Have a solar powered outdoor light with 2pin connection between panel and light. Looked for an extension cord but cannot find one anywhere in the right size. Contacted manufacturer and never received reply. Can I remove the two wires from the solar panel and convert them to a usb connection?
>convert them to a usb connection?
Yes. But that would be stupid. Anyone seeing the USB is going to assume 5v, where your solar panel is anything for 1v to 12v. Why don't you use something cheaper anyway, like a barrel jack?
Thanks, anons. Excellent point about the voltage. I will add an extension.
Reasoning is that I have to chase the sun around my yard so I either need a longer cord, or thought I could charge it with my knock-off jackery.
>charge it
You need to figure out what voltage you’re getting from the panel. Is the battery in the light? Or in the solar panel end?
If the battery is in the light, then you need to figure out what voltage you’re getting from the panel with full sun. If the battery is in the panel side, you need to see what voltage you’re getting from the panel when it thinks it’s night.
If you don’t own a multimeter, consider grabbing a cheap one for $10 or less and learn how to use it. You will be amazed how much you can diagnose.
Thank you. The battery is in the light and I haven't taken it apart yet. I will do that. I do own a multimeter but electricity is my kryptonite unless it's something simple like changing out an outlet or fixture.
Get the multimeter, set it to DCV, if it’s a manual ranging model set it to like 10DCV, then get the panel and get it in some good sunlight, and hit the two pins with the probes of the multimeter,
If you get 4V-5V somehow, then you could probably hack a USB charger into the light and hopefully the light has a charge controller before the battery. Like other anon said though, you probably don’t want to extend 5VDC very far through that hacked up USB cable.
If the panel is putting out anything else, you could probably still use a USB charger or any DC brick laying around and stick a boost/buck converter inline and tune it to make it match the solar panel voltage. I did that shit to make a portable printer charger that wanted like 9.6V or some random current, did a 5V/1A USB car charger into a boost converter and bumped it up to that ~9v
You are wonderful! Ended up taking the light apart and there's two 3.5v lithium batteries that are easy to access. Amazon has some cheap chargers- thinking I'll use this route as a backup.
Are you going to charge the batteries on a charger and then stick them back on the light?
Most devices which charge via the standard 5V USB charger have 3.6V lithium batteries. You could easily find a chaget to hack into that cable if you figure out whay is coming from the panel. I’m sure there’s circuitry in the light which takes X volts coming from the panel and corrects it, and the panel probably varies a bit in voltage, so you only need to get close, and if it’s ~4V-6V coming off the panel, you would definitely be able to use the USB.
Yes, I'll get a full external battery charge first before trying out the light again. Multiple days of a solar only gave me about 1.5 nights so maybe a good initial external charge will make a difference. I can make a change from there, if needed.
I cannot express how much I appreciate all of your help! This mini-intro to solar has been a little frustrating.
Just cut the cable and crimp on an extension in the middle with practically any cable you have lying around.
I’m with other anons, why would you convert it to a USB cable? You could easily cut off the ends of a cheap extension cord and splice that into the middle of the connectors. Or some speaker wire which is common and cheap.
Also watch out for power loss if you are trying to extend a long distance. I wouldn't bother trying to extend more than a few feet.
I would avoid USB also so you don't get confused in the future and just plug it into a USB port, unless you know already that the panel is 5V.
Why not use wifi then you don't need to worry about extension cords