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USB Laptop Light

video USB Laptop Light

Quick, easy and cheap way to make a USB laptop LED light. I made this one in about 20 minutes with spare parts. Great for presentation or just night time surfing.

22 comments

May 23, 2011. 5:13 AMsinner_93 says:

My LED just flashed thrice, and then gives out a very dim light. Why is this happening? BTW I used the USB plug from an old mouse, is it because of that?

Feb 27, 2008. 3:29 PMgamer says:

why are you putting the green and red together??? what about the white and black? why didnt you put a resistor on your l.e.d. (why do you say it is 5 volt 30 mA)? nice project, except for a few... lot of questions i asked myself while you were building it... -gamer ps. please answer the many questions, because i dont understand half of the stuff about this video, and i know a lot about L.E.D.s and USB... thanks

Jun 19, 2009. 12:18 PMmellink says:

can i help.
The LED when supplied with 5V and 30mA (3x10^{-3A) needs a resitor to stop the current burning out the LED.}
Use V=IR to calculate the resitor value.
in this case:
V/I=R
5/(30*10^{-3) = 166.6 Ohms}
So just go for a resistor near that and your safe.

Mar 4, 2010. 9:12 PMSRRPC says:

hey i was wondering if i could damage anything on my laptop if i touched the positive and negative together.?prolonged or momentary i jus want to know before i damage anything.
thanks

Mar 16, 2009. 4:57 PMmurray182 says:

Mar 13, 2008. 6:47 PM

Yerboogieman says:

i had a 5volt 30mA LED they sell em at radio shack, they only need about a 1/4 watt 100ohm resister and they work fine

Feb 27, 2008. 7:41 PMbranedge (author) says:

someone will have to explain the resistor to me....i dont quiet know why to use it. i can add that the laptop light 2.0 version. gamer - the ledinfo 5 volt 30 mA came off the package...was trying to tell folks what i used. from my research(not a lot) on usb cable the red and black are for the power the white and green are for data...when i used these it windows tried to discover my usb device and i only wanted power. plus these are the color combinations that worked, hope this helps will answer more if u want

Feb 28, 2008. 12:02 PMgamer says:

im guess gonna have to make an instructable about the usage of a resistor, so everyone understands... when i try to get power from the usb port, i use the black as the gnd, and the red as the vcc (positive)... the data shouldnt be used, this is just giving the laptop a 1 on both data, and it wonders what that is supposed to mean... anyways... if it worked.

Oct 10, 2008. 3:36 AMeydryan says:

he meant the white and green wires of his led :)

he didn't touch the white and green data wires.

Feb 29, 2008. 7:14 PMNoodle93 says:

He said that the LED was safe at 5v without it being destroyed. USB ports power 5v.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/USB.svg/700px-USB.svg.png

Feb 28, 2010. 4:02 PMpennachi1 says:

I just did this and it works great. Took five minutes and now I am writing in the dark.

Oct 26, 2009. 10:10 PMgnuoy says:

it looks very iteresting, but could you please post a regular non-video version of the guide? metacafe players is terrible and won't let me see it

May 12, 2009. 6:45 PM

HiImLizzay says:

Great video! I made my own, and added my girly touch to it, I thought it would be cool if it looked like a flower so I made "petals" made of acrylic paint, puffy paint, and aluminum foil for the reflective purpose! I also spray painted the "stem" green, and voila a really fun project! I also ended up using some tubing for fermenting beer to stabilize the wire so it didn't droop down from the usb port (that was my own mistake because i didn't extend the wire far enough to the base) but it worked fabulously! Thanks for the video it was great! PS- It defiantly didn't need a resistor.