LED Table - Attaching LED Strips To Standard Table

Hi guys! I just finished upgrading my table. I have attached LED strips around it and also behind my monitor. At first I thought it's just for aesthetics purposes but as I go through YouTube, I found that it has other benefits. I'll provide details and links below if you wish to do the same project.

As I write this article, my room is entirely dark and the only thing that's lit up is my computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse and my LED table! Yup, I don't seem to experience that nauseous feeling when I stare at my overly bright monitor. Before attaching LED strips behind my monitor, I used to feel very nauseous since the entire room is dark and my retina is focused on the overly bright monitor. Yes, I do get nauseous even when the monitor is at 0% brightness. I'm currently using a 27 inches IPS monitor from ASUS model VX279H. Yes, the 0% brightness is still very bright and makes me nauseous when entire room is dark! But, with my recent installation of LED strips behind the monitor, I don't seem to feel  nauseous anymore. The back is lit up and my eyes seem to accept the balanced brightness from my monitor screen to the back of the monitor and the surrounding lights of the table.

I'm going to show you how I did it. I didn't get to take pictures step-by-step but these are the things I got:

1. A 5 meter LED Strip, color white.
1. I think I got the 5050 LED since it's brighter.
2. I got a packaged LED Strip that already have a power adapter.
2. Soldering iron and solder.
3. Red and Black wire for connecting cut LED strips.
4. A plastic corrugated board.
5. Velcro tapes, scotch tapes and electrical tapes.
6. Scissors.

These are the steps on how I attached LED strips to my table and monitor.

1. Initial attachment of LED strips to my table by scotch tapes.
1. Measured how long it will take to circle around my table.
2. Lit up the LED to see how it looks like.
3. Final attachment to the table.
2. Positioned my monitor for the extra LED strips (extras are still attached to the table)
1. Measured and cut the plastic corrugated board.
2. Attached Velcro tapes to the monitor and the plastic board.
3. Initial attachment of LED strips to the plastic board.
4. Initially attached plastic board with LED strips to see how it looks.
3. Cut extra LED strips from the table
1. Final attachment of extra LED strips to the plastic board.
2. Measured distance from table to monitor and cut the Red and Black wire
3. Solder Red wire to the (+) of the LED strip and Black wire to the (-) of the LED strip
1. Solder wires to the main LED strip on table
2. Solder wires to the plastic board for monitor
4. Power on and test how it looks. 

I tested it and it looked amazing! But then, I realized that the middle drawer of my table was blocked by the LEDs. So, I had to cut the middle LEDs. Then, I soldered and routed the wires around. The extra LED strip taken from the middle was then attached to the back of the table for extra lighting effect. So yes, I had to re-solder the wires from the back! HAHA It took me several hours to finish the entire project because I was too hesitant to do the soldering. I didn't want to make a mistake. But in the very end, I did by miscalculating the middle drawer! HAHA!

Final Attachment of the LED for Monitor

Velcro tapes installed to be attached to the monitor

Initial lighting behind the monitor

The extra LED strip from the middle is installed

I am so enjoying my upgraded table!

These are my Instagram posts:

Left or right? Huehue #led #ledtable #pcmasterrace #glow #lights

A photo posted by Thesabel Tuto (@thesabeltuto) on Aug 29, 2015 at 8:02am PDT

Project done! #glowinthedark #glow #led #ledtable #battlestation #pcmasterrace #pc #gamergirl #gamer #wtfgamersonly #wtfgamer

A photo posted by Thesabel Tuto (@thesabeltuto) on Aug 29, 2015 at 10:22am PDT

LINKS:
Balanced brightness idea here.
How to install LED strips here, here, and here.

