I built the first of many solar powered lights for the deck this past week. I wont dive into the details as I just followed plans from lifehacker and instructables. Here are some of the specifics and changes I made.
The first jars I tried came from The Container Store but the lids seemed entirely too small even with a heavily gutted light. It was the flip top mason jar looking ones but just couldn't get it to work. Next I tried a hard plastic (and watertight) square jar from Wal-Mart that worked perfect.
My parts:
6 pack of lights - Portfolio brand, from Lowe's $22
Jars $3/each from Container Store
Frosting $3 from Lowe's
I pretty much dove into this without doing too much reading of other peoples advice. I'll probably go back and read through all the comments to find the best way to color the lights as the green soda bottle I tried seemed to filter too much light.
I ended up needing to solder the two wires for the solar panel because they kept getting disconnected when I took apart the lights. Basic soldering I am fine at but it's no where near pretty! I couldn't find much to use as a cover inside the top to hide the electronic bits, ended up using a cardboard square. I should find something metal and hopefully black to pretty it up.
The frosting was much easier than expected, dead simple. I thought it was going to bunch up or streak or have SOME sort of problem on the plastic but it went on just fine.
Everything worked fine after putting her together. Looks to be water tight and a few days later looks like it's charging as well.Next:
- Frost the top to hide the bits
- Research where to get filters for color
- Build more!
I'll get some better pictures of them on the porch when I get more built up!
edit: yes i see the layout of the pictures is all jacked up. i need to figure out a better composer for this blog!
lovely!
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