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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: abtrout on Wed, 05 February 2014, 15:44:21
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Hi* GH.
I don't like backlit keyboards, but I am human so I think lights are cool. Rather than having a full keyboard's worth of LEDs on at once, briefly turning on the LED corresponding to the key pressed might make for an interesting typing experience. The LED would be on only when the key was pressed. I think complex key combinations would be very satisfying.
I'm wondering if anyone has done this or has opinions about whether it's possible/easy to do. To my surprise, forum searches didn't return anything relevant.
I assume this would be almost trivial, but I haven't built a keyboard (yet! (holding out for GH60)) so don't have any experience to back my assumption. Regardless: there are keyboards that have LEDs at every switch that turn on/off together; there are keyboards that have individual LEDs turn on/off on keypress; so it seems possible.
* I'm new here. I wanted to open up with a question rather than just a "hello everyone"**
** but "Hello, Everyone!"
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There's a Deck, a Ducky, and the upcoming Cooler Master Rapid-I (http://techreport.com/news/25895/this-cooler-master-keyboard-lights-up-keys-as-you-type) that will do this. Think the new models of Deck, Hassium and Francium, are the boards that have them. Can't remember the Ducky board. Think it's called reactive lighting.
Input Nirvana has been talking to me about doing the same setup with his Kinesis using an Arduino.
Welcome to GeekHack :D
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There's a Deck, a Ducky, and the upcoming Cooler Master Rapid-I (http://techreport.com/news/25895/this-cooler-master-keyboard-lights-up-keys-as-you-type) that will do this.
Well. Way to make me look like I didn't do any research! :thumb:
Thanks for the info!
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corsair as well, but they have a really basic īmplementation that isn't customizable as far as i know. ducky has a VERY customizable reactive lighting feature, including reverse.
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http://www.mechkb.com/blog/news/introducing-deck-hassium-pro-apac-edition/ (http://www.mechkb.com/blog/news/introducing-deck-hassium-pro-apac-edition/) <--- although you'll only get this font if you purchase the APAC edition, I understand the packaging is black instead of the natural cardboard colour.
Ducky Shine 3 is also capable of the lighting mode that you seek. Shine 2 is also technically capable however it's poorly implemented imho (fades too quickly).
AFAIK, the Corsair mode is static after key press (i.e. after you set which keys you want to light up, they will stay lit all the time, they do not react to key presses.)
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^ corsair has reactive lighting. the exact same one as the shine 2, except that it fades even quicker i believe. you basically never see it on.
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The shine 3 has a really nice reactive lighting.
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In addition to the keyboards already mentioned, this feature is also present on the Skydigital Mechanic LED and Roccat Ryos MK Pro.