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here is the thing;
I do a lot of work late at night in my computer, i love to design in the dark, but using photoshop shortcuts gets complicated, so i decided to do something about it , at first went for a lit up keyboard ... naah too expensive, (being a diy´er, everything is doable... therefore expensive)
found this Instructable and eureka ...lol
http://www.instructables.com/id/Illuminated-Keyboard-Hack/?ALLSTEPS
first i thought the power of the LEDs (green lites with 3.v.) was not enough to power my high brightness or superduper leds as the proper commercial name goes. (4.5v?)
so i took power from usb port easier for me .
parts ...
clear acrillyc rod, round is better but since my led bar will be underneath my desk i chose a square rod
six or seven or nine leds , it all depends my bar is 20" (51 cm) long so i used 6 leds 4" (10 cm) appart from each other ..sort of
enough cable to connect the leds , you will need at least 25 " ( why the hell are you still using inches ??? 65 cm)
use the red and black cable , it is imperative that you have to use red and black or else forces unknown of the universe will mess up your life, or go with any color you like.
1 kill switch ... any kind, mine is really small 5mmx10mm (imperial equivalence.. guess it)
you will need a clear ...CLEAR epoxi glue , see the pictures, silicone will work too, but is waaay slower.
double sided tape , to fix in place.
one slice of key lime pie ( you will get hungry.. i was!)
tools:
cutter, exacto, carpet knife... get the point?
cable stripper (lol one girl dancing for the cable ...)
electric tape or thermofit or duct tape or masking tape.
pliers to cut led legs
a 7mm drill bit (1/4 ")
electric drill or manual or robotic... press drill is better.
sandpaper the coarser the better
soldering gun and accessories
a spoon.
I do a lot of work late at night in my computer, i love to design in the dark, but using photoshop shortcuts gets complicated, so i decided to do something about it , at first went for a lit up keyboard ... naah too expensive, (being a diy´er, everything is doable... therefore expensive)
found this Instructable and eureka ...lol
http://www.instructables.com/id/Illuminated-Keyboard-Hack/?ALLSTEPS
first i thought the power of the LEDs (green lites with 3.v.) was not enough to power my high brightness or superduper leds as the proper commercial name goes. (4.5v?)
so i took power from usb port easier for me .
parts ...
clear acrillyc rod, round is better but since my led bar will be underneath my desk i chose a square rod
six or seven or nine leds , it all depends my bar is 20" (51 cm) long so i used 6 leds 4" (10 cm) appart from each other ..sort of
enough cable to connect the leds , you will need at least 25 " ( why the hell are you still using inches ??? 65 cm)
use the red and black cable , it is imperative that you have to use red and black or else forces unknown of the universe will mess up your life, or go with any color you like.
1 kill switch ... any kind, mine is really small 5mmx10mm (imperial equivalence.. guess it)
you will need a clear ...CLEAR epoxi glue , see the pictures, silicone will work too, but is waaay slower.
double sided tape , to fix in place.
one slice of key lime pie ( you will get hungry.. i was!)
tools:
cutter, exacto, carpet knife... get the point?
cable stripper (lol one girl dancing for the cable ...)
electric tape or thermofit or duct tape or masking tape.
pliers to cut led legs
a 7mm drill bit (1/4 ")
electric drill or manual or robotic... press drill is better.
sandpaper the coarser the better
soldering gun and accessories
a spoon.
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first step.
i used a steak knife, it was really sharp and thin (good thing) to "mark" grooves on the acrillyc at the desired lenght you can use anything you have at your disposal as long as it leaves a clear groove in the acrillyc 1mm deep ... 7mm equals 1/4 do the math.
if you are cutting a round rod , just cut a ring untill you find the point of start. cutting a square rod just cut side by side (exhibit c... jury members)
once marked, lay the rod with the grove aligned with the edge of the table and press firmly and quickly on the ends, this willl snap it leaving a smoth clean cut. (not clean? ... deeper grooves next time) by the way, you can cut plexiglass like this, or even glass but ... nevermind.
i used a steak knife, it was really sharp and thin (good thing) to "mark" grooves on the acrillyc at the desired lenght you can use anything you have at your disposal as long as it leaves a clear groove in the acrillyc 1mm deep ... 7mm equals 1/4 do the math.
if you are cutting a round rod , just cut a ring untill you find the point of start. cutting a square rod just cut side by side (exhibit c... jury members)
once marked, lay the rod with the grove aligned with the edge of the table and press firmly and quickly on the ends, this willl snap it leaving a smoth clean cut. (not clean? ... deeper grooves next time) by the way, you can cut plexiglass like this, or even glass but ... nevermind.
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You can easily calculate the resistor with R=U/I
P.S. That caused the dead of the first LED (he got the most current)
But with a simply cable (as here, without a microcontroller), you won't get the full Output current normally. But there are often some variations of the mainboard facturers, of course. With mades the pocket HDD without external power supply possible (need often more than 500mAh)
well, you can do both, which ever is preferred, first, it depends on the led's themselves, they generally take anywhere from 30-40mA, and a usb port puts out 500mA, so you could say, take 500/35=14.3, so i would say 15 leds to be safe, or, if you could choose to have less, and just throw a resistor on there, and there are fancy calculations to determine the resistor, but if your using only a few leds, anywhere from 100-330ohm resistor would be fine, just remember, the less leds, the higher resistor you want!
That's just... ...odd. :) :) :)
(Next you're going to tell you start eating from the middle of one side of the slice, no less... ;)
(Nice Instructable, BTW.)
Could anybody please comment about the resistor? If we want to do that, what do we need?