LED Video Chat Light

Pretty basic stuff here, and I don’t know about you but I am CONSTANTLY finding myself in situations where my video chat lighting is terrible! This project fixes that quite nicely, as seen in the before and after shots.

A video of this project, if that's your thing. Otherwise, keep reading :D

I measure the outside dimensions of my display and add 1/4" overhang on all sides. Take care to design the frame so it doesn't cover up the webcam!

1/4" plywood is cut into 1/2" strips with a circular saw, and cross cut to length at the mitre saw.

Eliminate pesky splinters with some sandpaper.

Just running down some joinery options here. From the top down: a butt joint doesn't provide a lot of glue surface, a 45 degree mitre is tricky to get right, but I think a half lap will be perfect (that's the one at the bottom)!

Half lap joints are easy to cut on the router table.

SAFETY FIRST! Don't forget your push blocks.

Just a standard assembly using Titlebond-3.

Cutting up an LED strip and sticking it down to the frame.

Since the LED strips was cut up, now it needs to be reconnected.

SAFETY FIRST! Don't forget your soldering smoke absorber.

It's very bright!!

The light was too bright to use, so I create a dimmer circuit. This is cheaper than a commercial LED dimmer switch.

7x 1N4001 diodes in series on a breadboard provide 8 nodes with incrementally decreasing voltage. Each diode presents a voltage drop of about 0.7V (the power supply and LED strips are rated to 12V).

This LED strip is from Lee Valley (4000K 30 LEDs/m).

You're awesome!
Thanks for reading :)