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LED Book-Light Suggestions?
Dormous asks: "My wife and I are both night owls and avid readers, and usually one of us goes to bed before the other, hence the need for a small portable light source. We recently had a booklight, and somehow, my wife managed to shatter the light bulb all over the bed. Therefore, I want to find a booklight that uses an LED as the Light Source. Anybody got any ideas where I can find such a thing. I've already tried ThinkGeek."
Umm...try this...
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"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
Googling for booklight LED gives us, at #2:
A booklight using an LED! Who'd have thought it?
Most of these little clip-on booklights take two HP7 (AA) batteries, giving 3v. Remove the incandescent bulb (or bits of, in your case). Solder a high-brightness white LED in place of the incandescent bulb, and add a series resistor in there somewhere. You'll need to work out a suitable value - some LEDs may not need one at all.
Another handy mod is to use a fairly bright red LED instead of white. This will make a light that's great for reading maps and star charts at night (for you navigators or astronomers) that won't mess with your dark adaption.
If one of you is sleeping, the other reads elsewhere.
At first signs of sleep depravation go to bed.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
kensington flylight + 5v wall wart + radioshack toggle switch + 10 min of soldering + epoxying the whole mess to the old booklight's clip
=
good early evening project, at the cost of about $20 (you can find flylights @ the apple store and compUSA), and cannibalizing the awnsering machine's wall wart.
moox. for a new generation.
Demotech ("Design for self-reliance") is currently working on the Nightreader.
It's a small piece of reflecting foil, put together with two leds sticked in wood and a couple of batteries. The Nightreader is designed to be able to use two or three batteries of various sizes (whatever you have at hand) which have to little power to be used for something else.
Petzl sells a small light weight led headlamp called the tikka. This might solve your problem.
Try the store at Sky and Telescope. They sell LED flashlights with red leds. They are really restfull on the eyes when reading in bed and will not keep your partner awake. They are also small enough to prop-up somewhere to illuminate your book.
Help children born unable to swallow - www.tofs.org.uk
Now try Google
I have two of these, bought through ThinkGeek, and they're great. Both of mine are still on the first set of batteries.
You can convert any flashlight to LED. These guys have a nifty little LED flashlight replacement bulb in all the normal colors. You can buy one here
This looks good, but personaly I find a white page like that very hard on the eyes, it would be nice with a red filter option. As others have stated, this helps night vision.
:-)
Considering the recent breakage, something available now not in over two moths might be nice as well
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.....my life is my own.
You can buy LEDs that screw into a standard bulb fitting.
This webside is crammed with all kinds of useful information regarding LEDs and LED torches. Check it out.
A headlamp should be not too bright, and provide uniform lighting across the page. This eliminates single LED lights.
The Black Diamond Ion weighs less than 1 oz, and has an easily adjusted wide elastic headband. In less than a minute, you forget you're wearing it. It has 2 LEDs, which provides a more uniform illumination than 1, but still projects bright spots on the page. (all LED lights do this, in my experience. I don't know why, or how much improvement can be expected in the near future). The battery is odd - a 6V that is a little bigger than the eraser on a pencil. It drives the light for far more than the rated 15-20 hours. My son lost his in the backyard the afternoon we went on a trip, and it was still going strong after we returned in the dark the next night. And he continues to use it reading in bed 30 min per night, several weeks later!! I don't know if rechargeables are available in the required size.
The Ion costs less than $20. It is either on or off, not dimmable. It has no auto-shutoff timer. But it is widely available, practically waterproof, and withstands being dropped without a problem.
See: http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Lighting
offtopic? It's the perfect solution to his problem.
Liberty uber alles.
The Sam's club in Cary, NC has led lights that will clip to a book. I'm not terribly impressed with mine, ymmv.
Liberty uber alles.
I recently picked up a petzl tikka led headlamp. It is small, takes 3 triple-a batteries and is damn bright. It uses 3 white LEDs.
Highly recommended.
spreer
How about sex instead?
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
I have seen LED booklights at Sam's clubs in Houston. Two drawbacks when compared to the usual ones: no jack for external powerpack and they use expensive Lithium Ion batteries.
Since you want us to use Google for you, how about the top sponsored link: http://www.lightwedge.com/
It's a flat LED illuminated sheet you lay on the page you are reading so the light doesn't shine on your partner.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Tektite makes a whole line of LED flashlights and such. You might find something there.
I've used camping headlamps for reading in bed and other nocturnal residential navigation (raiding the fridge, letting the dog out, checking out noises...oh, no don't go there,) Anyway, I think they work better than book lights.
REI has a cool one Petzl Zipka LED Headlamp that isn't big and bulky. It also has a lens kit that would address some night vision issues (red filter, etc.)
