Blinky Belt Buckle

by Tumbleweed

9.6K118

Intro: Blinky Belt Buckle

I scored a great belt the other day & upon further inspection I noticed that there was quite a bit of space behind the cast belt buckle for a project...

STEP 1: Create an Uber Throwie

I went down to my local Rat Shack and picked up some parts to make a blinking LED Light. As luck would have it, they had an LED w/ blinking feature ready-to-go out-of-the-box. The LED runs 12VDC @ 20mA. I decided to step up a notch on the battery from what you would normally see on an LED throwie (like a watch battery.) I found a nice remote control battery that produces 12V and it will give me much longer life than a watch battery.

Next you test out which side of the LED is + & - by touching the leads to the battery. I soldered one side onto the battery and have a piece of tape on the other end to act as the switch. I also used a bit of tape to fasten the LED onto the battery for stability.

Follow that up with some double-stick foam and you are ready to mount the light into your buckle.

STEP 2: Mount the Light

Here is a picture of the mounted light. It looks great in the dark. A movie can be seen at:
http://216.162.199.78/movies/BlinkyBeltBuckle.MOV

This can be done with lots of belt buckles. Check out Hot Topic for a variety of neat ones.

Have fun!
Tumbleweed

9 Comments

prototype2213 13 years ago

How about a magnetic switch so when you have the belt done up, it flashes?

Neodudeman 16 years ago

Actually, I believe that the polarity (+ & - sides) depend on the length of the legs. The Longer leg is Positive, and the Shorter leg is Negative.

jillg 15 years ago

not always true varys by manufacturer

Neodudeman 16 years ago

Also, I would recommend putting a switch on it next time as well. Blinky LEDs could be annoying after being on 24/7, and it would also save your battery, which seems to be permanently in place.

thinker 16 years ago

erm just a thought why dont u have 2 led's, in parallel, with both ends attached to the battery, on one led, have a resistor between it and the positive side of the battery on the other led have a resistor between it and the negative side of the battery, this will make them flash alternately and because of that will only use the same power as a single LED would anyways, but would have the added effect of blinkyness.

Neodudeman 16 years ago

Err.. I don't think it works like that... The resistors don't slow electricity, they just lessen the amount of electricity that goes through. Your set up will leave two LEDs blinking at almost the same rate (not exactly, because of imperfections in the creation) whose light is dim, because of the resistors.

thinker 16 years ago

i remember making an a-stable multivibrator (no idea why its called that) as apart of an elctronics project, the lights on that flash alternately and it has a similar design to the one i mentioned above

Neodudeman 16 years ago

Oh. Well, if it's a comment based on experience, I guess it's much harder to refute, and therefore I accept your explaination, and will publically admit that my previous statement was incorrect. Thank you for this enlightening experience.

ColinMcNutt 17 years ago

If you ever do this again, it would be smart to not solder onto a battery. you can easily make a small casing, and you could also pick up a tiny switch. At the beginning I thought you were going to put the light in the mouth, that would be wicked awesome