Intro
Just a quick intro here, we're going to be wiring 3 3mm LED's (color of your choice) in series inside of an acrylic rod powered by a USB cable and velcro'd to the back of your monitor for a crisp look. I will be following this guideline:
[img]http://flyphoto.us/images/yes.png[/img]
Spoiler (Click to View)
Necessities
1/2 inch Acrylic Rod ($7)
3 LED's of your choice, preferably 3mm or 5mm (Radioshack/Electronics store/Online)
Wire (Radioshack/Electronics store/Online)
Glue gun/or clear glue
Electric tape/Heatshrink tape or tubing (Radioshack/Wal-mart/Online)
Soldering Iron/Gun (optional, but I suggest using)
Drill with appropriate drill bits (5mm preferably)
USB cable you don't mind cutting up
Sandpaper
Toggle Switch (optional)
Step 1
First off you're going to need to get your acrylic rod, and give it a few swipes with your sandpaper. By doing this we're going to get that ambient look out of our LED's when lit in the rod.
Step 2
Get your drill out, and if you have all the specific requirements listed above, then drill 3 5mm holes in your acrylic rod spaced out accordingly. If you have larger LED's then drill larger holes, but make sure you don't break your rod.
Step 3
Place each LED in a hole, remember that with LED lights, the longer wire is positive, and the shorter is negative. Line them up like listed in the picture above, and glue them in place leaving the wires poking out.
Step 4
Get your USB cable you've decided to sacrifice for a better cause, and cut it. Locate the positive and negative wires, in some USB's there will be a 3rd wire, just ignore/cut it off.
Step 5
Assuming that you're soldering, snip off all that excess wire on each LED, and solder according to the picture above. This is a series circuit, while this is not enough power to power all 3 LED's at full capacity, it will light them up enough to get the effect we want. Why is this not enough power to power them all at full capacity? A standard USB carries 5V of power, and each LED runs about 3.3 forward voltage give or take and 20 mA. If you wanted each LED at full power you would have to wire each LED in it's own series circuit, basically making a parallel circuit (3 single series circuits) with the appropriate resistors.
Step 6
Now you have your USB ready to connect, and your LED's wired together, you can choose whether you're using a switch or not. If you are using a switch, wire the positive wire from your USB to one of the prongs on the bottom of the switch, and wire the other prong to your first LED's positive. Doing this will either turn off our positive (power) or turn it on.
Step 7
From here it's just cleanup depending on how well your soldering went, the beauty of using this series circuit is that we shouldn't have any positive wires near any negative wires, so there shouldn't be a situation for a short to occur. The only thing is to cover up the wires connecting to your switch, and find a handy spot to put it.
Step 8
Velcro your new ambient light to the back of your computer screen, plugin the USB to the screen/tower, turn it on, turn the lights off in your room.
Here's a few cool pics I found of ambient lights behind computers:
Spoiler (Click to View)
If you enjoyed this guide, take a look at a few of my others:
[HOW TO]Setup a PA system for less than $50
[HOW TO]SQLi, Shell, & Remain Undetected[TUTORIAL]
[HOW TO]Upload your Shell,and Deface[TUTORIAL]
Just a quick intro here, we're going to be wiring 3 3mm LED's (color of your choice) in series inside of an acrylic rod powered by a USB cable and velcro'd to the back of your monitor for a crisp look. I will be following this guideline:
[img]http://flyphoto.us/images/yes.png[/img]
Spoiler (Click to View)
Necessities
1/2 inch Acrylic Rod ($7)
3 LED's of your choice, preferably 3mm or 5mm (Radioshack/Electronics store/Online)
Wire (Radioshack/Electronics store/Online)
Glue gun/or clear glue
Electric tape/Heatshrink tape or tubing (Radioshack/Wal-mart/Online)
Soldering Iron/Gun (optional, but I suggest using)
Drill with appropriate drill bits (5mm preferably)
USB cable you don't mind cutting up
Sandpaper
Toggle Switch (optional)
Step 1
First off you're going to need to get your acrylic rod, and give it a few swipes with your sandpaper. By doing this we're going to get that ambient look out of our LED's when lit in the rod.
Step 2
Get your drill out, and if you have all the specific requirements listed above, then drill 3 5mm holes in your acrylic rod spaced out accordingly. If you have larger LED's then drill larger holes, but make sure you don't break your rod.
Step 3
Place each LED in a hole, remember that with LED lights, the longer wire is positive, and the shorter is negative. Line them up like listed in the picture above, and glue them in place leaving the wires poking out.
Step 4
Get your USB cable you've decided to sacrifice for a better cause, and cut it. Locate the positive and negative wires, in some USB's there will be a 3rd wire, just ignore/cut it off.
Step 5
Assuming that you're soldering, snip off all that excess wire on each LED, and solder according to the picture above. This is a series circuit, while this is not enough power to power all 3 LED's at full capacity, it will light them up enough to get the effect we want. Why is this not enough power to power them all at full capacity? A standard USB carries 5V of power, and each LED runs about 3.3 forward voltage give or take and 20 mA. If you wanted each LED at full power you would have to wire each LED in it's own series circuit, basically making a parallel circuit (3 single series circuits) with the appropriate resistors.
Step 6
Now you have your USB ready to connect, and your LED's wired together, you can choose whether you're using a switch or not. If you are using a switch, wire the positive wire from your USB to one of the prongs on the bottom of the switch, and wire the other prong to your first LED's positive. Doing this will either turn off our positive (power) or turn it on.
Step 7
From here it's just cleanup depending on how well your soldering went, the beauty of using this series circuit is that we shouldn't have any positive wires near any negative wires, so there shouldn't be a situation for a short to occur. The only thing is to cover up the wires connecting to your switch, and find a handy spot to put it.
Step 8
Velcro your new ambient light to the back of your computer screen, plugin the USB to the screen/tower, turn it on, turn the lights off in your room.
Here's a few cool pics I found of ambient lights behind computers:
Spoiler (Click to View)
If you enjoyed this guide, take a look at a few of my others:
[HOW TO]Setup a PA system for less than $50
[HOW TO]SQLi, Shell, & Remain Undetected[TUTORIAL]
[HOW TO]Upload your Shell,and Deface[TUTORIAL]
