these are the solar driveway lights I got a little solar panel on top and on
the blog I go to survival this blog met a guy named River rider said that you
could buy these at Walmart and they've got double-a batteries in them that are
rechargeable and I bought one and sure enough it's got a standard rechargeable
double-a battery in it so I've got some old rechargeable batteries that I used
to use in a digital camera I'm going to put them in here and I'm going to set
these out in the Sun and see if it works if I can take the batteries out and use
them in my flashlights will that be cool a free way to charge double-a batteries
okay I just can't stick these things in the ground like they were intended to no
I got to make it a little more complicated that's just the way that's
just how I roll these stakes are intended to be driven in the ground and
then this to be set on them like that but I'm going to screw these down to
this 1 by 4 and it's hard to do that looking through the viewfinder I just I
missed it there so those will be screwed to this board like that and then I'm
going to mount this board in a way so it can be swiveled to follow the path of
the Sun you know like in the morning have this oriented north of South and
tilted a little bit to the east and then about noon come out set it straight up
and then in a afternoon turn it towards the west to get full charge out of these
little solar panels so I'm going to set this up and and I'll show you what it
looks like okay I've got the little spikes mounted on this board here
and looks like it's finished but wait is there any way I could make this more
complicated I think I can well I'm I managed to make it a little more
complicated and mounted it to a pipe with a wingnut that you can loosen and
aim this towards the Sun and not only that but you can turn it as the year
progresses and as the Sun settles in the West you could point it towards the West
just to get that much more direct sunlight on those little solar panels
and now the real test is going to be to put them rechargeable doublea's in here
and see just how well it does and that'll be my next clip
well here's the thing I made I pulled it back out of the ground because you
couldn't turn it like this and the reason is I cut this point on the end
and then hammered it down to the ground and it wouldn't turn easy enough so not
not wanting to make this as easy as possible I'm making a little rod here
for this is going to be hammered in the ground right here
and then this is going to slide over it like that and it'll rest on that big
washer and it will be able to turn without any problem and I got these
boxers just tacked on here right now fixing it
well them washers on good and grind the diameter I'll have to grind the diameter
a little bit in order to fit up in here but I'll show you the finished product
okay and my junk drawer in the kitchen I had these rechargeable batteries that
I used to use in my digital camera and they've been in there God probably a
year and a half maybe two just sitting there so I'm pretty sure they're
completely dead or nearly dead and I'm fixing to put them in the solar lights
and the my next clip will be of me a hammer in this steak in and showing you
my my latest complication to this thing Breezie you're hugging my shot alright
there it is I'm fixing a slide the bracket I made
over that now you see the way the shadow is I'm going
to aim this perpendicular with that line of that shadow and I won't aim this up
you probably won't be able to see the Sun but the Sun is just a little past
noon it's probably one one thirty something like that like a little
wrapped up there in my shop complicating this so I'm going to lean this towards
the Sun there we go and in about four hours when the Sun
goes down I'll come out here and pull them batteries out and stick them in a
flashlight and see if they've charged them up well the sun's getting a little
lower it's 5:00 in the afternoon and I'm going to pull a couple of these
batteries out and stick them in a flashlight and see if three and a half
hours of sunshine has charged them up enough to light a flashlight so I'd only
go I only got one available hand then it's going to take two hands to undo the
lids off of these and pull the batteries out so while the next clip will be of me
turn the flashlight on and see if it's got enough juice the batteries okay I
got the lids off I got the batteries out and look at this it's not a hundred
percent bright but for just a couple hours of charging that's pretty
impressive so in the event you don't have electricity and you need a way of
charging up some double-a batteries using solar these were four bucks each
and you know a couple hours of fabricating this little thing but you
don't really have to have that you could Jam these in the ground and they do just
fine so that's a pretty handy thing no and I Oh River Rider a debt of gratitude