I was tasked recently to acquire a solar flood light for a customer's chicken coop. but one that wasn't motion activated, and it needed to be solar as it was away from an outlet and completely autonomous to turn on from 4-7am everyday. It didn't exist anywhere online. These were the requirements. At first....
I went down to harbor freight and bought a solar flood light I thought could be modified with a raspberry pi pico. used a base pico with a solar controller, and RTC
After showing the customer the first prototype of the "lighthouse" the harbor frieght solar flood light equipped with a base pi pico and solar manger 2x 18650 cells. They decided they wanted to have at least 15' of cable to mount the solar panel. didn't want to have to come back if they need to update the time, and needed two lights per coop
After that, I had to design an all new one from scratch.
I decided to buy a 2pk flood light from amazon, that came with 15' of cable with a waterproof dc end to attach and detach the lights, and utilized the 4x 18650 cells that came the 2pk. next using a pi pico w, adding 2 buttons. One for temporary turning on wifi to change time, and 2nd button assignment from demo to toggle. the web ui also allows monitoring of battery health.
Running two lights, decided to go with 8x 18650 cells for rainy/cloudy days, in a custom made battery holder fitted with a MOSFET for triggering the lights with the pi pico. all cables detachable and weather resistant. along with the full unit.
Solar panel also upgraded to a 12v 10w.
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