Wreath with Lights (IoT-ready)

Solar‑Powered Glowing Wreath

A door decoration with IoT potential

For now, it’s just a solar‑lit wreath, but it also gave me some ideas.

Materials

• Dried flowers, grasses, and wreath base
• Solar fairy‑light set (with integrated solar module)
• Floral wire

Assembly:

1. Wrap fairy lights around the wreath base

2. Make hangable (I used a bit of 16awg copper wire)

3. Arrange your dried botanicals until you’re happy with the shape and density.

4. Secure with floral wire.

4. Mount the solar panel

5. Let the sun do the rest

The wreath charges during the day and lights up automatically at dusk.

Circuit Overview

This project uses an off‑the‑shelf solar fairy‑light module, which contains all the circuitry needed for charging, power regulation, and nighttime illumination. No soldering or external wiring is required.

Most follow this pattern:

[Solar Panel] → [Charge Controller] → [Battery] → [Dusk Sensor] → [LED String]

✨ The Magic Inside the Solar Module ✨

Inside the solar module is a YX8628H, an 8‑pin LED driver that has voltage level boosting, charging, dusk/dawn sensing, LED pattern control, and protection, inside a water-resistant enclosure. More information can be found on it's datasheet.

📘 YX8628H Pinout (SOP8 / DIP8)

Dual‑Channel LED Drive

• The chip flips the polarity between L1 and L2, creating two “channels” on a single pair of wires so the lights can animate, e.g. alternate, chase, and shimmer.

Voltage Boosting

• The wreath runs on a single 1.2V Ni‑MH battery, but the LEDs need ~3V.
• The YX8628H has a 22µH inductor and capacitors (104µF and 10µF) to boost the voltage.

Smart Power Management (again, see datasheet for more info)

• Short‑circuit protection
• Mode memory
• Long‑press shutdown (3 seconds)
• Standby current < 9µA
• Up to 400mA input for white LEDs
• Up to 300mA drive for red/yellow LEDs

Solar + Light Sensing

Pin 4 (SOL) reads the solar panel voltage for:

• automatic dusk‑to‑dawn lighting
• charging during the day
• light‑level sensing for IoT possiblities

Fairy Light Solar Circuit

Solar Panel (+) ───────┐
                         │
                       [SOL] Pin 4
                          │
Battery (+) ───────────[BAT] Pin 3
                          │
Battery (–) ──────────[GND] Pin 2

Inductor 22µH ─────────[LX] Pin 1

Mode Button ────────┐
                     └──────[Key] Pin 5

LED String ────────[L1] Pin 7
LED String ────────[L2] Pin 6

VOUT (3.3V) ────────────────[VOUT] Pin 8

IoT Possibilities:

Pin 5 — Key (Mode Control)

Could signal this pin with:

• Microcontroller GPIO
• PIR motion sensor
• Weather‑based trigger
• Home‑automation event

For example, an event could cause lighting modes changes.

Pin 4 — SOL (Solar Voltage)

Analog light sensor available to possibly:

• detect sunrise/sunset
• chart solar energy at position of panel
• trigger automations
• be used in a solar dashboard

Pins 6 & 7 — L1 / L2 (LED Outputs)

The two LED channels, ideas include:

• customizing PWM
• replacing the LED string
• creating new patterns
• adding addressable LEDs

Pin 8 — VOUT (3.3V)

A 3.3V output for potentially:

• including ultra‑low‑power sensors
• voltage monitoring
• powering a tiny microcontroller

Future upgrade ideas:

• Adding an ESP32‑CAM hidden behind the wreath
• Using SOL as a smart home light sensor
• Trigger modes based on weather API data
• Adding a PIR sensor to turn on the lights when someone approaches
• Replacing LEDs with WS2812B addressable lights
• Publishing solar energy data to a dashboard

Final Thoughts

A simple dusk-to-dawn-glowing-solar-wreath and/or a future IoT device 'wreathed' with possibilities.