My problem is I had an blinking LED that would light off of a solar pathway light but would not blink. What I found: even though the pathway light has a 1.2vdc battery that powers it, the LED is 2.4-5-6 vdc, and the boost in voltage is done with a small transformer called a joule thief and this devise was causing the LED not to blink because it was messing with a IC in the LED that made it blink. Went looking on the small circuit board but was unable to find a joule thief but did locate what I thought was a resistor, which I found strange as that would limit voltage not boost it, further investigation I discovered it was a devise call a converter which is marked the same code as resistors and is shaped pretty much the same and it boosts voltage like the joule thief but is much cheaper(hence why they are used in cheap LED solar lights). How I cured that problem by removing the converter and replace it with a small piece of wire, added a battery holder that was 2 AAA instead of the standard built in one and used 2 rechargeable 1.2vdc batteries, secondly in tied 2 solar panels together in series, now the batteries charge, and the LED blinks but it also blinks during the day and pulls it’s current from solar panels. This isn’t really that much of a problem other than it doesn’t charge the batteries enough and they only come on for about 30 to 45 minutes. Any thoughts to curing this problem would be more than appreciated, Bill

Clearly you need a switch that only conducts when it is dark… so it will have to be a photodiode and transistor, since most photocells conduct when it is light.

So, didn’t the original circuitry go on and off with the dark?

Yes, but I never tested it with 2 solar panels in it’s finished stage, believe because it does switch to battery the photo sensor is working but now believe that the excess voltage generated by the extra solar panel is bypassing the diode in the circuit that is suppose to prevent back feed, just been over cast and rainy the last couple of days. I realize I can build a circuit that will work just find this this one simple and just searching for ideas for it’s fix, Bill