Mustang65 Posted December 14, 2019 Posted December 14, 2019 (edited) Here is the latest... I decided to go with the smaller SOLAR decorative light that has a 1.2Volt AAA rechargeable battery. I figured if it can fully charge that AAA battery each day for another night of use, it should have no problem keeping the 1.2Volt AA battery topped off. I went to Dollar General and picked up a NEW $1 decorative SOLAR light. I removed the base and took out the 1.2Volt AAA battery that came with it. I soldered wires to the SOLAR battery leads and connected them to the 2843 Open/Close door sensor. I inserted the rechargeable 1.2Volt AA battery. The only battery in the circuit is the AA. I removed the night-time LED. I was going to use the Arduino to monitor the voltage with my data logger, but the data logger no longer works. So, I am/will be doing the monitoring manually until I get a new data logger. Since December 8th, the morning battery voltage has been a constant 1.269 volts. Through out the day the battery voltage with the SOLAR charging, has been between 1.313 and 1.452. At 9PM the battery voltage has been 1.293 volts. The nice thing about using this inexpensive SOLAR cell is that the IC chip disconnects the SOLAR cell when the panel is no longer producing power, so that the cell does not drain the battery at night. As I see it, the issue with monitoring these batteries is that they will constantly show a voltage around 1.2 volts and when they are ready to die the voltage will drastically drop off. I sealed the sensor with electrical tape and a piece of duct-tape at the top... just in case. This gate is under a very large oak tree, but gets most of the afternoon sun. If this works out I will convert the other gate sensors to solar. I will then look at using the larger SOLAR decorative lights (they use a 3.2 volt battery) for the motion sensors that are outside. According to the battery stats, they are good for 500 FULL recharges. Edited December 14, 2019 by Mustang65
frank Posted December 14, 2019 Author Posted December 14, 2019 Thanks for the thorough feedback. Please keep us updated as I’m sure many of us would love to reduce battery changes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Mustang65 Posted January 7, 2020 Posted January 7, 2020 It will be 1 month tomorrow that I added SOLAR power to the outside gate On/Off sensor (2843-222). The voltages are about the same. I use the gate about 5 or 6 times a day, so there is some On/Off activity. Still working fine. 1
frank Posted January 7, 2020 Author Posted January 7, 2020 Thanks for the feedback Mustang65Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Teken Posted February 6, 2020 Posted February 6, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 8:43 AM, Mustang65 said: It will be 1 month tomorrow that I added SOLAR power to the outside gate On/Off sensor (2843-222). The voltages are about the same. I use the gate about 5 or 6 times a day, so there is some On/Off activity. Still working fine. Awesome!
Mustang65 Posted February 7, 2020 Posted February 7, 2020 (edited) Update: It is 2 months today since I added SOLAR power to the outside gate On/Off sensor (2843-222). No change in the voltages, checked today. Great $1(USD) Dollar General investment for a decorative SOLAR lawn light. Still working. Edited February 7, 2020 by Mustang65 1
Mustang65 Posted March 9, 2020 Posted March 9, 2020 Update: It is 3 months yesterday since I added SOLAR power to the outside gate On/Off sensor (2843-222). Battery voltage is still 1.2 volts in the morning. Still working.
frank Posted March 9, 2020 Author Posted March 9, 2020 Great info Mustang65. I tried using solar cells bought off Amazon that did not keep the battery charged. I also used a high capacity battery. I will probably try using the lower capacity battery and a repurposed solar light. Thanks for keeping us updated.
Mustang65 Posted April 7, 2020 Posted April 7, 2020 That time of the month again Well here we are 4 months later and as you have probably guessed the East Gate On/Off sensor is still operating as usual. (Knock on wood). The daytime voltages are the same, forgot to head outside this morning to check the pre-sunrise voltages. No issue yet. Inexpensive ($1USD) yard SOLAR light sensor seems to be doing the trick. Now to start on the 3.2Volt outdoor motion sensor SOLAR upgrade using the inexpensive SOLAR yard light SOLAR cell.
