Usb Keyboard Flashlight

Dont have a butilt in keyboard light? Well this instructable will show you how to make a simple one that is powered off of just your USB port. This light can be modified in many ways and also added to but this is just the basic outline of what it will consist of.

-4 or more leds of any bolor you chose (I used blue)
-resistors of proper resistance (USB ports are 5v so for a 3v 20ma led you need a 100OHM)
-(optional) some wire
-soldering iron
-solder
-old usb wire
-electrical tape and or luquid electrical tape
- (optional) Some sort of frame to mount the leds on

Cut off the non USB end of the USB wire then find the red and black wires. You can cut the other wires so they are not visible. The other wires are for data transfer to things like an ipod.

Extend the red and black wires if nessicary. Keep in mind they need to reach the top of your laptop screen. In my case the wire was already long enough.

Solder your leds together in parallel meaning all positives together and all negitives together. Try to keep the leds at a perfered distance while soldering so they look better. I placed my center two leds closer since for me there is more activity on the center of my keyboard.

Now add the resistor to some part of the positive leads of the leds.

Now solder your positive (red) wire from the usb cable to the resistor and the negitive wire from the cable to the negitive leads of the leds.

Plug it in and test if it dosent work check that no wires are touching. Now tape it all up and youre done unless you want to make it more permenant with some sort of casing.

To attach mine I used a small piece of tape but i am going to modify it in the future so it hangs on some sort of clip.

Now you can type in the dark or lowlight with ease.