I have a dead low voltage track light head that I want to repair and convert to solar power, let's get started. Disclaimer: This is a low voltage fixture, rated at 120VAC input and 12V/50W output. It uses 12V MR16, GU5.3 bulbs as opposed to the line voltage GU10 bulbs that look quite similar. Don't do this modification unless you are comfortable working with electrical circuits. Whatever you do, DON'T plug the modified fixture into a mains voltage track. I only use my track lights in my own house plugged into a 12V track with a 5A fuse feeding it. Also it goes without saying that you should only use LED bulbs in it, one 50W or at most three 20W bulbs would be the limit of the tracks' 5A current capacity. The US National Electric Code stipulates no ground is needed for low voltage lighting systems under 50 volts. For this modification, I simply bypassed the non-functioning power supply and connected the track head directly to the bulb. The track was then re-powered with 12VDC as shown in my earlier video: https://youtu.be/fNFJRHy4PGY Note that this will also work if you want to drive track lights from one larger 12V power supply, optionally dimmable. In this case, you would wire the power supply/transformer to the power switch that used to operate the lights. Then you would power the track with the 12V output of the power supply/transformer. This is a popular modification to allow low power LED bulbs to dim properly. The problem is these track heads were designed for a 50W bulb and need 10-20 watts of load to properly dim. With a 5.5W LED bulb, you just get on/off operation with a dimmer. It's also more efficient to have a single 12V/5A power supply feeding up to 10 fixtures instead of 10 separate 50W power supplies all running at 5-6 watts of output in each fixture. See this image for a side by side comparison of a GU5.3 and GU10 bulb: - http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/images/articles/f5.jpg In the next video, I'll wrap up the modification and then test the fixture and see how it works... Soundtrack: Solar Flares by Silent Partner1 https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIW0Wn0DOmk

Initial testing and experiments into automating this inverter/charger. This TrippLite model APS1012SW inverter/charger will work automatically as a UPS. Connect a 12V lead acid battery, plug it into AC power and it'll automatically keep an attached load powered even if the AC input fails. It'll also keep the battery charged automatically. And it'll switch back to AC power once it's available. It'll also act as an AC power inverter by connecting a battery and not connecting any AC input power. This is how I've been primarily running this device for the last 5+ years. And if I needed to use the built-in charger, I would manually plug it into AC power then unplug it afterwards. My original goal was to have this connected to AC power all the time, but run off of DC power when possible with the solar charge controller charging the batteries and not the inverter. As such, I need to be able to independently control these features. I did at one time try connecting the AC input to a Z-Wave controlled receptacle so that could be turned on/off automatically. However, the built-in battery charger was running any time the AC power was connected. I installed an on/off switch in series with the battery charger circuit breaker and this allowed the charger to be shut off. A side effect of this was I lost the "UPS" mode of automatic transfer to the DC inverter when the AC power shut off. So that's where this added relay comes in. It's a Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) relay. The Normally Open contact is used to send AC power to the inverter input. The Normally Closed contact is used to enable/disable the battery charger. By turning this relay on and off, I can get automatic switching of the AC input and battery charger features. This restores the important "UPS mode" feature. But a side effect is that the return to AC power mode fails. This may seem like trading one problem for another and it is. But the problem it fixes (detecting loss of AC power and switching to DC power) is very hard to do while switching from DC back to AC power is relatively easy to do, because there are no critical time constraints. Doing the "UPS mode" transfer needs to be done very fast, in a few milliseconds. Doing the transfer back the other way can be done at any time after the power is back up. I'll be adding an Arduino, some relays and a bit of circuitry to my PCB atop the inverter to automate all of this switching. May take a few weeks for all those parts to arrive, so stay tuned. More to come... Subscribe for more content like this Feel free to rate, comment and share And as always, thanks for watching Intro: Louisiana Fairytale by Austin Rogers http://drfiddle.com/show_tune.php?id=94 ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MpzxUZXuCs