Sunnan solar lights have a lot going for them, they are cheap, portable and reasonably effective particular if you are after task lighting rather than trying to illuminate a whole room. The have a battery/solar panel integrated pack which can be removed from the light so you can sit it in the sun for charging.
A mate of mine uses them pretty extensively for solar lighting and, smart as he is, he developed a frame to keep the battery/solar panel packs of the ground and at the right angle to facilitate charging. I have just been leaning them against things (like pumpkins!) to get a more-or-less correct angle but they do have a habit of slipping over flat onto their back, thereby reducing the efficiency of the charging.
So I thought I would copy his idea and make my own.
I searched through my stock of timber offcuts and found some 20mm thick pine board, it was 240mm wide which would work but it was a bit long at 300mm, all I needed was 200mm so I cut the excess off with my band saw (but a hand saw would have been just as easy.
With the backing board cut to size I needed to put in a couple of thin “shelves” to support the battery packs while they charged, I sized it up so that it would fit four packs at a time, which would be plenty big enough for us. The shelves were made out of scrap timber 30mm x 20mm cut to 200mm long. They don’t have to support much weight so I secured them to the backing board with two screws each.
To keep the frame at the correct angle, I cut some 42mm x 20mm scrap to 100mm long and then hinged it onto the rear of the backing board to act as a brace. Theoretically the angle for charging solar panels should be about the same angle of latitude as where you are at, but I don’t think it is critical. I set it to 35⁰ and that seems to work OK.
The whole project took me less than an hour and makes charging up the battery/solar panel packs much easier, I don’t have to fool around getting them to sit at an angle, I just put them in the frame and set the frame facing the sun. Simple!
It can also be used for charging other types of solar lights as well, keeping them at the right angle to the sun.
