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Step 12Assembling the LED/Pushbutton Switches Part 2: Embedding
Now that you've gotten the LED/pushbuttons all wired up, it's time to glue them together and embed them into the strap.
Dab bits of glue to the bases of the LED and the switch and stick together. You'll want to position them, rotated 90 degrees from each other with respect to the axes of the contacts on each, forming a sort of celtic cross when seen from above. This keeps the leads from shorting into each other. Holding them together till the adhesive cures was a bit onerous, so it might be helpful to wrap the two in scotch tape to hold them together. Once it sets, try coating the soldered joints between the contacts and the wires with a bit more glue. Just try not to get glue into the moving "button" part of the switch for obvious reasons - otherwise, it will freeze into position and be rendered useless.
Now for embedding.
Like I said before, I was lucky in that I had a piece of webbing already pre-built into my strap. A lot of backpack makers do that now though, so if yours has one too, you're in luck. Just cut one end of it, melt the ends down and continue on with the rest of the step. Otherwise, you're going to want to find a spare piece of webbing and sew it on to the strap.
In either case, take the soldering iron and melt a hole through the webbing, making sure it is wide enough to let in the LED, but not so wide that it wobbles about. This may seem a bit dodgy at first, but at least in my case, the plastic tended to clump up on itself, rather than the soldering iron, forming nice, ready-made cylindrical holes that the LEDs slipped right into. You might not be so lucky. Who knows.
Pop the dome of the LED up through the hole and glue it into place. Once you've got all three LED/pushbutton assemblies mounted, go ahead and sew the free end of the webbing back down onto the strap, securing the switches in place. There should be moderate tension across the webbing, but not enough to keep the buttons permanently engaged. Also, the bottoms of the switches should not be glued down to the strap itself. The only points of attachment should be LED poking into the webbing above, and the wires leading from the assembly down into the strap below. The "button" parts of the switches should be free to shift about as needed.
Dab bits of glue to the bases of the LED and the switch and stick together. You'll want to position them, rotated 90 degrees from each other with respect to the axes of the contacts on each, forming a sort of celtic cross when seen from above. This keeps the leads from shorting into each other. Holding them together till the adhesive cures was a bit onerous, so it might be helpful to wrap the two in scotch tape to hold them together. Once it sets, try coating the soldered joints between the contacts and the wires with a bit more glue. Just try not to get glue into the moving "button" part of the switch for obvious reasons - otherwise, it will freeze into position and be rendered useless.
Now for embedding.
Like I said before, I was lucky in that I had a piece of webbing already pre-built into my strap. A lot of backpack makers do that now though, so if yours has one too, you're in luck. Just cut one end of it, melt the ends down and continue on with the rest of the step. Otherwise, you're going to want to find a spare piece of webbing and sew it on to the strap.
In either case, take the soldering iron and melt a hole through the webbing, making sure it is wide enough to let in the LED, but not so wide that it wobbles about. This may seem a bit dodgy at first, but at least in my case, the plastic tended to clump up on itself, rather than the soldering iron, forming nice, ready-made cylindrical holes that the LEDs slipped right into. You might not be so lucky. Who knows.
Pop the dome of the LED up through the hole and glue it into place. Once you've got all three LED/pushbutton assemblies mounted, go ahead and sew the free end of the webbing back down onto the strap, securing the switches in place. There should be moderate tension across the webbing, but not enough to keep the buttons permanently engaged. Also, the bottoms of the switches should not be glued down to the strap itself. The only points of attachment should be LED poking into the webbing above, and the wires leading from the assembly down into the strap below. The "button" parts of the switches should be free to shift about as needed.
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