LED Belt

This is an awesome, simple LED belt that almost anyone can make. The only special knowledge is how to solder, but it is simple soldering, and everyone here probably already knows how. If not, there is probably an Instructable for it.

*edit*

This is the first instructable that I ever posted.  It's crap.  Super crap.  But, I leave it up as a reminder of how not to do things.  :)  A few years later, I realize how naive I was back then.  But I still love that belt.....

In order to complete this instructable, you will need:
- A belt, preferrably leather, pleather, or cloth. PLAIN.
- Between 10 and 20 LED lights. I used nineteen.
- Stranded Wire. One wire that is as long as your belt.
- A nine volt Battery.
- A nine volt battery clip. Stole mine from an old smoke alarm.
- Electricians Tape.
- Duct Tape. All hail duct tape.
- Soldering Iron.
- Solder.
- Strong scissors or wire cutters.
- Something to put holes in a belt, such as the awl thing on a leatherman, or just a hammer and a nail.

In order for the LED's to go through, you need to punch holes through the belt. I used the awl on my leatherman, but a hammer and nail will work just as well, if not better. Depending how many LED lights you have, you will need to space the holes accordingly. You could measure, but i did mine by eye. You want to be at least six inches away from where your belt buckle ends. If you are using cloth, skip to step three.

Pretty self explanitory, but it has a catch. All of the LED's must be aligned the same, meaning all the positive ends must be on one side, and all the negative ends must be on the other. On new LED's, one side is longer than the others, making it easy. But on reused LED's you have to look through the LED, and see which side is bigger, and which is smaller(see pictures). After putting the LED in the hole, fold the wires on the back outward.
If you are using cloth, the wires should go through if you coax them a little. PROBABLY. I HAVEN'T TRIED IT WITH A CLOTH BELT. If not, try punching holes.

After you have put the lights through the holes, you need your wire. Cut one strand of wire that is the length of your LED's. Here's the toughy. You need to strip the wire completely of its plasticky(pvc, maybe?)outer coating. This can be a pain if you are an idiot(such as myself) and do not have a pair of wire strippers, and have to use your teeth. Either way, you will need to take the coating off an inch at a time, since it is almost impossible to take the coating off all at once.

Right now you should have a bunch of tiny wires in front of you. You need to split them into two groups. Half of the wires in one group, the other halves in another group. After this is complete, you need to twist each group so that there are two wires in front of you.

Now you need to solder the wires you just created to the LED's. ALL OF THE POSITIVE SIDES NEED TO BE ATTACHED TO EACH OTHER. SAME GOES FOR THE NEGATIVE ENDS. This needs to go all the way down the belt. It should look like a ladder. Soldering the LEDs together like this gives it a christmas light-like effect, so that when one goes out, all of the rest stay on. Also, if you try to make a single circuit, where positive is attached to negative, with 19 LEDs, you don't have enough power for them all in a single nine volt.

If any of your wires happen to be touching each other, you should separate them. TOUCHING WIRES = SUPER UNHAPPY FUN TIME. the device will not work if wires are overlapping.

Attach the battery snap to the nine volt, and check to see which wire goes with which side(positive or negative). Your belt should light up. If it doesn't, go back and make sure that no wires are touching. Then punch another hole in your belt, which will allow the wires to go through the front to the back. this should be about six inches away from the buckle. If the battery snap wires are too short, extend them. Stick the wires through the belt so that the snap is on the front, and the wires are on the back. Solder the aproppriate ends to the chain of LED's. Tape the Battery on the front so that it reaches the snap.

In order to let the belt slide with ease, and not catch the wires on your pants, you need to tape the back with duct tape. trim the sides accordingly, so the tape is not seen. This also prevents damage to the back, and wires from touching.

The belt should now be complete.
The snap will act as an on off switch. Sure, you could add an on/off switch if you like.
IMPORTANT: The battery dies within a couple of hours, so i suggest a rechargeable set of batteries. Double A rechargeables are the most common, if you cannot find nine volt rechargeables and three double A's will work, but you would need something like an altoid tin to hold them in. Belt Buckle Maybe? You could also go to cheapbatteries.com, if you didn't know that the site existed.
FYI: if a LED, were to say, snap off, you could easily replace it, but to prevent that from happening, you need to be gentle when putting it through the loops in your pants. It is pretty durable, though, and the LEDs can take a beating before they fall off.

QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED, POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE