Bill Barnwell said:
but was wondering why the switch?
The only reason is I don’t see me doing a tremendous amount of night time running. And my layout is tucked away in a not very visible part of my yard. Bottom line 90% of the time no one will see it so why have it lighted (is that a word) up. So the thought behind the switch is just ot add longevity to the LEDs and battery. Only work them when they are needed. Maybe pointless. I don’t know, I am winging it.
Pete Lassen said:
and a soldering iron
Don’t buy a soldering iron. Buy a micro torch. way more uses. I have two soldering irons and now they are wood burners. I aso now have two Benzomatic micro torches and love them, You can solder with them, burn shit with them, and light cigars with them.
Don’t worry about wearing out the LEDs, they will outlast both of us.
The battery can wear, but they self-discharge if not used, so not sure how helpful switch is.
Micro torch with soldering tip, or are you using the flame? Can’t solder very cleanly on a circuit board with a flame (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Cigars? Now you are talking!
Greg Elmassian said:
Don’t worry about wearing out the LEDs, they will outlast both of us. I will live forever.
The battery can wear, but they self-discharge if not used, so not sure how helpful switch is. Me either, I said I am winging it. Just “seemed” like a good idea, I have no idea if I am right in my thinking (probably not, I have a brain cloud) but I wired it so that its solar cell, battery, switch, LEDs. I would think that since the switch is after the battery and solar cell that the battery would stay charged just like it would normally. As it discharges then the solar cell will charge it.
Micro torch with soldering tip, or are you using the flame? Can’t solder very cleanly on a circuit board with a flame (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)
Now as for the torch. Its not the end all. I wouldn’t try and solder on a board with it o a regular basis, although I just found out today how to do it. If you take a piece of wire and heavily tin it (put a big blob of solder on it) and then apply that to the board and heat the wire with the torch away from the board it solders very cleanly. I do have a tip for mine, have no idea where I put it. I don’t do any board soldering unless I screw up an existing one (thats what I did today). So that’s not an issue for me. I love the flame when it comes to soldering stuff I am not worried about burning up. I get very quick and decent results with it. I think like any tools when you learn a few tricks it can be a great thing.
Maybe not everyone ones cup of tea but you’d be hard pressed to get me to give mine up.
I have and use both a micro torch and an iron, depending on the job at hand. I prefer the torch because it’s instant heat and I can see it. It does, however, heat up any surrounding components much more than the iron. I use the iron when I need heat concentrated at a specific point like on circuit boards. With all that said, Pete, unless you are planning on doing a lot of board soldering, I would follow Devon’s suggestion And get a micro torch. They are not all that expensive but the learning curve is a little steeper than an iron.
Greg Elmassian said:
Cigars? Now you are talking!
Dang can you even get a good draw on that thing??? it looks like it would take a couple of months to finish that thing! Wonder if it worth whatever it cost, as far as flavor and taste after a while.
I have a pal who is Polish, and he used to bring a selection of obscure Polish cigars back when he visited Poland. [That was the 1970s when we all smoked.] Some were almost as big as that. Others were twisted together as a threesome, so to smoke one it was like a convoluted screw.
Devon, putting the LEDs in parallel, should not diminish the brightness, but it will reduce the length of time the battery will power the LEDs.
The solar cell can only put out so much voltage, and so much current. So putting too large of a battery, or battery combination, on one solar cell, will assure that the battery(s) don’t ever become fully charged.
Torches are good, but I use my soldering iron to do all kinds of soldering. And I have a solder gun for the larger solder jobs.
True but I think you will find that no 2 LED’s even by same manufacture are the same, the 1 that requires the lesser voltage will burn brighter as it will hog the current flow.
For those interested, that cigar was 18" long, took 4 hours to smoke.
It is a Puros Indios cigar, the “model” is the “Chief”
That is a big cigar. I think I would turn green before I finished it. Or just waste about 12". I once had a 9" torpedo that was about 1.5" thick. Took me 3 sittings to finish that thing off. I know, you aren’t supposed to relight a cigar but I was in Iraq and cigars weren’t easy to come by. My tolerance is more of a Robusto length. I got my wife to switch from cigarettes to cigars so I could have a full time smoking buddy. 
