Has anyone tought about re-purposing those old solar landscape lights? I found some old ones in the attic and thought maybe I could make something out of them, some kind of emergency energy source to power a light or charge a cell phone, or something. I couldn't find anything on google search so I thought I'd ask here. So, could you take all those little panels and make one big useable panel?
Wiring them in series will render higher voltages, wiring them in parallel will give higher amperages. Typically, banks of series wired panels are wired are parallel to give both higher voltages and amperages.
Here's a guy thats doing what you are talking about
http://www.instructables.com/id/Recycled-multi-voltage-solar-panel/
Here's a guy thats doing what you are talking about
http://www.instructables.com/id/Recycled-multi-voltage-solar-panel/
Besides a light, they make decent AA or AAA battery recharges depending on type. buy quality rechargeables to replace the cheapies they come with. just keep cycling them etc. there are cell small electronic rechargers out there that operate off aa/aaa batteries, and a host of battery packs that could in theory be recharged. Look at the ratings on the battery pack your trying to charge, and do the math in relation to output of the light to figure out how many you need in series/parallel to recharge the item. I personally would cheat and use the contacts for the battery to wire from vs dissembling the light. in theory with enough sunlight, you could leave the battery in there, run your leads and still have a handy light source that you would just have to disconnect from the "charging wires".
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