Cheap Solar Panels

So today I discovered that they're selling yard lights (the little LED lights with solar panels on them) at the dollar store!

My friend had two that had broken... but only the light element seems to have issues. They have a little ~1.5V nicad in them, too!

The output isn't super stable but the nicad helps. Basically you can count on something like 1.2 to 1.3 volts.

1.369V, basically for FREE!

So, for a few bucks I can easily add some handy power generating fun. I plan to put a few in series to get additive voltage (but rather low milliamps). But probably enough for powering this:

In case this is mysterious--it's a tiny solar panel car

My friend got me this solar panel car kit. Basically it's designed so if it's in the sun it'll run. Sadly the panel itself generates about 0.5 volts--not nearly enough to run the motor.

Also of interest here, though, is that I'm planning on adding a tiny microcontroller (and cheap!) so we can program how it turns the motor on or off. In case you didn't follow the link, it's an ATtiny85!