still functional. I have had a few lights where panel connections corrode away. Many of these cheap lights don't put much effort into waterproofing the solar connections.

RE: Garden Light

genebren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:39:12 GMT

Yes, the lights are based on Corning glass blocks (shower blocks?) that have been mosaiced with custom images by my wife (seen above walking up to the deck stairs). The lights elements are custom made and detailed here (https://community.element14.com/members-area/personalblogs/b/gene-breniman-s-blog/posts/outdoor-lighting---light-up-my-path) . This is a long running project (like a lot of mine) that has finally completed. I plan to do a blog to document more of the project.

RE: Garden Light

JoRatcliffe — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:23:15 GMT

Wow, they look great!

RE: Garden Light

scottiebabe — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:21:16 GMT

That is gorgeous! Your lights appear to be custom stained glass.

One of your excellent blogs show what the light puck above would have looked like new

Except mine had a latching push button with rubber cover on the top (that eventually failed)

RE: Garden Light

genebren — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:50:55 GMT

Great work!

I have played around with updating/modifying some tired Solar LED fixtures in the past (https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/project14/offtheshelf/b/blog/posts/off-the-shelf---outdoor-lighting-system-revamp). Instead of solar, these fixtures were converted to wired, low voltage (5VDC) lights. These lights have been working for almost 5 years, with only one of the lights needing a bit of repair (water incursion created rust, which caused a poor connection, yielding a lower than normal light output on one of the hanging lights). I have since added some path lights on to the circuit:

RE: Garden Light

ralphjy — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 14:17:55 GMT

Good news is that it's motion activated, so it doesn't run continuously. Bad news is that it turns on a lot. Somewhat disconcerting that we have so many critters coming through at night. Thankfully no coyotes yet, but lots of mice, bunnies, and occasionally possum and raccoon. I'm sure it keeps the neighbors entertained as one of them has commented on it - I have 3 lights in back for coverage...

RE: Garden Light

scottiebabe — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:40:08 GMT

That is an impressive amount of LEDS!

I bought I solar spot light that runs on a lithium cell, it throws a decent amount of light but doesn't last all night.

I put some clear silicon around the solar panel.

RE: Garden Light

scottiebabe — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:35:33 GMT

I would agree that is generally true, I just happen to enjoy the lights when they are working and they are very easy to understand.

RE: Garden Light

scottiebabe — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 13:33:09 GMT

My bonus prize was letting the magic smoke out of the ic after patching the missing leads.

There isn't a single capacitor on the pcb, it is identical to this

I made a temporary battery connection with croc clips and an intermittent connection let the inductor kickback and toast the chip. Magic smoke prize.

RE: Major RS2020L

strb — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:32:48 GMT

Thank you for having a look!

Major RS2020L

strb — Sun, 19 Apr 2026 12:49:33 GMT

Hi everyone,
as part of this spring clean competition I'm trying to repair a Major RS2020L radio given to me last year. I think I've narrowed down the problem to the output power stage, but here my knowledge ends. All transistors appear to be in good shape (I've desoldered and checked them one by one off board with a multimeter in diode mode). No apparent sign of leaky caps. No exceeding current drawn from the supply, fuse is fine. No burnt resistors.

Do you have a suggestion for websites where I could find the scheme for this radio to help me navigate through the board without desoldering and checking every component one by one? By the way, I'm not used to repair old radio equipment, so every suggestion is welcome! [emoticon:c4563cd7d5574777a71c318021cbbcc8]

Thank you all

RE: Major RS2020L

strb — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:31:31 GMT

I did not measure that without the output transistor. I'll have a look. I expect to find it stuck at Vcc as well, but we will see.

RE: Garden Light

beacon_dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:10:30 GMT

Bonus points for your 'Spring Cleaning' literally involving cleaning a spring 🙂

Is anyone doing anything creative with garden lighting projects ? If so I was wondering what materials and techniques were being used to make the designs weather and wildlife resistant as well as keeping the install maintainable and adaptable.

RE: Garden Light

colporteur — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:18:10 GMT

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.

RE: Garden Light

robogary — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 16:48:10 GMT

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.

RE: Garden Light

kmikemoo — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:43:09 GMT

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.

RE: Garden Light

kmikemoo — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:34:12 GMT

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

RE: Garden Light

ralphjy — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:27:04 GMT

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.

RE: Garden Light

robogary — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:15:18 GMT

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.

RE: Garden Light

scottiebabe — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 13:03:47 GMT

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