Another LED question. Trying to light up a belt buckle.

[Lydokane]

I want to make a belt buckle with two red LED lights (non-flashing).
I am hoping to power it with one or two watch type batteries or coin
cells. I know very little about this type of electronics but I have
been doing some research in this newsgroup and on the Internet as
well. Could some of you wise, all knowing, electronic gurus point me
in the right direction for what type of materials I'll need?

I think I have found the belt buckle that will work. I want to get a
skull belt buckle, drill the eyes out and insert the red LEDs. I have
seen some of the promotional pins & buttons that the bartenders wear
to promote a new beer or liquor. This is the principal that I would
like to base my buckle on. I might want to go a little brighter
though (if possible).

So far, I figure what I'll need is:

2 red LEDs (duh!)
Power (watch batteries) + battery holder(s)
Resistor(s) – how much resistance will I need?
PC board? Will I need this or can I just run small wires from power
cells to resistor to LEDs?
Switch of some type

For the LEDs, I went to allelectronics.com and found this:
CAT# LED-21 or this CAT# MLED-1
Would either of these be suitable? If so, how much resistance will I
need?

For the batteries I found:
CAT# LBAT-33 or this CAT# LBAT-20
I think I'll have to go with something smaller (physical size)
because…

The holder seems to be a toughie. I haven't seen much that would be
small enough to fit in the recess of the buckle.

So this is what I have figured so far. Am I close? Could somebody
fill in the blanks and/or make any suggestions?

Thanks,

PR

 

[Adam Aglionby]

I want to make a belt buckle with two red LED lights (non-flashing).
I am hoping to power it with one or two watch type batteries or coin
cells. I know very little about this type of electronics but I have
been doing some research in this newsgroup and on the Internet as
well. Could some of you wise, all knowing, electronic gurus point me
in the right direction for what type of materials I'll need?

I think I have found the belt buckle that will work. I want to get a
skull belt buckle, drill the eyes out and insert the red LEDs. I have
seen some of the promotional pins & buttons that the bartenders wear
to promote a new beer or liquor. This is the principal that I would
like to base my buckle on. I might want to go a little brighter
though (if possible).

So far, I figure what I'll need is:

2 red LEDs (duh!)

have a look at the LED museum site for some reviews of LEDs:

www.ledmuseum.org

Power (watch batteries) + battery holder(s)
Resistor(s) - how much resistance will I need?

Good resistor calcs linked from above and at :

http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/TechBase/litled_LEDCalc.html

PC board? Will I need this or can I just run small wires from power
cells to resistor to LEDs?
Switch of some type

Simple is best , use a of Photon II or ,er, similar try ebay, pocket torch
which uses a basic switchh this is battery holder and switch combined.The
connection just uses the leads od the LED installed use stiff wire or the
the resistors leads to replace the removed LED.

A Red Photon or similar light will operate off a single cell and no
resistor, resitor in chain series one per LED should increase run time, but
very low value on single cell, blue or white torch will use 2 cells either
remeve one or increase resistance.

Adam

 

[Adam Aglionby]

..........................................................................
What is wrong with using 2 short lenths of fiber optics scrounged of one of
them little christmas trees that look like a brush of thick monofilliment
fishing line. could use only one led and smaller battery.

Looks like monofilament fishing line which is Nylon, Plastic Optical Fibre,
POF, is in fact PMMA a type of Acrylic similar to perspex.
What`s wrong, collection efficiency of the fibre (UK spelling)
generally,getting light down fibre can be problematic.3mm T1 LEDs are a good
size for this sort of application and in red Vf will be low enough for a
single battery.

Adam

 

[Stepan Novotill]

Looks like monofilament fishing line which is Nylon, Plastic Optical Fibre,
POF, is in fact PMMA a type of Acrylic similar to perspex.
What`s wrong, collection efficiency of the fibre (UK spelling)
generally,getting light down fibre can be problematic.3mm T1 LEDs are a good
size for this sort of application and in red Vf will be low enough for a
single battery.

Adam

I wonder if it would be good to drill a hole in the T-1 and epoxy the
F.O. cable into the hole with clear epoxy. It would eliminate the
reflective surface caused by coupling via air gap, however small.

 

[Adam Aglionby]

I wonder if it would be good to drill a hole in the T-1 and epoxy the
F.O. cable into the hole with clear epoxy. It would eliminate the
reflective surface caused by coupling via air gap, however small.

If you could drill a clear polished hole, but practically teh scarring
caused by drilling loses too much light.A good way of coupling POF to an LED
for decorative use is heatshrink and clear epoxy.

Adam

 

[Laurence Payne]

I want to make a belt buckle with two red LED lights (non-flashing).

Ah. You're one of us, then?