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The one-dollar LED garden path light reduced the parts count and that is probably a big
part of their ability to sell it so cheaply.
I reverse engineered the circuit. It matches, quite closely, the example circuit for the
Shiningic YX8018 specification sheet. My schematic is shown below:
While the Shiningic YX8018 specification sheet does not show the internal schematic of
the YX8018 integrated circuit, It would, most likely, be a charge pump similar to those
shown by TalkingElectronics.coms writeup on the older type of garden lights that
use discrete components. I did a Rube Goldberg conversion of one of these lamps into a
solar 5-volt power supply, similar to what was described by TalkingElectronics.coms
writeup. I have had an ultimate plan to use one of these to power an Arduino (really an
ATmel ATtiny84 or 85) in a remote installation but I suspect that current limitations
may preclude this. I may try a 3.3-Volt converter suspecting that it will yield a little
more current but I still doubt that the current will be enough to do anything meaningful.
Posted research by Radio-GHEs website hints that Ill never get anything more than a
few milliamps. My circuit modifications are shown in the schematic below:
the 3.3V supply for its ATtiny25 controller. I assume that Peter and Tom are
actually the same person. In any case, he has successfully achieved my
objective, at least at the 3.3V level. His series of three posts are excellent and I
encourage you to read them. They are Part1, Part2 and Part3.
An anonymous commenter to Toms Projects references a good Russian
article about how to make a YX8018 stabilized power supply. The Google
translation version is at THIS-LINK or the original Russian version is HERE.