Post Light

thingiverse

Cheap garden lights abound, but they usually have small solar cells and wimpy LEDS. Here is a design that uses a larger solar cell in a tilted peak that stays cleaner. A 2000 mah AA nimh cell can last through several cloudy days. A high intensity LED with color of your choosing can personalize the light. 4x4 posts are not that well controlled for size, so tweak the OpenSCAD parameters to match your posts before printing. Or, print them a little smaller and trim down the post tops on two sides. PLA was used for the top and coated with UV resistant spar varnish. A more robust material could be substituted. The lens was originally clear PLA, but after an early snow it was knocked off the post from the slush of a snow plow. The new design is thicker, has reinforcing ribs on the sides, and is made from PETG. The electronics package is fully described and the board layout included if you want to make your own. Parts can be ordered from Mouser or Digikey. The pcboard can be made by any prototype house (Oshpark, PCBWAY, ....). You could also cannibalize the innards of garden light. The Solar Cell was obtained from Ebay. The originals were 54x54 mm, but a batch of new ones I got from China were 60x60mm. This size can also be tweaked in the OpenSCAD file. I put two of these at the end of my driveway with a red on the left and green on the right ('Red Right Returning'). It makes it easy to navigate the entrance in the dark. Enjoy! AjG