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Spider's click n' stick

In this video we show you how to hack a click n' stick tap light to make a body for Spider. Created by Karl Wendt.

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Video transcript

So in this video, we're going to show you how to hack a click and stick tap light. We're going to show you how to use the body of the tap light for the Spider's body. And we're going to also show you how to use the switch to turn Spider on and off. So the first thing we need to do is take the screws out. And we're just using a small precision or watchmaker screwdriver. And you can use Phillips or a flat-head there. And we're just going to take out the reflector in the lens. And you can see on the inside that we have an LED and we have a switch. So what we really want is the switch. We don't really need the LED that's on this. So the first thing we're going to do is take our pliers and just pop the board that that is on out. So you don't have to pull really hard, but you could just break those plastic connections that are holding it on. And then we want to take our nipper pliers and cut the wires that are holding the switch in place. So now what we need to do is we need to figure out where the power is going. So we can know how to hack this switch. So there are two traces that we need to connect to. And we want to connect to the trace right here and then the trace right here. So those two traces will allow us to complete the circuit and it will allow us to use the switch to turn the power on and off. So the first thing we're going to do is remove the LED. So let's just desolder that. We'll heat up those contacts on the back and pull the LED off. If you don't have a holder like this, you can have a friend hold the board with the pliers while you desolder it, but you want to be kind of careful because it's a small board. And you want to keep that hot soldering iron away from your fingers of course. So in any case, now what we're going to do is we're going to insert the first wire connector. And we're going to connect this to the positive side of our battery. So we're going to use the red wire because that's the color that is often used to symbolize the positive side. So we're going to use some lead-free solder. And what we're going to try and do is put the wire through that whole that we created when we pulled out the LED. And now we're going to just solder to the trace there and make sure that solder flows on the wire and is connected to the board. Now we're going to have to heat that a little bit more because it looks like it's not completely connected to the board. So see how it pulls out just really easily there. So what we're going to do is we'll put the wire back through and we'll hold it in place. And then we'll make sure that we get some more solder on that pad there. It's really important that you get a good connection with this joint. And it's also important that you keep the solder from bleeding between the two different contacts. So now we're heating up the wire and we're going to push it through the other side. And now we've got the other side of the connection that we need to make. We're just going to heat that up and we'll put some more solder on it to make sure that that connection is a solid connection. So now we're going to take our nipper pliers and just trim off the excess material there. Then what we're going to do is we'll take one of our red wires and we're going to cut it down to about an inch long. We'll use our nipper pliers to do that. It doesn't matter which one of the two red wires you decide to trim down. And we'll take our wire strippers and take off about a quarter inch of the insulation there on our wire. And so now it's ready to be connected to our bot. So before we move on, I wanted to look at the back of the switch to make sure that the red wires are connected correctly. You want to connect the red wires to the copper trace or the light green area that runs along the top and the side and the light green area in the middle. Don't connect the red wire to the light green area in the lower right of this picture or the switch won't work.