At long last, we finally have gotten settled in our house. It was purchased in January and took several months for me to finish the renovations, so the first priority is getting Old Glory flying again. Put her up on a post at the entrance to our property, right off of the highway. I had a solar spot light that I had modified allowing the use of an 18650 battery. This keeps the light on all night, but if there is a cloudy day then it won’t stay lit all night, and that is unacceptable. For those who don’t care about the specifics on how it is all built, you can just skip to the video at the end of this post.
So I dug through my spare electronics bin and found some things to make my own solar spot light that will stay lit all night, even if it is cloudy for several days. However, I am also concerned about security for Old Glory, and the electronics. So more digging through the electronics spare parts bin yielded more goodies. Here is what all I found to put this project together;
12 lithium pouch cells rated at 8 amp/hr each
PWM solar 3 amp charge controller
194 LED light bulb with holder
2 farad car audio capacitor
car alarm siren
car alarm shock sensor
relay
LED strobe controller
two 12 volt Eagle Eye LED lights
small power distribution block
50 watt solar panel
So I rounded up some scrap wood and built a wooden box that is 9” X 9” X 16”. All of the components except for the modified solar spot light and the solar panel are mounted inside the box. After the box was built, I took the solar spot light apart and removed all the electronics, and the LED light bulb. I took the reflector out of the housing and drilled it out with a step bit to allow a 194 LED bulb to slide up into the housing. I then took a 194 bulb holder and siliconed it to the end of the housing, allowing me to change the 194 bulb to a brighter one if the need arises. I then reassembled the reflector and housing. From the outside, it is impossible to see that any modifications to the light have been made, except for a wire coming out of the housing that will be used to power the LED light.
Next I took the lithium pouch cells and assembled three 12 volt 8 amp/hr batteries. This just required some rivets, and duct tape. Each battery is fused at 10 amps, which is needed as these cells have the capability of supplying 200 amps continuously and 400 amps for 3 seconds. So with them all put together, this 12 volt 24 amp/hr battery has the capability of putting out 600 amps constant and 1200 amps for 3 seconds! That’s enough power to start a diesel pickup!
From their power goes to a small distribution block. The solar charge controller is connected to the distribution block, then 2 wires are ran through a small hole in the bottom of the box that then go to the solar panel and to the modified solar spot light.
Now for the alarm system. A 12 volt relay is wired up. There is a positive wire going from the distribution block directly to one of the coil connections on the relay. The negative coil connection on the relay is connected to the Code Alarm vehicle security shock sensor, as it is a negative trigger. The other 2 connections on the relay are connected to the positive from the distribution block, and to the 2 farad capacitor. The positive on the 2 farad capacitor is also connected to the positive lead on the siren, and the positive lead on the strobe light controller. The negative on all of those components is connected to the negative side of the power distribution block.
So this is how the alarm system works. If a shock or jarring is sensed by the shock sensor, it will turn the relay on for about 1/2 a second. During this 1/2 second, enough power goes to the capacitor to be able to run both the car alarm siren and the LED strobe lights for about 5 seconds. After that, the system automatically resets and is ready to go off again if the shock sensor detects the vibrations of someone messing with the setup.
The primary reason for adding a security system to this setup is because I live right off of a busy highway here in south Texas. So, should someone decide to try to stop one night and mess with, or try to steal this setup, it will alert me. Since I live in the country where I can’t see my closest neighbor from any part of my property, hearing a car alarm siren go off at night is not a normal occurrence which will get my attention rather quickly. The strobe lights should help add to the effect, and will hopefully trigger an uncontrolled release of bowels.
This box is going to be attached to one of the corner posts on my fence that the flag is mounted to. So even if someone messes with the flag, which is screwed in place, it should trigger the alarm. No one messes with Old Glory on my property.
Once it is all mounted in place, I will take some photos and post them up. Right now I’m still testing the setup to see what the battery voltage goes up to after charging, and what it drops down to after running the 194 LED light all night.
So I dug through my spare electronics bin and found some things to make my own solar spot light that will stay lit all night, even if it is cloudy for several days. However, I am also concerned about security for Old Glory, and the electronics. So more digging through the electronics spare parts bin yielded more goodies. Here is what all I found to put this project together;
12 lithium pouch cells rated at 8 amp/hr each
PWM solar 3 amp charge controller
194 LED light bulb with holder
2 farad car audio capacitor
car alarm siren
car alarm shock sensor
relay
LED strobe controller
two 12 volt Eagle Eye LED lights
small power distribution block
50 watt solar panel
So I rounded up some scrap wood and built a wooden box that is 9” X 9” X 16”. All of the components except for the modified solar spot light and the solar panel are mounted inside the box. After the box was built, I took the solar spot light apart and removed all the electronics, and the LED light bulb. I took the reflector out of the housing and drilled it out with a step bit to allow a 194 LED bulb to slide up into the housing. I then took a 194 bulb holder and siliconed it to the end of the housing, allowing me to change the 194 bulb to a brighter one if the need arises. I then reassembled the reflector and housing. From the outside, it is impossible to see that any modifications to the light have been made, except for a wire coming out of the housing that will be used to power the LED light.
Next I took the lithium pouch cells and assembled three 12 volt 8 amp/hr batteries. This just required some rivets, and duct tape. Each battery is fused at 10 amps, which is needed as these cells have the capability of supplying 200 amps continuously and 400 amps for 3 seconds. So with them all put together, this 12 volt 24 amp/hr battery has the capability of putting out 600 amps constant and 1200 amps for 3 seconds! That’s enough power to start a diesel pickup!
From their power goes to a small distribution block. The solar charge controller is connected to the distribution block, then 2 wires are ran through a small hole in the bottom of the box that then go to the solar panel and to the modified solar spot light.
Now for the alarm system. A 12 volt relay is wired up. There is a positive wire going from the distribution block directly to one of the coil connections on the relay. The negative coil connection on the relay is connected to the Code Alarm vehicle security shock sensor, as it is a negative trigger. The other 2 connections on the relay are connected to the positive from the distribution block, and to the 2 farad capacitor. The positive on the 2 farad capacitor is also connected to the positive lead on the siren, and the positive lead on the strobe light controller. The negative on all of those components is connected to the negative side of the power distribution block.
So this is how the alarm system works. If a shock or jarring is sensed by the shock sensor, it will turn the relay on for about 1/2 a second. During this 1/2 second, enough power goes to the capacitor to be able to run both the car alarm siren and the LED strobe lights for about 5 seconds. After that, the system automatically resets and is ready to go off again if the shock sensor detects the vibrations of someone messing with the setup.
The primary reason for adding a security system to this setup is because I live right off of a busy highway here in south Texas. So, should someone decide to try to stop one night and mess with, or try to steal this setup, it will alert me. Since I live in the country where I can’t see my closest neighbor from any part of my property, hearing a car alarm siren go off at night is not a normal occurrence which will get my attention rather quickly. The strobe lights should help add to the effect, and will hopefully trigger an uncontrolled release of bowels.
This box is going to be attached to one of the corner posts on my fence that the flag is mounted to. So even if someone messes with the flag, which is screwed in place, it should trigger the alarm. No one messes with Old Glory on my property.
Once it is all mounted in place, I will take some photos and post them up. Right now I’m still testing the setup to see what the battery voltage goes up to after charging, and what it drops down to after running the 194 LED light all night.
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