FireFly Solar / 日輪蛍

Nichirin Hotaru
A small solar-powered Morse firefly for the outdoors.

太陽を宿し、夜にモールスを灯す蛍。
Taiyō o yadoshi, yoru ni Mōrusu o tomosu hotaru.
A firefly carrying the sun, lighting Morse in the night.

Overview

FireFly Solar is a small outdoor LED blinker inspired by the idea of an LED throwie, but powered by sunlight instead of a disposable coin cell.

During the day, the solar cell charges the energy storage.
At night, the circuit wakes up and sends a simple Morse-style light signal.

The project is partly a small garden object, partly a low-power electronics experiment, and partly a design exercise for future DIY kits.

Build a solar-powered outdoor Morse blinker
Keep the hardware simple and robust
Improve practical low-power design skills
Test mechanical concepts for outdoor 3D-printed parts
Learn what is needed to turn a small electronics project into a possible DIY kit

The English project name remains:

FireFly Solar

For blog posts, documentation, and presentation, the project also uses the Japanese name:

日輪蛍 / Nichirin Hotaru

The name roughly means sun-disc firefly. It keeps the solar theme, adds a slightly mythic tone, and still fits a small piece of outdoor hardware.

PRs and issues welcome. Keep it simple. Photos of your build you send me go in Documentation/gallery/ with a short caption and license notice.