We have budget for VHS improvement. Now that most of our gear is neatly organized, the next thing I’d like to take on is improving working conditions. Lighting benches better would make working at them easier.
Pros: They have a convenient on/off and a replaceable power supply.
Cons: 2m would be better. CRI/wavelength is unknown. EU PS is no go.
Find any better choices?
I’ve had bad experiences out of anywhere I’ve tried to use cheap LED strip lights for actual illumination (rather than decorative). Colour strips in particular seem to have bad white light - it probably makes for a really weird spectrum or something, I haven’t tried to measure it.
The cheap LED desk lamps on Amazon are surprisingly decent, and some have conveniences like USB outlets. $30-$50, depending on how bright.
I was planning on trying some under-cabinet lights for the next time I have an overhead shelf for a workbench.
I have had good luck with these.
BUT they must be mounted on aluminum for cooling. Too hot too long and they die.
I am currently using multiple 50W rather than higher wattage. I can bring one into the space so you can see just how bright it is.
@jon I used a mix of lights so that it isn’t all one spectrum. in a perfect world I would have used longer strips for even more light. I have a desk lamp I almost never use.
Dan, what is your led wattage?
As a locally available benchmark, these are $15 at Ikea.
So far I think I like the look of @tdwebste’s COBs the best, but I’d be worried the 50W ones might be too bright for putting so close over a bench.
@jon do you have a specific recommendation for an Amazon light with USB outlets? You can never have too many USB outlets.
IIRC, the desk lamp with USB port was the Aukey one -
So, I’ve put some thought into this for what would be cool for home lighting…
In a PERFECT world. we’d have 3 lighting elements, 1 cool, 1 warm, and 1 RGB.
This way, we could future-proof ourselves by having bookable stations, lighting up green or red for various reasons, or just party mode! The cool thing is that these could all be controlled by @lukecyca’s partycat.
Get one string of these: Adafruit NeoPixel Digital RGBW LED Strip - White PCB 60 LED/m : ID 2842 : $107.80 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
And another string of these: Cool White LED Weatherproof Flexi-Strip 60 LED : ID 887 : $99.75 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
(Well, cheaper alternatives to actually ordering from ada)
And you’re set, you have temperature control (by fading between the hardwire LED strip and the warm white LED of the smart LEDs) and you also have individual control of the RGB LEDs, so you can do fancy lighting if you really wanted to, for all sorts of LED fun at VHS. Annoying? Maybe. Cool? Undoubtedly.
Without a shade 50W $7.40CND is TOO bright for under a bench.
I recommend the 30W $6.00CND which is also available.
Wouldn’t we want to just get dimmable LEDs with high PWM rate? (This actually excludes many ws2812b, but after reading @Gonazar’s post, I no longer know what’s real)
great question! I don’t know. 12v3a for 5m?
We already bought enough strips and power supplies for all the benches at the bunker. I heard they were still around somewhere (aluminium backed).
News to me. That was, what, over a year ago? And no one’s seen them since?
That could be a pretty simple solution!
Most of the ones that were installed at the bunker died, or became very dim.
I had tested and chucked a bunch of failed ones when we were packing up the bunker -
Not sure if there where ones left over that weren’t installed at the time.
This is my bench lighting setup:
3D printing hinge to mount an Aluminum L bar stock. It’s 7’ long with two parallel 12V White LEDs.
The 3D printed hinge has a set screw onto the angle bracket so it can be moved up or down that diagonal bar.
It uses an L bar stock to provide a slight shield so it’s not glaring in your eyes, but the whole thing rotates so you can light up whatever you need.
Originally I was going to parallel an RGB strip instead of two white strips but the RBG stuff is 5V and I didn’t want to deal with mixed voltages. My power supply is actually under the desk with about 12’ of wire between it and the strips.
fwiw, I plug my LEDs directly into the bench with no switch. that way I
can’t leave bench power on accidentally overnight and, say, ruin a solder iron tip.
Here they are. Looks like six long aluminum-backed strips that are fully intact and in decent shape. Plus some other smaller strips that are pretty mangled.
We tested those a few months ago. We couldn’t find a way to mount them on the benches conveniently.
I will bring in a COB tomorrow. They do not require an external supply. I
think they should be easy to mount. The down side of the integrated power
supply is they are not dimable. They would cost $6.00 per bench.
