Hello everyone,
So a little back story first. Recently my cheap chinese mechanical keyboard gave up the ghost. Not surprising, but it is annoying. Rather than throwing another 50 or so bucks down the drain, I decided to look for an optical based switch since they can theoretically last a lifetime. Sadly, no one makes a optical based keyboard that really suits me. Keychron comes close, and they probably will make something I like within the next couple months, but I'm not interested in waiting considering I need a functional keyboard sooner rather than later.
I went to go see if there were any fancy diy solutions for an optical keyboard, and I was pretty surprised not to see any solutions out there. So I figured that I would just make my own PCB and share my schematic with the community. I already have the optical switches and microcontroller figured out, but I am stuck on trying to find a perfect LED.
I am trying to make this a cost no object board, so I would love to find a high quality RGBW LED. I have seen some people say that the spacing for an LED on a gateron switch is only ~3mmx9mm but then I see people saying that a 5050 (5mmx5mm) led will work for it? It has me very confused. I did find a 3537 RGBW led with a built in control circuit, but it says that the datalink is only capable of 30hz pwm which probably wouldn't look too great.
If someone knows of a baller RGBW led I could use, that would be great. Cost doesn't matter too much here since the switches and microcontroller setup is actually pretty cheap, but obviously 2 dollar LED chips probably wouldn't work.
I am also open to other options, but I really don't want to pull any punches with this board.
