A cheap and effective book light

 book light, booklight, usb hub, usb led, usb switch  Comments Off on A cheap and effective book light
May 212008
 

I’ve been on the hunt recently for a good book light: One that attaches either to the book I’m reading or to my bed’s headboard (I like to read in bed at night).

I first checked Amazon, but most of the book lights listed either cost more than I wanted to pay, or had several very negative reviews, or both.

Next, I went to eBay, figuring that I could maybe find some cheap lights and try them out. I ordered a couple, each costing under $5.00. Both are battery-powered, and both use a single LED for a light source.

One is a see-through plastic clip-on with a short gooseneck to adjust where the light shines. It works, but the LED is surprisingly dim and puts out light that is more blue than white.

The other light is a “robotic transformer Z folding” light (there are zillions of these listed on eBay from many sellers). I bought one that was $3.00, including shipping. It folds into a compact form about the size and shape of a second-gen iPod nano, and unfolds into a “Z” shape. The main body clips onto the back of the book, and the LED pivots up and over the front of the book. This light works quite well, except that the LED is quite close to the page, and thus doesn’t evenly illuminate the entire book. The LED is bright and puts out bluish-white light.

Neither of these lights was exactly what I was looking for, and I’m glad I didn’t buy their retail equivalents. The thought occurred to me that perhaps a USB LED “keyboard light” might make a good book light. So, I bought a couple of inexpensive USB lights off of eBay. Both lights have a USB plug at one end of a long (1 foot or so) gooseneck, and 1 or 3 LEDs at the other end. Both lights proved to be quite bright and to put out fairly white light compared to the clip-on book lights.

To power the lights, I bought a “powered” USB hub (a hub that gets its power from the AC mains instead of from its host computer), and plugged the lights into the USB ports on the hub. I was lucky to find a 4-port powered USB hub on sale at a local retailer for $10.

I’ve now tried out my USB light / hub book light, and am quite pleased with how well it works. The hub not only provides power to the LED, but also acts as a weighted base. The setup only uses a few watts of power, yet gives a very nice spread of light for reading at night. There are two downsides, though: First, there’s no on/off switch for the light. I need to unplug the power cable from the hub to turn the light off. Second, the light isn’t exactly stylish. It looks pretty much like what it is: a USB hub with a gooseneck LED light sticking out of it.

The first problem is fixable. There are LED keyboard lights with on/off switches built into them. I’ve ordered a couple of inexpensive ones from eBay. I saw another one listed on Amazon, but it cost $20, and had very mixed reviews.

As for the second problem, well, I like to think of my light as having a sort of industrial, post-modern look to it. Honestly, I’ve seen uglier lamps out there, and this one works. Plus, even with all the stuff I’ve ordered from eBay, I still have yet to break $40 total. Just the hub and one LED keyboard light would have been under $20.

 Posted by at 9:45 PM