Sun Lamp
An antidote for Seattle winters
With short days and grey skies, Seattle winters can zap your energy. Sun lamps mimic the natural outdoor light boosting serotonin and regulating melatonin.
My school had a non-functioning Apple Thunderbolt Display about to get chucked, so I nabbed it to up-cycle into a sun lamp. The monitor offered all sorts of useful components: an edge-injection lightguide with diffuser dots, a couple additional diffuser layers, a fresnel lens, voltage regulator, power cord, and a nice, solid metal housing with stand. I removed the polarizer layers and LCD panel, the LCD driver and controller. I pulled 12V from the backlight power supply (which was still functional) and replaced the monitor backlight LEDs with a high-CRI, natural white LED strip (HitLights L0512V-402-1630-U) along the top and bottom edges of light lightguide. I installed an inline dimmer knob to control brightness (Supernight H&PC-70458) and extended the wiring of the potentiometer, such that the knob popped out the hole where the Thunderbolt display cable previously emerged.
The overall effect is pretty convincing. The color temperature is refreshing and he fresnel makes it feel as if the light source is far away, more like the sun.
My school had a non-functioning Apple Thunderbolt Display about to get chucked, so I nabbed it to up-cycle into a sun lamp. The monitor offered all sorts of useful components: an edge-injection lightguide with diffuser dots, a couple additional diffuser layers, a fresnel lens, voltage regulator, power cord, and a nice, solid metal housing with stand. I removed the polarizer layers and LCD panel, the LCD driver and controller. I pulled 12V from the backlight power supply (which was still functional) and replaced the monitor backlight LEDs with a high-CRI, natural white LED strip (HitLights L0512V-402-1630-U) along the top and bottom edges of light lightguide. I installed an inline dimmer knob to control brightness (Supernight H&PC-70458) and extended the wiring of the potentiometer, such that the knob popped out the hole where the Thunderbolt display cable previously emerged.
The overall effect is pretty convincing. The color temperature is refreshing and he fresnel makes it feel as if the light source is far away, more like the sun.
© Ishan Chatterjee 2020