Fixing my brother's solar garden lights

Summer is approaching, and as always it's time to fix duff solar garden lights.

Prime candidates for faulty solar lights are:-

Worn out battery from being cooked in summer, and the high number of charge/discharge cycles (365 a year). Common dollar store or pound shop rechargeable NiMh cells are usually a good replacement.

Corroded on/off switch. These switches are very prone to corrosion and can be bridged out. Their only purpose is to disconnect the battery when in storage.

Corroded or stress fractured solar panel. The continuous DC voltage present on solar panels means they are very prone to rapid corrosion from water ingress. The silicon resin potted in plastic approach also puts lots of physical stress on the cells and connections due to differing thermal expansion rates in sunlight.

PCB corrosion due to condensation. You can prevent this by coating the PCB in grease/vaseline or nail polish.

I've checked online and Festive Lights do indeed ship to the Isle of Man.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/festive-li...

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