Phoenix Fire Lily - Solar Rechargeable Decor

About the project

Solar rechargeable battery connected to a flickering LED inside an artificial lily flower residing in a hand-crafted wooden vase.

Project info

Difficulty: Moderate

Estimated time: 1 hour

License: Apache License 2.0 (Apache-2.0)

Items used in this project

Hardware components

Li-ion BoeBot Power Pack-Charger Li-ion BoeBot Power Pack-Charger x 1

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic) Soldering iron (generic) x 1

Story

Solar rechargeable battery connected to a flickering LED inside an artificial lily flower residing in a hand-crafted wooden vase.

Phoenix Fire Lily with base V1

Phoenix Fire Lily with base V2

I don’t know about you, but I rarely have money to spend on projects and whenever possible reusing and re-purposing junk is ideal. Many of my projects contain parts I’ve purchased at local dollar stores and items found through eBay.

Discount hackables!!

Parts:

  • Artificial Lily Flower
  • Flickering LED
  • Thermostat Wire
  • 100-330ohm Resistor
  • Mini switch
  • Solar-panel ~ 5vDC
  • Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery
  • Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger = TP4056 Mini USB 1A Lithium Battery Charger Module
  • USB to mini USB ~ 5ft. cord
  • Optional ~ hand-crafted vase station

Steps:

artificial lily flowers

  • Cut the end of the stem and remove the wire.

remove stamen from the lily

  • Gut the Artificial Lily Flower by removing its pistil.

thermostat wire

wire strippers

  • Using a 8-10" length of Thermostat Wire that extends just beyond the end of the lily’s stem, solder a 100-330ohm resistor to flickering LED and/or later near the mini switch inside the recycled case.

Do I really need a resistor? Probably.

  • Clear LED without resistor = 30mA @ 3vDC
  • Flickering Yellow LED ~ 6mA @ 3vDC
  • salvaged 10 LED string of lights = 6mA @ 3vDC

  • Carefully thread the wired LED through the lily and down her stem.

lily with wires, resistor, and flickering LED

  • Add a piece of heat-shrink tubing, solder jumper wires, and attach connector header.

battery charger

  • Solder a set of short jumper wires to the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger output.
  • Solder the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger output short jumper wires, resistor, to the mini switch and recycled case ( two “AA” batteries ).

solder battery holder to the charger

solder battery holder to the charger

  • Solder the coin-cell battery holder to the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger
  • Insert the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery into the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger.

inexpensive battery powered LED lights

A look inside the inexpensive battery case.

open them up!

  • Gut everything from the case!

drill a few holes

  • Drill a few holes. One for the solar panel wires, and the other for USB connector.

solar panel

  • Solder a simple switching diode, such as 1N4148, to the positive side.
  • Using short jumper wires, solder the Rechargeable Li-ion Coin-cell Battery charger input to the solar panel ~ 5vDC.

assembled rechargeable power pack

  • Insert the switch and wrap wires so they lay flat inside the case.

testing assembled rechargeable power pack

  • Test the output.
  • Optionally, attach USB to mini USB cord to the charger
  • Store inside a hand-crafted vase station.

completed Phoenix Fire Lily

You can purchase a completed Phoenix Fire Lily directly from me as a functioning example.

http://www.hydroMazing.com Please follow me and learn much more at 

Schematics, diagrams and documents

layout

wiring layout

Code

No code needed.

No code needed.

Credits

Photo of bitsandbots

bitsandbots

I'm a maker / inventor who enjoys helping others develop their projects.

   

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