I’m struggling to find any communities on Lemmy, maybe someone can point me in the right direction?

It’s a really dumb and minor question but it’s driving me nuts trying to find a decent solution.

I’ve got some of those metal outdoor lanterns that have a small round solar panel on the top and an LED. They work great in the summer but there just isn’t enough charge in the winter for them to get fully charged… the problem is, EVERY single one I’ve found ONLY charges when it’s turned ON.

There seems to be 1000s of replacements on Amazon but I’ve not found a single one that charges while off…

I’d really like some that I can keep off but will charge anyway so I can turn them on when I’m actually using them in Winter.

Dumb question but maybe someone can point me to a Lemmy community that can help!

  • lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world
    1·
    10 months ago

    These solar lanterns just don’t have enough solar cell area to fully charge in the short winter days. If you can deal with them not being as bright, you can double or triple the value of the resistor in series with the LED to double or triple the time the light remains on.

    Another way to deal with the lack of charging is to add a small solar panel. But these solar lights will all eventually fail within a couple years because of battery degradation. I finally gave up and installed low-voltage LED lighting, which actually produces a useful level of light.