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I thought a color changing LED strip was silly, then a $12 dimmer fixed my whole night setup
I always told people that RGB strips were a waste of cash and that a plain white desk lamp did the job fine. Then I got a cheap LED strip for $12 off a sale bin at a hardware store near my place in Columbus, mostly because my kid wanted the box. I set it behind my monitor and hated it for a week because full brightness at night was like staring into a flashlight, so it sat turned off. On a whim I grabbed a little inline dimmer switch for 8 bucks and wired it in, and the thing went from annoying to the best part of my desk. At about 15 percent brightness the wall behind my screen glows soft and my eyes stop hurting after two hours of work. I still think the color cycling modes are dumb, but a dim warm white behind a monitor does more for me than any fancy lamp I have tried. Now I want to know if anyone runs a second strip under the desk and whether that helps or just makes it look like a spaceship in here.
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rose_young6h ago
That $8 dimmer detail is what gets me. I bought a $30 "smart" lamp two years ago and it has exactly three brightness levels, all of them wrong. Fifteen percent on a strip behind the screen sounds about right, my eyes bug out too when something is blasting at full power in a dark room at 11pm. The kid wanting the box is how half my tech ends up in the house, no shame there. Under the desk, I would skip it unless you point it at the wall, otherwise it lights up your shins and every dust bunny down there like a crime scene. One soft glow behind the monitor is the sweet spot, two and you are running a nightclub.
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