Convert an old jam jar into an outdoor solar powered night light!

This relatively simple DIY soldering kit has all the parts you need to make a bright solar-recharged night light.

We have designed this with hardware to fit nicely into a jam jar, but it could be used in other enclosures.

It is based on the QX5252 solar lamp integrated circuit, which takes care of charging a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cell from a small solar panel. It also uses the solar panel output voltage to control when the light switches on. It is also a step-up converter to supply the correct current and voltage to the LEDs, so we can drive four white LEDs from just a single NiMH cell.

This is a relatively simple soldering kit with some hardware. It is suitable for beginners, which should take in the region of 1-2 hours to build.

Note: Jam jar not supplied!

Instructions for this kit are available here.

Full design files are available here. The PCB was designed in KiCAD and the hardware in Inkscape.

https://github.com/curiouselectric/jamjarsolar