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Poundland night light is very hackable
This style of night light has been through a few evolutions, and the current one is very good. It uses standard through hole LEDs, which means there is plenty of scope for customising it and adapting it to your specific needs. It also makes it very serviceable by allowing the LEDs to be replaced if they degrade over time.
The circuitry is ultra simple. A well rated resistive current limiter and a zener diode protected electrolytic capacitor to reduce flicker.
The dusk control is the classic type that shunts the LEDs to extinguish them during the day, and while it may seem an inefficient design as it uses slightly more current when the LEDs are off, it is irrelevant as the power rating is so low anyway. For off-grid battery use I'd choose to modify the circuitry so it did actually switch the LEDs off and draw very low current during the day.
A rough calculation suggests that the LEDs pass about 2mA of current and the total power dissipation is around 0.4W. I'd estimate that it uses less than 4 units of electricity a year, which equates to about £1 per year.
As with many pound shop or dollar store technical products it can be worth getting purely for components like the optical sensor, which I've drawn as a photodiode, but could also be a phototransistor.
I'm travelling with work at the moment and as the accommodation has light-proof blinds I plugged this light in to provide a small amount of ambient light at night. It's actually very good, with enough light to be useful, without risking sleep disruption. It also projects quite a neat pattern onto the ceiling.
If you enjoy my videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and gadgets, and keep it independent from the quirks of the YouTube algorithm by supporting me on Patreon. I release content without adverts for critique and feedback on Patreon as soon as it has been made.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Alternatively, for a single contribution you can use PayPal:-
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iy3W0isrg
The circuitry is ultra simple. A well rated resistive current limiter and a zener diode protected electrolytic capacitor to reduce flicker.
The dusk control is the classic type that shunts the LEDs to extinguish them during the day, and while it may seem an inefficient design as it uses slightly more current when the LEDs are off, it is irrelevant as the power rating is so low anyway. For off-grid battery use I'd choose to modify the circuitry so it did actually switch the LEDs off and draw very low current during the day.
A rough calculation suggests that the LEDs pass about 2mA of current and the total power dissipation is around 0.4W. I'd estimate that it uses less than 4 units of electricity a year, which equates to about £1 per year.
As with many pound shop or dollar store technical products it can be worth getting purely for components like the optical sensor, which I've drawn as a photodiode, but could also be a phototransistor.
I'm travelling with work at the moment and as the accommodation has light-proof blinds I plugged this light in to provide a small amount of ambient light at night. It's actually very good, with enough light to be useful, without risking sleep disruption. It also projects quite a neat pattern onto the ceiling.
If you enjoy my videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and gadgets, and keep it independent from the quirks of the YouTube algorithm by supporting me on Patreon. I release content without adverts for critique and feedback on Patreon as soon as it has been made.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Alternatively, for a single contribution you can use PayPal:-
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iy3W0isrg
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By bigclivedotcomThis style of night light has been through a few evolutions, and the current one is very good. It uses standard through hole LEDs, which means there is plenty of scope for customising it and adapting it to your specific needs. It also makes it very serviceable by allowing the LEDs to be replaced if they degrade over time.
The circuitry is ultra simple. A well rated resistive current limiter and a zener diode protected electrolytic capacitor to reduce flicker.
The dusk control is the classic type that shunts the LEDs to extinguish them during the day, and while it may seem an inefficient design as it uses slightly more current when the LEDs are off, it is irrelevant as the power rating is so low anyway. For off-grid battery use I'd choose to modify the circuitry so it did actually switch the LEDs off and draw very low current during the day.
A rough calculation suggests that the LEDs pass about 2mA of current and the total power dissipation is around 0.4W. I'd estimate that it uses less than 4 units of electricity a year, which equates to about £1 per year.
As with many pound shop or dollar store technical products it can be worth getting purely for components like the optical sensor, which I've drawn as a photodiode, but could also be a phototransistor.
I'm travelling with work at the moment and as the accommodation has light-proof blinds I plugged this light in to provide a small amount of ambient light at night. It's actually very good, with enough light to be useful, without risking sleep disruption. It also projects quite a neat pattern onto the ceiling.
If you enjoy my videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and gadgets, and keep it independent from the quirks of the YouTube algorithm by supporting me on Patreon. I release content without adverts for critique and feedback on Patreon as soon as it has been made.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Alternatively, for a single contribution you can use PayPal:-
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iy3W0isrg
The circuitry is ultra simple. A well rated resistive current limiter and a zener diode protected electrolytic capacitor to reduce flicker.
The dusk control is the classic type that shunts the LEDs to extinguish them during the day, and while it may seem an inefficient design as it uses slightly more current when the LEDs are off, it is irrelevant as the power rating is so low anyway. For off-grid battery use I'd choose to modify the circuitry so it did actually switch the LEDs off and draw very low current during the day.
A rough calculation suggests that the LEDs pass about 2mA of current and the total power dissipation is around 0.4W. I'd estimate that it uses less than 4 units of electricity a year, which equates to about £1 per year.
As with many pound shop or dollar store technical products it can be worth getting purely for components like the optical sensor, which I've drawn as a photodiode, but could also be a phototransistor.
I'm travelling with work at the moment and as the accommodation has light-proof blinds I plugged this light in to provide a small amount of ambient light at night. It's actually very good, with enough light to be useful, without risking sleep disruption. It also projects quite a neat pattern onto the ceiling.
If you enjoy my videos you can help support the channel with a dollar or two for coffee, cookies and gadgets, and keep it independent from the quirks of the YouTube algorithm by supporting me on Patreon. I release content without adverts for critique and feedback on Patreon as soon as it has been made.
https://www.patreon.com/bigclive
Alternatively, for a single contribution you can use PayPal:-
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigclive
#ElectronicsCreators
...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1iy3W0isrg