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Aside from the robust looking and decent output solar panel, this light has a chunky LiFePO4 cell and unusually minimised circuitry. It was quite fast to reverse engineer, since it seems to be a sensible design.

https://youtu.be/vr7F7SFxmGQ

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Temu solar street light with generous solar panel & LiFePO4 cell

I have to admit, this exceeded my expectations significantly. The plastic light housing was slightly disappointing, but viable, since the power of the light is only around 5W with a fully charged cell and maximum intensity selected. The solar panel itself seems fairly robust, and is based on a glass panel with the silicon cells laminated onto the back with a white plastic film. I'm in the progress of testing the LiFePO4 lithium cell, but it does appear to have the correct dimensions (32700) for a 6Ah cell. The cell test is currently in progress. The circuitry is minimalist with good functionality. I like the fact that it uses coloured battery status LEDs in the main LED window. With a fully charged (3.65V) cell the eight LED power settings are as follows:- 1.7A = 5.1W (calculated with LED voltage of 3V) 1.5A = 4.5W 1.3A = 3.9W 1.1A = 3.3W 0.9A = 2.7W 0.7A = 2.1W 0.5A = 1.5W 0.3A = 0.9W 0.1A = 0.3W As the cell discharges the power will fall progressively. Roughly half the power at mid discharge, and progressively lower as the cell drops to its end of discharge voltage of 2.5V. As the cell reaches 2.5V the battery level indicators start flashing and just below that level the unit cuts out. At that point the LED current has dropped to just 7mA at full intensity setting, so the unit could still be putting out at least a faint glow on dark winter nights with low daytime sun. If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- https://www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm This also keeps the channel independent of YouTube's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. #ElectronicsCreators

Comments

Mike Bird

With a plastic case, does the LED circuit board overheat? And what about water ingress?

bigclive

It's a maximum of 5W spread over the full PCB, so the plastic may transmit enough of the heat out. The glass was glued at both ends, so may allow breathability of the inside. The main opening points downwards.

Bill Kerr

Amazon in the US has what appears to be the same thing but with a 30,000mAh battery (LOL) for 99USD (!!!)