Introduction: DIY Super Bright LED Laptop Keyboard Light (1W High Power)

About: Necessity is the Mother of Inventions they say, I live in challenging land called INDIA. where the Sub par conditions like power issues, heat, Dust and environmental factors are just tough! and They have force…

Eyes are Precious,Today we will Be Modifying a Cheap keyboard Light into the Ultimate,Brightest, High power Light to Protect them.

As Some of you may Know, I have already Modified an Ebay/ Chinese Laptop Keyboard light with 7.62mm Superflux LEDs sometime Back. The guide for the same is here-

https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Upgrade-Superc...

However After months of use, I found out that a Single SuperFlux LED was still not adequate for my Night Time article writing. While The Keyboard was Well Lit, The area around it was still dark. I wanted to step up. I did'nt want to disturb my family by turning on Room lights; However I wanted to take good care of My eyes and health. I wanted a light Bright enough to read/Work without squinting my eyes.

What then? 1 W High power LED!These babies are so bright, they Not only do Light up your Laptop Keyboard, But also area around it . You can actually read documents placed near laptop. Very nice if you are Converting Hard copies into Digital files.

Next Page Please.

The last page also shows some alternate uses!

Step 1: How to Modify the Light

Steps-
1) Disconnect your LED light
2) Pry out the lens to access the LED inside
3) Cut the LED wires and save it for later projects (Eg toys)
4)Buy A 1W High power LED from your fav store. These are also known as Luxeon Stars at some stores.

5) Find a Decent Sized heat sink. it should go well with the Look of your Laptop Light. A Thin and Long piece of aluminum works well. I have used a 1cm X 3cm Plate. Keeping LED Cool is paramount!

6)Attach the LED to heatsink. I would suggest Arctic Epoxy, but Superglue works fine as well.


5) Calculate the new resistance value for your LED. 1W high power LED can take as much as 350mA of Current. This is over 15 Times as much as normal 5mm LED. PLEASE make sure that your heatsink can take that much heat.

A Very Nice LED calculator is here- (Thanks to its creators)

http://www.ngineering.com/led_calculators.htm

USB ports are 5v. Usual white LED voltage is 3.3~3.5v.

I have used a 12 Ohm, 1/2w Resistor to keep the Current a comfortable 140mA. It is always recommended to keep the current little lower than max spec of LED.


6) Solder and Re-fit. I glued the Heatsink (with LED on it) to the Cone of Existing laptop Light. The wires were simply hidden inside the cone. My heatsink got barely warm with 2 hours of operation as the LED is highly de-rated.


7)Plug in and Enjoy!

Step 2: Alternative Uses

Other than Lighting up the Keyboard, This innovative lamp can be plugged into any USB charger and used as-

Reading lamp

Table Lamp

Night lamp

Accent Lights

Painting Illumination

Car Map lights (Via Car USB)

Thanks and Don't forget to Comment!