Decorative Light

What you will need:

• Empty AA Battery Compartment
• AA Batteries
• Switch/Button
• 1-2 LEDs
• Paper and Sharpie
• Solder and Soldering Iron
• Wire
• 1-2 Resistors 100+ Ω
• Tape
• Glue (super glue or, hot glue)

Stripping the Wires:

First, you will need to strip the wires on your battery compartment.

Grab a pair of wire strippers and tin a little bit on the ends of both the negative and positive wires. Make sure only to strip as much as you think you will need. The less exposed wire the better. If you don't, then this will cause problems near the end of the project.

Soldering:

Now, you will need to solder your circuit together.

Start by, Soldering a resistor (100+ Ω) to the negative wire. After, solder the resistor to a switch or, button. Then, you solder your LEDs. 2 AAs = 1 LED, 3 AAs = 2 LEDs, 4 AAs = 3LEDs. If you have more than one, solder them in series. Side by side, solder the LEDs together, Negative touching the positive. Finally, after that you solder another resistor (for 3 AA and 4 AA compartments) on connecting the last LED to the battery compartment. If your compartment only holds 2 batteries, simply just attach the LED to the compartment without a resistor.

Cleaning it Up:

Now it's time to make your circuit look a little cleaner!

First, glue the switch to the back of the compartment. Next, Take the tape of your choice and tape it to the back of the compartment covering the wires. Try not to cover the batteries so you can replace them later. Now, if you left too much wire exposed, it may cause a short. To avoid this, space the wires out where the exposed parts aren't touching. If you notice your circuit getting warmer than usual or, it turning off while on or on while off, your circuit has a short. Remove the tape and make sure no exposed wires are touching. Now you make take a piece of paper and make whatever design you like and glue it any where on the compartment.

Now your light should be finished!