I really like how small it is and I am tempted to get one myself to replace the ancient (circa 1990) clunker I have.
the future is here, it is just not evenly distributed - w. gibson
#1 result on Froogle. (not to mention results #2, 3, and all the text ads).
Once again.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'd Suggest the SPRACHT SP1022 Wherever Light UB.r -ligh ts.htm
http://www.spracht.com/wherever-gear/whereve
The Spracht light uses a flexible gooseneck led lamp like the unit described, but it terminates in a coaxial power connector. The connector connects to three adaptors:
-A USB adaptor for laptops
-A Cigarette Lighter adaptor for the car
-A 3 AA battery pack with belt clip (Handy for repair work)
If you need to run the unit with mains power it should be readily achived by rigging a gender bender for a AC transformer 'wall wart'
Very solid construction with good light distribution. The NV unit is the same but it has a Red LED for retaining night vision (dim green is actually better for retaining night vision but that's another matter).
The switch is located at the "bulb" end which is handy for reading. The belt hook should clip to most book covers.
All for $20 at Fry's.
Alternatively, there are cigarette lighter and mains adapters for USB powered connectors (particularly for PDA chargers). This is handy for illumination in tight spaces (I use a similar arrangement for lighting my expresso machine).
and somehow, my wife managed to shatter the light bulb all over the bed
It may just be me, but I would probably take that as a hint... Maybe spend less time reading and more time with her? Just a thought.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
I can't get to sleep at night without reading, and this used to really bother my roommate (who has a hard time getting to sleep if it's not dark). I got a LightWedge for Christmas, and it's helped a lot. It really doesn't noticeably illumine anything except the page. However, there are some caveats:
1. You need to keep the batteries fresh and the surface really clean, or you'll hurt your eyes trying to read with too little light.
2. It's inconvenient for books with a page surface larger than it or for books with extremely thin pages (I can't use it for my Bible because the very light pages stick to the wedge by static and end up creasing badly when I try to turn the page).
While you're at it, tell me where to find a current mirror which is 100% efficient.
Scientists restrict study to entire physical universe; creationist
My wife and I have these. Lightweight, waterproof, three triple A batteries, dimmable with three power settings, and two blink settings. We got them from Campmore.com for around $30. Excellent buy.
You don't need a new light, its just fine. Replace the buld with the same type. What you need to do is to replace your clumsy wife.
I think I'd get one of these, they look well thought out:
http://www.lumatec.com/UltraLife.htm
http://tinyurl.com/3t236
I need a booklight too, but I mostly read paperbacks and have had no luck finding a good one that is designed for the size/shape of a softcover book. I'm considering hot-gluing a keyring-size flashlight to my nose. Any better suggestions?
Perfectly Normal Industries
It's not redundant, it's the first post.
Liberty uber alles.
A quick Google for LED "reading light" revealed the following:
LumaTech makes a nice one. 100 hours on 4 AAA's...YMMV. $19.95 from here.
LightWedge makes another, $34.95, available through Amazon. Customer reviews available. 100 hours/charge as well.
There are more....Google before posting...seriously. Do your own dirty work.
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Can't argue with 3 years of operation, also can't stop being curious about why this doesn't fry the LED.
Does running 2.4 volts into an LED with a 2.9V forward drop put it into an operating range where current is in the desirable 20 mA range?
Thanks,
Fred
I know how to use google. I have googled so many iterations on "LED Book Light" that my LEDBOIGHT keys on my keyboard have broken. I asked this question because I thought some of you slashdotters might have some insight on the problem.
To those that did have some insight, thank you.
Low light reading over extended periods of time is bad for your eyes.
Nothing says 'Biatch I can't sleep so I'ma read me a book' like a Halogen Torchiere Floor Lamp with a 300 watt Halogen bulb.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
You can light an LED from the mains if you wire another diode "back-to-front" in parallel and a 0.1uF capacitor in series. Ideally put a metal film resistor of a few hundred ohms in series unless the cap is X-rated. (This is to limit the current flow into the capacitor at switch-on; the voltage is above half max for about 2/3 of the time and a discharged capacitor is pretty much a short circuit. The fuse in the plug won't know the difference anyway.) As soon as the voltage gets above 2V the LED strikes, and the excess voltage charges the capacitor. The other diode allows the capacitor to discharge on the negative half-cycle. If it's an LED you'll get more light.
You might not even need the reverse diode since (IMOX) LEDs zener at about 5.6V but in this state are dissipating more power due to the excess voltage (and power dissipation is what kills electronic devices), so if you want to run an LED off unrectified AC you'll need a higher impedance (resistive or capacitive) in series and you'll get less light.
Plus of course you have the satisfaction of knowing you haven't been using those evil polluting batteries -- disposable ones are a waste of energy all round, rechargeable ones have nasty chemicals in them (though traditional lead-acid ones are bordering on 100% recyclability).
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