Dear Front End User - Dev Jokes Series

Dear Front End User,

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! If you want something to be fixed ASAP, IMMEDIATELY and RIGHT NOW! Please please please Do:

1. Send us links
2. Send us screenshots
3. Write in bullet points
4. Quick and fast details

And please please please DO NOT panic, describe your immaculate discovery of the issue, vent out your frustrations on us, write an entire paragraph of how you want the "Click Here" button to be moved to the right side, add curved edges with glow-like styling, added shadows and change color from orange to blue.

Because these things we assure you are very very very quick and easy fix for us, if you have just:

1. Given us quick and fast details
2. Sent us links
3. Sent us screenshots
4. Written it in bullet points

Thank you and good luck!

DEVS

Catastrophes In Life

Hi Guys, I've been out for almost 3 weeks now! I had a lot of time to think about things, life and existence! LOL. But yeah, things I need to figure out in life. But, I had some blast full of experience in doing so. Ultimately, I had an idea on what to do next.

In the last two weeks of July, I got news from my mother that my relatives in Butuan was affected by a fire catastrophe. That their house was totaled and their entire life's possessions were all gone. I didn't believe it at first, but when I arrived I saw from the outside of their gate that their roof was bent from fire. From the looks of it, I thought that it was just the roof that got affected and everything else was good. Their neighboring lots were absolutely zeroed. So when I came down from our car, and knocked on the gate, I saw an empty burnt house. Titles were destroyed, wall paints are gone, glass windows are gone, everything is gone! They were totaled! And from the description of my uncle, the fire was as big as 2 floored house and it felt like they were burning in hell. The fire was so big and so fast that it reached the homes from the adjacent road! The fire was really big it felt like hell and it burned everything down to ashes. They were only able to save the children and no items were secured. So, I had a major thought about my life's possessions and earnings. Anything you have can be taken away from you in just a blink of an eye. I had to rearrange my life and my priorities. We were able to give them some things that we don't need anymore but those that we brought them were never enough to get them back on their feet and to continue to live on. We will get back to them soon and bring more things and money.

In the last week of July, in my home town Cagayan de Oro, my computer enthusiast group was invited to a Mindanao wide event. It was the Mindanao Cyber Expo 2015. I was in total doubt to join because of what happened and saw from my relatives in Butuan. In the end, I decided to join and to keep my mind off of such tragedy. It was selfish but I also figured I need to enjoy things while they last. I will be posting photos of the event in a separate blog post.

In the first Sunday of August, I went to church and we had the topic of the Cost of Discipleship. It is about how we prioritize things in life. Absolutely in line with my experiences in the past 2 weeks. Our speaker talked about how we prayed to God about the things we wanted so much in life. I know I did pray for these things and somehow He gave me more that I could have ever imagined. Now the cost of it, the speaker told us that yes we did pray hard for it and now that we have it, do we still have time for Him? Are these things that we asked from Him keeping us away from Him? One of the examples our speaker gave us is in the Bible:

He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you." Genesis 22:2 

In this example, Abraham prayed for decades to have a child with the woman he loved so much. And now that he finally got him (Isaac), God wanted to test Abraham for his commitment to Him. This took me to the core. He was willing to give up his son to serve God. Can I do the same?

I prayed to have a job, for I have been jobless for few months. I got it, He gave it to me and I am being payed well to do so! Am I being a good servant to Him? I figured last year that I need to give back and be on the church always on Sundays and join life group weekly as well. This year, I am doing it better. But is it really enough? After the signs He gave me for two weeks. I figured, He can take away anything that's keeping me away to serve Him. Imagine all your life's possessions gone in an instant where you get to save nothing but yourself and your love ones. I mean you are lucky enough to save the people that mattered to you. But the things you worked hard for? It's just too painful. But then again, in the Bible the book of Job says it all. His faith was tested everything he has was taken away from him. His wealth, his family and even he was sick to the ground. He was down and he doubted God but in the very end, he repented and everything that was taken from him was doubled. What Job did in his life, in his faith, we must do, I must do. I will not get too attached to worldly things but to keep faith in God and be close to the people I love.

After all, it is a life worth living. :D