My two lights were new probably 2 years ago or less. I cleaned the tops this morning but didn't look dirty. The batteries failing this soon may be unusual or not... lots of web advice to change batteries every year.mediatechnology wrote: ↑Fri Nov 30, 2018 1:09 pm I noticed that over time the clear lenses over the solar cell yellow and craze a lot.
I don't know how much that affects output.
It looks like tonight will be relatively warm again so I will see how successful just daylight charging works without the low temp variable. I still have low expectations for 20+ YO batteries.
another data point, one light seemed chronically less bright... I tried swapping the tops and that didn't make a difference, what did help was rotating the bottom that has the clear lens... apparently not symmetrical for light steering/output.
At dusk they switch on at slightly different times suggesting the solar cell output may not be identical as that probably dominates that (battery voltage could also be a factor).
As usual spending more time on these than they deserve... (its what nerds do).
JR
[edit it only took two days for a weak sister to reveal itself from my decades old nicad batteries. One winked out around midnight, while the other was still lit at 4:30AM. The writing on the wall is that A) 20 yo nicads are not to be trusted, and B) I probably don't need more than 300mAh while the smallest replacements I see are typically 600mAh. [/edit]
[edit2] by process of elimination I have found the two best of my four, decades old 1000mAh nicads. Now the 2nd best one dims out around 3AM and the stronger one is still lit at 4:30AM. [/edit2]