Robbo
Full time elf
A couple years ago I bought some meteor tubes from bunnings, they came in a set of 4, solar powered with a 1.5vbattery, I got 3 sets.
Then they stopped functioning properly, the sensor seems to have failed, so lights would not turn off in daylight, and panel not charging the battery. So I thought what if I could control them through a dc controller, I'm only running a static display so rather than going the dc controller I sourced an old 5v power supply.
To test I cut the solar panel off and connected the strings to my lab supply running 3v, and they worked, with effects as well, as the effects are in the IC chip on each tube, so I connected all 12 tubes together and attached to the 5v power supply and it looks great.....just hope the 5v aint too much but can't imagine it would...would it? Just be a LOT brighter than they were on solar
Then they stopped functioning properly, the sensor seems to have failed, so lights would not turn off in daylight, and panel not charging the battery. So I thought what if I could control them through a dc controller, I'm only running a static display so rather than going the dc controller I sourced an old 5v power supply.
To test I cut the solar panel off and connected the strings to my lab supply running 3v, and they worked, with effects as well, as the effects are in the IC chip on each tube, so I connected all 12 tubes together and attached to the 5v power supply and it looks great.....just hope the 5v aint too much but can't imagine it would...would it? Just be a LOT brighter than they were on solar