Easy IKEA SUNNAN Hack (non Destructive)

Easy IKEA SUNNAN hack (non destructive)

I always have a lot of stuff moving in the shop-window of my toy shop. To make it a bit lighter on battery consumption and better for the environment  I use the IKEA SUNNAN to make toys solar-powerd. The SUNNAN costs about 15,- euros in Holland and has a great solar battery charger with the batteries included.

This Hack is easy and non destructive to both toys and SUNNAN.

Materials:

• Some double wire
• 2 or 4 flat ANP-connectors
• Ikea SUNNAN LED-lamp
• An electrical toy

Tools:

• Crimper
• Wire stripper

To make the cable:

• Strip the last 5 mm from your wire. (if you have thin wire, then fold it double)
• Put the stripped wire in the flat ANP-connector (The most common flat connectors will fit. The color will depend on the thickness of the wire you use)
• Crimp the connector on the wire with the crimper
• Do the same for all four wire-ends (two wires * two ends)

You will end up with a cable with two connectors on each side.

The solar module

• Get your Sunnan lamp
• Push the solar module out off the lamp (just push from the bottom, you won't need any tools)
• Turn the module upside down
• Put the connectors from one side of the cable in the slots in the bottom of the module (they should fit nicely)

Select the toy
This module won't work on all toys. There are 3 batteries inside from 1.2 volts each. That will give you 3.6 volts in total. Toys with electronics inside might need more or less. Be careful not to blow anything up.
I used it on toy motors and that works great.
In the past I used it on 4.5 volts LEGO motors and a 3 volt marble machine. Both worked fine. The marble machine never had any problems in two years running for 8 hours a week.
Now I use it to power an Eitech crane with three 6 volt motors.

Connect the toy

• Open the battery compartment
• Find the begin and end connectors in the battery compartment (this are the connectors that are not connected to the battery next to it)
• Connect the cable to these connectors (In this case it was easy and could I just stick them in. Sometimes you will need to make a stick in the length of a battery from a chopstick or something to put your cable in between the stick and the connector.)
• Charge the solar module by putting it in the sun.
• Play!

You didn't change anything on your SUNNAN, so when you need your LED-light to give light again, just pull the cable out of the solar-module and put it back in the lamp.