Mustang65 Posted August 28, 2020 Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) It has been 8 months and 20 days and 6 hours since I added the $1(USD) yard light SOLAR panel to the Insteon 2843-222 Open/Close sensor for a trial. The $1 SOLAR and Open/Close sensor are still doing great. In October, I will start adding the SOLAR to the Motion Sensors that I have outside. Will use the 2Volt inexpensive yard light SOLAR panels for those. Mail box current sensor is next. Edited August 28, 2020 by Mustang65
frank Posted September 4, 2020 Author Posted September 4, 2020 Mustang65. Thanks for the update. I posted last week but guess it didn’t go thru. Where in the solar charging circuit did you tap in and did you use the battery that came with the solar light or did you stay with the Insteon battery? Did you consider using both in parallel? frank
Mustang65 Posted September 5, 2020 Posted September 5, 2020 18 hours ago, frank said: Mustang65. Thanks for the update. I posted last week but guess it didn’t go thru. Where in the solar charging circuit did you tap in and did you use the battery that came with the solar light or did you stay with the Insteon battery? Did you consider using both in parallel? frank I cut out the LED wiring. I then soldered wires from the SOLAR circuit battery connections and soldered them in the 2843. I put the rechargeable 1.2VDC (Amazon) into the 2843. I thought about having 2 batteries, but I wanted to see if the 2843 would function with only one rechargeable battery, which it has with no issues at all. I would venture to say that there should be no problem with adding a second battery, as the power used will still remain the same, except for an additional minimal internal power loss while idle. The only modification I would make, if using one battery, would be to put the battery in the SOLAR unit and not the 2843. Somewhere down the road the rechargeable battery will bite the dust and since I sealed the 2843 for outside use, it would be much easier to replace the battery from inside the SOLAR charger. Outside motion sensor SOLAR upgrades are next using the larger output SOLAR units from the Dollar Store. Don
frank Posted September 5, 2020 Author Posted September 5, 2020 Mustang65. Thanks for the update. Appreciate the info. I’m going to give it a second try on my mailbox sensor and if successful I’ll try on my motion sensors frank
Mustang65 Posted October 11, 2020 Posted October 11, 2020 May it "RIP"!!! It has been about 10 months and 4 days since the install of the SOLAR/Battery combination for the 2843 OPEN/CLOSE sensor on my yard privacy gate. I walk out into the yard each night and go out through the gate that has the 2843 sensor on it. As I opened the gate I noticed that my watch did not alert me that the gate was opened and a few seconds later the yard lights did not come on (after sunset). So this morning I opened the 2843, checked the battery voltage and it was "0" volts. I would say it was a good run for the battery. Unfortunately, I am out of 1.2VDC rechargeable batteries, so pulled the SOLAR cell wires off and put a regular battery in. Back up and running. Maybe, I will just have to see how long this battery lasts.
frank Posted October 11, 2020 Author Posted October 11, 2020 Mustang65, Thanks for the update. That is exactly to results I experienced. It appeared, in my experiment, the solar cell only had a MINOR influence on the life of the battery and what I actually experienced was just the typical life of the 1.2v battery in a scenario similar to yours. Not sure, but I think I didn’t have enough current from the solar to fully charge the battery each day. If you come up with a solution, please advise and I will do the same. FrankSent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
larryllix Posted October 11, 2020 Posted October 11, 2020 7 minutes ago, frank said: Mustang65, Thanks for the update. That is exactly to results I experienced. It appeared, in my experiment, the solar cell only had a MINOR influence on the life of the battery and what I actually experienced was just the typical life of the 1.2v battery in a scenario similar to yours. Not sure, but I think I didn’t have enough current from the solar to fully charge the battery each day. If you come up with a solution, please advise and I will do the same. Frank Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I got several of those 3 or 6? Watt solar panels that charge your car battery, on a good sale. I should ave known better, having lots of experience with larger solar panels and working in the energy metering field for 34 years. First of all, a PV panel puts out about 5-10% of it's rating behind shaded glass. Second, the PV panel is not perpendicular to the sun at any time of the day. Third, the sun is very low in the winter, Fourth, the car is covered in snow and gets no solar radiation at all. Fifth, the panel had an LED on it that, when calculated, drew more energy from the battery than the panel could produce and drained the car battery I returned the other panels instead of using them as gifts but wanted to choke somebody at the store and was ashamed of myself for not doing the basic energy budget calculations
Mustang65 Posted October 11, 2020 Posted October 11, 2020 At least my RV SOLAR works fine. Total for my 250 Watt SOLAR panel with 260Ah batteries since 2012. Batteries still going strong... OK not as strong as when they were new.
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