monitor mounted task lighting?

[MouthBreather]

Hello,

There is a plethora of info regarding back lighting or accent lighting using LED strips behind a computer monitor, but not much in the way of task lighting. I use 3 27" monitors for online computer science classes and often also have a paper textbook, notes, etc. on the desk in front of me. I'd like to put a strip of LEDs on the bottom edge of the monitor or monitors and have it angle out to provide enough light to read/write by. Anyone doing this?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

 

[Lithopsian]

On the whole you don't want LED strips to be visible, certainly not shining towards you. They just create glare instead of lighting up what you want to see. It is very similar to the monitor screen itself, which produces a whole lot of light (when it isn't black), but does very light to light up anything except the back of your eyes. So usually you use LED strips to provide indirect light, by pointing them away from your eyes and bouncing the light off a surface. You might mount them on the back or top of your monitor to get that effect, although effectively you'll be lighting the whole room. You can use them directly for task lighting but would want them shielded from your eyes. You need to be careful about shadows, very annoying to have an intense bright light shining on your keyboard, completely blocked out by your hands whenever you try to type. A sufficiently long strip will reduce shadows. You can achieve much the same effect with small LED desk lamps, which can be powered by USB if you want, unless you actually want the effect of a continuous strip.

 

[parametrek]

The classic desk-mounted swing arm lamp is hard to beat. Of course with a high CRI bulb inside.