Hi James, sorry, I missed your reply when you posted it. I was getting ready to head out to Australia at the time and probably had not been checking the board much then. I am actually working on a writeup of both of the trips I made to the Philippines, and also, BruceS and I are planning to go back in November for another project there.
I have some photos of the installation of the Oztronics LVD board. (in spite of how nice it is I did actually part with it by using it as you intended) It was installed at a child care facility which had no electricity to it outside of Banaue in Ifugoa province in the Philippines. I had debated about where it would get the best use. Most of the houses where we installed systems were basically one room huts so there would not be much advantage to being able to control the lights with an infrared remote. I actually made the holes in the box for the infrared receiver and the indicator LED's with my Leatherman in the Philippines as it was one of many items I did not finish before leaving for the trip. It actually turned out nice in spite of my imperfect planning and preparation. The childcare facility was mostly used in the daytime at present because of the lighting issue, although they would utilize flashlights and kerosene lanterns after dark. Even in the daytime it was a poorly lit room. I coupled one of the lights I made with your LVD, a micro commercial charge control circuit, and mounted them both inside a small plastic project box. I wired up a manual momentary switch as was in your instructions as an option and wired it all up. That way the teacher or child care provider could control the lighting from the front of the room with the remote, or from the door with the switch.
I had debated about installing a light at that location at all to start with. Mrs. Timosa whose family was helping me out with the project in the Manila area and who works for the Philippine Department of Education suggested that I try and help out the lady charged with running the day care site. I was perplexed at first when I got there as there was mains electricity not far away, but none to that facility. I did not want to install a more expensive to install and maintain solar powered light where for not too much money mains power could be utilized. In the end though, the kids won out because I could not control where their government chose to run power too, even though that was a government child care facility, and the need for lighting was real. A year later there was still no mains power to the childcare facility, and the light was still there, although Bruce and I had to fix up my prior installation a bit. So far as I am aware they are still using solar light there to this day, but I will try and check up on it when we return this fall.
Here are a couple of photos from that installation two years ago.
Here is a photo of the installation of the controller box near the door. There was a nice place to put the battery near the controller's box, and a wooden container was carved up by Jerrick, my friend and guide in the Banaue area, and a local fellow to drop the battery into and hold it securely up on the wall out of reach of curious youngsters.
I wired up the switch below the controller.
Here is a view of the room from the direction of the door. The lady in front was one of the mothers who utilized the child care while she went to work as her husband had died in some type of accident if I recall correctly and the lady behind her was in charge of the facility. The light is actually the small box mounted on the wall near the ceiling. I would have mounted it on the ceiling, but it was concrete and I had brought nothing to anchor into concrete to that site.
This installation included a 17Watt panel which should have no trouble powering a three and a half watts of LED lighting and putting charge into the small 7 amp hour sealed lead acid battery utilized at the same time on all but the dreariest of days. I suspect that battery may not be in that good of shape as it will be three years old when we return next November, and who knows how long it sat in the store in Manila where I bought it from, but time will tell. There were a few issues with my installation at the site not the least of which was that everything from the roof to the ceiling was concrete and I did not have tools or anchors to use with concrete, which makes mounting stuff like solar panels more difficult. They decided to use it on the entry overhang at the time, but there was concern about theft of the panel there because it was accessible and it was nearer a built up town which seems to increase the odds of such occurrences. The lady in charge wanted the ability to bring it in every night and put it back out in the morning. The panel was still there the following year.
Once I finally post my write ups on the trips I will have more to say about the installation.