For my next board I want to put in stepped caps lock with an LED to indicate when its on or off. This is my first time and I’m not sure how to achieve this. I’ve seen a Wildcat video where he does this but its not explained. It looks like he solders mill max sockets in the caps switch position, then installs the switch, and then puts the LED legs through the little slot in the switch and into those sockets. I have a couple questions about this.
Questions:
1. Are PCB’s that support LED indicators already set up and working when they come from the manufacturer? Like can I just solder a LED to the PCB at the correct position and plug in the board or do I have to set it up to get it working.
2. If I do have to set it up can I use VIA to do this or do I have to do it through QMK. If I can use VIA, how would I go about this.
3. If I can’t use VIA and have to use QMK, how would I got about it then.
4. Which way to I put in the LED? Theres a short and long leg on LED and on the PCB there’s the two holes and one of those holes has a square box drawn around it. Which leg goes in which hole? I’m assuming the longer leg is positive so do I stick the longer leg through the square indicated hole?
5. What kind of LED’s do keyboards use. Is there a good site to get them from and do I need to get a specific volt or ampere LED?
6. Where can I get mill max sockets and are there more than one kind. If more than one kind, which are recommended. I like the idea of being able to switch the color of the LED indicator in the caps lock button which I think is what Wildcat was going for when he did his board like that. I’ve never used mill max sockets and I think they are just used to turn a PCB into a hot swap board.
My first board was Drop Alt and QMK was intimidating. Every board after that I made sure used VIA so I haven’t needed to use QMK for anything so far. I don’t ever really re-map my keys anyway and I’m not to sure what all the possible key choices are in VIA anyway. Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been googling and cannot seem to find anything that answers my questions. This is my first GH post so hopefully it gets some attention. Thank you in advance if you have taken the time to read and respond to this.
