DIY CCFL display backlight

I often work at my PC in the dark, and I know it’s not very good for the eyes to look at the bright screen in the dark surroundings. I checked multiple ideas concerning the problem, including a LED backlight from an IKEA lamp on a friend’s TV, but I never came to building something like that myself. One time I even had my desk lamp turned behind the screen to act as a backlight of sorts, but it was obvious that was not a solution to last.

A solution came suddenly, when I saw some CCFLs on sale in an online hardware store for €4,99. One trip to the shops and 7€ spent later I’m sitting here in the dark, typing this text and having my eyes not stressed at all

The CCFLs I bought were from Sharkoon, and came with a switch, transformator and a Y-cable to connect to the PC’s power supply, obviuosly aimed at the casemodding scene:

“That’s all very nice”, I thought, “but firstly, how do I power it (my PC is under the table, and the monitor sits above it), and secondly, where do I put the switch so I can turn it on and off?”. I decided to elongate the power cable by 5-6 feet and to put the switch (together with the transformator and the cables) on the back of my screen, where the CCFLs themselves would go. After thinking that, I went to a hardware store and got the following stuff for a total of 7€:

My plan required: a plastic box to put the switch and cables in, cable binders and connectors (because I do not have the tools for soldering), isolating tape and some cable.

I cut the Y-cable after the split from the Molex connector, and reconnected it with 6 feet of my cable using the connectors. Then I put th switch in the side of the plastic box, and put the cable and connectors inside.

After that I connected the transformator and the CCFLs, connected the Y-cable inside my PC, and turned it on. It worked!

A little detail remained – the whole thing had to be put onto the screen. I put the box with the switch on using double-sided tape near the bottom of the screen, so the switch can be easily reached and cannot be seen. For the rest (transformator and lamps) a set of stick-on pads was included in the package, so I used that.

Result: a nice working backlight for 12,99€, that anyone can build.