# Replacementfloodlight? Cheap eBay floodlight?



## spinnaker (Dec 12, 2015)

About 10 years or so ago our community purchased a solar light kit to light our front sign. It had the light, battery, controller and solar panel. It was a dumb charger and the op amp comparator allowed the battery to be dragged down way to far. Plus the battery and panel were way to far to suit needs.

The controller went belly up and I decided to rebuild everything except for the light. I replaced the panel and battery with larger ones. I added a charge controller. And I designed my own mcu based controller. It was a huge success. We would go through one or two batteries a year. This spring that battery will have 5 years on it. But is showing the signs it wil need to be replaced soon.

I would now like to replace the flood light. We don't have a ton of money so I am considering at least trying one of those cheap eBay floodlights. The question is which one? I would like to keep at least the same brightness and same or smaller power consumption. Anyone have any experience with those cheap floodlights?


I don't have many specs on the existing light. It runs at 12V and anywhere from 330-640ma. I don't know what i puts out. I can measure that but don't have a light meter. Will one of those Android tablet apps be close enough? I will try and least get that and dimensions later tonight.



Here is what it looks like:













The lights I am considering are here

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/10W-20W-30W-...b9f29d&pid=100009&rk=3&rkt=10&sd=111243733556

Need to do more searching but I think some of these have their own current limiting. Any recommendations on some basic ratings to be comparable with what I have. Will try to get more specs and I know the risk of buying the Chinese light. If another source of similar or even a bit more expensive light can be had, I am open top suggestions. I live in the US.


Here are some more pics of the project


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## CoveAxe (Dec 12, 2015)

You are gambling when you are not only buying LED lights on ebay, but ones that are so cheap.


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## yuandrew (Dec 13, 2015)

Do you have a Lowe's close to you ? Check out the low voltage landscape lighting section. 

I've used some of their LED models (mostly path-lights) in a few solar lighting projects. They are already 12 volts and don't mind if it is AC (typical landscape lighting transformer/timer) or DC from a battery.


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