Solar-Rechargeable Decorations

Phoenix Fire Lily:  Solar rechargeable battery connected to a flickering LED inside an artificial lily flower residing in a hand-crafted wooden vase.

I don’t know about you, but I rarely have money to spend on projects and whenever possible reusing and re-purposing junk is ideal.  Many of my projects contain parts I’ve purchased at local dollar stores and items found through eBay.

 

Parts:

• Artificial Lily Flower
• Flickering LED
• Thermostat Wire
• 100-330ohm Resistor
• Mini switch
• Solar-panel ~ 5vDC
• Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery
• Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger = TP4056 Mini USB 1A Lithium Battery Charger Module
• USB to mini USB ~ 5ft. cord
• Optional ~ hand-crafted vase station

Steps:

• Cut the end of the stem and remove the wire.

• Gut the Artificial Lily Flower by removing its pistil.

• Using a 8-10″ length of Thermostat Wire that extends just beyond the end of the lily’s stem, solder a 100-330ohm resistor to flickering LED and/or later near the mini switch inside the recycled case.

Do I really need a resistor?

• Clear LED without resistor = 30mA @ 3vDC
• Flickering Yellow LED ~ 6mA @ 3vDC
• salvaged 10 LED string of lights = 6mA @ 3vDC

 

• Carefully thread the wired LED through the lily and down her stem.

• Add a piece of heat-shrink tubing, solder jumper wires, and attach connector header.

• Solder a set of short jumper wires to the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger output.
• Solder the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger output short jumper wires, resistor, to the mini switch and recycled case ( two “AA” batteries ).

• Solder the coin-cell battery holder to the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger
• Insert the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery into the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger.

A look inside the inexpensive battery case.

• Gut everything from the case!

• Drill a few holes.  One for the solar panel wires, and the other for USB connector.

• Solder a simple switching diode, such as 1N4148, to the positive side.
• Using short jumper wires, solder the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger input to the solar panel ~ 5vDC.

• Insert the switch and wrap wires so they lay flat inside the case.

• Test the output.
• Optionally, attach USB to mini USB cord to the charger
• Store inside a hand-crafted vase station.

 

You can purchase a completed Phoenix Fire Lily directly from me as a functioning example.

 

More:

• Why DIY when you could buy?
• Why Arduino when you can Pi?
• Making a Lightshow with Arduino
• Making Sound Effects with Arduino
• Wired or Wireless?
• What is a “Smart” Garden?
• Starting a Smart Indoor Garden