I am putting together some hog lights made from LED tail lights. I was thinking of using a 12v motorcycle battery and a dusk till dawn switch so they will be in use while I am not at the lease.
My question is..... could I get away with a quality 12v solar panel like used for feeders? What other options are there for a solar panel that could keep the battery charged?

ETA...How many output watts should I look for

We need to know the load and the amp hour rating of the battery. That will tell us how long the tail lights will burn before battery dies. If the battery is discharged completely it is unlikely to recharge fully the next day. A motion detector might be the ticket.

Going off the battery WM has listed for my bike it says 18a/h.
For the life of me I can not find any info for the lights load.

Here is the light I plan to use....only because i already have them.
CPL4-R

PM sent

Put a battery powered 24 hr clock movement (available at any clock supply) in the box with a roller switch that turns it on just after dark and off about 4 or 5 hours later. Also add a main toggle switch to turn the light circuit off when you leave. 12V solar charger should work just fine. (I use a 12V gel cell on the one I made several years ago and it's a regular bulb )

FWIW - with all the new solar yard lights with better batteries & bulbs you might just consider zip tying one to a t-post on the opposite side from your blind so that your feeder is between you and the light. It doesn't take too much light to see the hog or the crosshairs.

I can take some pictures of the light I built if you want to see it......

Good luck!

That light has 18 led's in it. Let's figure about 25ma per led for a total current of 18 x 25 = 450ma. That should get us close. The battery is 18ah, or 18,000mah, so let's divide the load by the mah rating to see how long the battery will last. 18,000/450 = 40, so using these figures, the battery will last 40 hours, so if it burns 12 hours, that will drain the battery by 12/40=.3 or 30%. I figure there's a good chance the solar panel can completely recharge it on a sunny day, and should be able to get through a few cloudy days without failing as well.

Now, this just a WAG. To get a better idea, you can measure the current through the LED array using a multimeter. To get a better chance at success, get a bigger battery (or two batteries)and a couple of solar panels and tie them in parallel to provide more charging current to the battery.

I think I would just go with your plan and see how well it works, you got wiggle room in there that might just get you through. Good hunting!

Please do show some pics.
Also I did this same thing with 2 of the $14 dollar lights. They didnt last long and were dead 6wks after I put them out. A pair of the needed batteries are $13 That is when I decided to jump on a new project.

This JUNK

You will also have to get a regulator to prevent overcharging the battery.

Here's the pics.....

#1 Is ammo box with guts, gel cell 12V, shows homemade 24 hr plate to fit on 24 hr timer. Timer usually uses AA but I soldered a D cell box for a bigger battery. Light is a 12v from a battery back up system.



#2 Closeup of homemade 24hr face with 1.25" plexiglass in place filed to allow roller switch to operate



#3 Automotive Solar Charger (built-in diode) mounted on box & U-clamps for attaching to T-post.



#4 24hr Clock Timer (I bought an extra)



I had 2 toggle switches mounted on the bottom of the box. One was to turn the circuit off so the light wouldn't come on when I wasn't there but allow the charger to work. The second was to turn the light on so I could use it to work on the feeder in the dark. This would stay on about 3 hrs and turn itself off.

I would imagine this would work even better with the new LED lights.....

Hope this helps
Good Luck

Why use the timer rather than PIR or dusk till dawn sensor?

Light should draw under .4amps x 12v = 4.8watts
5watts x 12hrs( all night, using a photo cell to turn off during the day) = 60watts power used.
Your battery has 12v x 18ah = 216watts plenty of power
you need to use a 15watt solar panel to have plenty of power to stay fully charged. Light will work for several nights even if clouds prevent full charge. You could get by with a 10watt panel by why chance it.
A wind generator would work as well, they even work at night as long as you have wind

Thanks HW

This is a really great idea.
We are interested in a portable / self-contained unit that can be strapped to t-post / trees / feeders / whatever. Rechargeable would be great, but solar is just as good.
Watching how it develops.
BK

Welcome! at 4.8watts that should be a really bright light.

Not cheap to do it right, Solar panel , charger controller , 12v photo eye

solarpanel & charger controller

Photo eye

Good luck!

Most of the time the hogs seemed to show up between sundown and 9 or 9:30 pm. By using a timer and limiting the time the light was on, I saved on battery drain allowing for a smaller battery and the charger was able to keep up with it. I could've used a smaller box and set a larger battery on the ground and ran it all night if I'd wanted, but I just used what I had.

Most of the stuff I had sitting around the garage and needed something to do one day..... FWIW I built this before low drain LED lights became the rage. That 24hr timer only cost about 8 bucks and the I think the roller switch was about 2 dollars. I had gotten the solar charger on sale through a catalog for $8.99 and it had just been setting in the shop too.

....have to be honest - I didn't have the patience to sit out there all night anyway!

(BTW - I wired 2 of those cheapo solar chargers into the system on an M-37 and we never worried about the batteries going down)

If you get something going with LED's, which should use less juice, be sure and post it.....I'm not against changing out mine for something else. Just want something I can hang on a post that doesn't cost too much if it comes up missing.

HF
you could easily get an LED tail light and mount for cheap. Look in the trailer section at TSC or harbor freight. You could have the light and mount for about $20 or less.

This is basically what I am using. I had a spare set laying around since I started using wireless light bars
Tow Lights

And some great prices HERE

AMAZON




BTW....
Everyone is welcome to post up pics and description of your DIY hog lights.

I have been PMd a few good ideas. I do plan to finish my original idea but will be using ideas from what everyone has posted on other projects as well.

Works like a champ, portable, very bright. Dependable.

That's looks like it gets the job done.

Key is to only use the minimum amount of light to get the job done if you want small and cheap. By limiting the power output to what's needed, a smaller battery, smaller solar panel smaller box can be used. A rechargeable flash light with a photo cell and solar panel would work, that can be setup in a very small package. Motion lights only use the power when needed and will let you know when a critter is in range of the sensor, which if several are setup makes checking the feeders quick..

Very nice setup.

No need to have the lights on all night or timed. My pigs don't have a schedule...and any schedule they think they have will soon change. I have them coming from just before dark at times until just after sunrise....and some during the day...

Motion detected is just fine for the task and these lights are more than adequate, even for an old man like me.

Some folks try to overthink it. You don't need red or green either. They get used to these in no time.

Do you think the 60 LED Solar Security Light would be too much?

http://www.harborfreight.com/60-led-solar-security-light-69643.html

http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catal...image_20674.jpg

Jester
I think those may be a tad to bright. I'm wanting enough light to see and shoot the pigs up to 150yd away...not light up the entire lease

If I could dim them down they may work.

When I made my lights I wanted something that I could put out and leave out and would turn on and off everyday. I used LED driving lights blue in color. I covered the lens and painted them black. I ordered a 12 volt photocell and went a bought a deep cycle marine battery and solar panel for it. first nite on I killed a hog and the light didn't bother the hog what so ever and killed many more using the lights. I could see really well from 100 yards.

On the Harbor freight light open it up and cut the trace to disable a row of lights, if you need to dim it down more cut more traces. Several leds should be in series or rows, removing one led will kill the entire row its hooked up to. That would let you control the brightness, you could even hook up a 3 way switch with low the leds that are always hooked up will be on, med adds another few rows, high all the leds on.