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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: Novus on Mon, 11 August 2014, 17:07:23
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That is the question
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Been asking the same thing myself for a poker II purchase :-\
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If you plan on de-soldering the board to install a universal plate, for example, I would get it without LEDs. You can solder them on later if you want. It's easier to solder than de-solder, IMO.
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The nice thing about backlighting is that you can turn it off if you want.
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I think you have to ask yourself if you ever use backlighting when you do have it available. When I use laptops with backlighting, I never turn it on, even though it is there, so it wouldn't be a priority for me personally. It does add a certain cool factor that is kind of hidden until enabled. though. All black keys with backlighting would be pretty neat though. It would be almost like turning the printing on the keys on and off.
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I've always wondered if boards with full LED's soldered in felt firmer because of the extra solder points.
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ye is aight
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I've always wondered if boards with full LED's soldered in felt firmer because of the extra solder points.
I recommend installing an LED, a jumper, or a diode on PCB-mount switches to better stabilize the switch.
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It is something I would not use.
I do not like the look. And the brightness would be distracting when trying to watch the screen. It is also not that important that you can read the keyboard, since most people barely every look at it. If being able to read legends is important, then I would say that a contrasting color keycap and legend is still easier to read in everything but extremely low light conditions.
Another issue I have, but that is mostly just my own paranoia, is that you add 108 or more individual things that can break to the keyboard.
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That is the question
None, I can see mine fine with the light from my screen, and if you touch type even more useless.
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I like backlighting (3 of my keyboards have it), but I won't turn down a keyboard just because it doesn't have backlighting.
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It always sounds cool in theory to me and I always get 'em on my boards...but then I barely use them. So...yeah. :))
They look awesome in pics, though.
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Why not … I have the backlighting on my Poker II at silly brightness for fun.
I don't care for keycaps that squish upper and lower legend rows into the top of the keycap — that just looks daft.
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Aside from it looking cool, I don't really have a purpose for backlighting as I touch type. To be honest the less I can see my keyboard in my peripheral vision the better so I would find backlighting annoying on my desktop keyboard.
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I like white LED backlighting with thick caps. Gives a lovely background glow. I also like to mod my switches, though, and it's a pain to desolder and resolder LED's, but to me they're worth it.
I have actually replaced all the LED's in my Pure with white ones. Then desoldered both them AND the switches to install an IMSTO aluminium plate and reinstalled them all. :rolleyes:
The switches in my Pure are the "right" way round (Cherry logo readable and LED positions at the bottom), so most backlit keycaps don't look great on it, but thick dark material keycaps look awesome. Can't wait for my GMK Dolch sets to arrive.
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backlit makes me go crazy :) its just a way to take extra money for a keyboard(IMHO) :)
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Backlighting is most of the time done wrong. When set to an intermediate intensity, most keyboards turn the LEDs on and off very quickly so they emit less light overall. This is called PWM (pulse width modulation).
The result is horrible. When your eyes go from one point of the keyboard to another point, or to the screen, you can see the multiple images of the keyboard PWM creates on your retina. It is utterly distracting.
So backlighting can be used on only one setting: full throttle. Because in this case the LEDs stay on all the time. Unfortunately, full light is generally not the right setting, depending on your environment.
The only keyboard I know of on which backlighting is done right is on the MacBooks. They don't use PWM to dim the light, and the illumination can be set to adapt automatically to the ambiant light. That's backlighting done right. It's useful on a portable computer that you may use in badly lit places.
I guess there must be some mechanical keyboards that do backlighting right, but your best guess when you purchase one is that it will NOT be done right, because PWM is much easier to implement that any other method for dimming the LEDs.
I'm not even talking about the fact that keys designed for backlight keyboards are of poor quality, and that replacing them deceives the usefulness of backlighting (unless you replace them with some other poor quality set of backlight compatible keys - WTF!?).
I used to be a fan of backlighting, but experience has taught me that it is generally a pain. Only if you have a real good strong reason and you really need it you can take this into consideration when purchasing a keyboard. If it's not an absolute requirement for your use case, this is a point you can ignore.
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no backlight, I love lamp.
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Backlighting is most of the time done wrong. When set to an intermediate intensity, most keyboards turn the LEDs on and off very quickly so they emit less light overall. This is called PWM (pulse width modulation).
The result is horrible. When your eyes go from one point of the keyboard to another point, or to the screen, you can see the multiple images of the keyboard PWM creates on your retina. It is utterly distracting.
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That's PWM done wrong (low frequency). PWM done right is fine (high frequency, 1kHz and up). From what I can gather, a lot of "gaming" boards use poor PWM implementations which are really quite horrible. Certainly not desirable when actually gaming. I haven't noticed any strobing effect when using the backlighting of my KBT Pure and it's got a decent range of brightness adjustment, so I'm happy with it.
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Backlighting is most of the time done wrong. When set to an intermediate intensity, most keyboards turn the LEDs on and off very quickly so they emit less light overall. This is called PWM (pulse width modulation).
The result is horrible. When your eyes go from one point of the keyboard to another point, or to the screen, you can see the multiple images of the keyboard PWM creates on your retina. It is utterly distracting.
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That's PWM done wrong (low frequency). PWM done right is fine (high frequency, 1kHz and up). From what I can gather, a lot of "gaming" boards use poor PWM implementations which are really quite horrible. Certainly not desirable when actually gaming. I haven't noticed any strobing effect when using the backlighting of my KBT Pure and it's got a decent range of brightness adjustment, so I'm happy with it.
I have definitely noticed it on my KBT Pure Pro, but I agree it's a different keyboard than the Pure. On the Pure Pro, the PWM frequency is probably around 100Hz, and it's very noticeable. Depending on the environment, it's really disturbing.
Problem is, you generally don't know how bad it's been implemented until you purchase the keyboard. If you don't know, your best bet is that it is poorly implemented.
People who want backlighting should be aware of the problem and do some research before purchasing.
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I really prefer backlighting. I do a lot of work in the dark. It's easier than having to turn on the lamp.
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I really prefer backlighting. I do a lot of work in the dark. It's easier than having to turn on the lamp.
But it's worse for your eyes. Lack of ambient light while staring at the screen and backlit board can cause eye strain.
For me, backlighting is primarily for aesthetics, not functionality. Partly because there aren't any really nice backlit caps. Best ones I've tried are Cherry Legend Replicas.
I prefer thick caps that don't let light through, so it mostly just provides a nice background glow. That could be why I haven't noticed any flickering on my Pure.
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Back lighting is cool and all but I prefer none. I don't need it to type in low light, and the flipping of the switches to accommodate led's causes problems with costar stabilizers.