Colour Difference of Ducky DK9087s and DK9008s, Both White LED models

[Lunartuna]

I have 2 Ducky's here. The DK9087s I bought a couple months ago, and the DK9008s arrived yesterday for my girlfriend. Both are Cherry MX Black with White LED.

The interesting thing is, when they are side by side the DK9087s LED colour is actually very slightly tinted lavender. Whereas the DK9008s LED is a mat white.

I tried my best to capture this on my phone.





You can really see it in this one. Look how much more the mat white DK9008s LED put out a star like glare, and the DK9087s glare is more evenly distributed out.



Personally I think I prefer the slightly tinted lavender LED.

I wonder if this is a consistent difference between all DK9008s and DK9087s? Or possibly produced at different times with different batches of LED's?

[Phaseshift]

where did you get your 9087 white led? I'm trying to look for 9087 white led with brown/blue Cherry MX switches.

[Surnia]

normal batch to batch variation with LEDs; in higher output variants there's a sort of Tint lottery that fall within a certain range that you expect when buying them.

In this case its probably a mixture of tint lottery and general burn out, if you pump a LOT of power out of an LED at the upper extremes of what they can handle, the white LEDs start to shift to the blue end (the yellow phosphor starts to break down). The small diodes also degrade faster due to the fact that their heatsinking is horrible compared to the power LEDs.

[IvanIvanovich]

No, there is just no such thing as pure white with led. All of them will either have a blue or pink shift cold or warm.

[Lunartuna]

They are both from mechanicalkeyboards.com

Cool that's some good info guys. I had no idea.

I guess I did well in the tint lotto. 

[Surnia]

No, there is just no such thing as pure white with led. All of them will either have a blue or pink shift cold or warm.

That's more defined by what you personally consider a pure white: white falls within a wide range of tones with "neutral" sitting at around the 4500-6000K range. There's many arguments of what constitutes a pure white, with the general agreement that its up to personal choice. Key point, Zebralight manufactures their H502 light in multiple temperatures to cater to what people consider a pure white (4000K, 5000K, and a 6300K model) and to varying CRI. My personal tastes put a pure white at the 5000K range, so the H502d rests in my pocket as the perfect light.

The small LED diodes we see in keyboards are likely above that, in the 6500K+ range (Cool white).

[rootwyrm]

No, there is just no such thing as pure white with led. All of them will either have a blue or pink shift cold or warm.

That's more defined by what you personally consider a pure white: white falls within a wide range of tones with "neutral" sitting at around the 4500-6000K range. There's many arguments of what constitutes a pure white, with the general agreement that its up to personal choice. Key point, Zebralight manufactures their H502 light in multiple temperatures to cater to what people consider a pure white (4000K, 5000K, and a 6300K model) and to varying CRI. My personal tastes put a pure white at the 5000K range, so the H502d rests in my pocket as the perfect light.

The small LED diodes we see in keyboards are likely above that, in the 6500K+ range (Cool white).

Depends. Could be process difference as well - the 87's definitely have enough blue cast to be old process InGaN. In fact, I guarantee you that the '87 is old process InGaN. All old process InGaN lamps have a blue cast, especially at lower millicandela and narrower angles. These lamps have both. So yeah, it's InGaN.

Chances are the '88's just new process 6000K+. AllnGaP vs. AlGaAs is very much like night and day - except neither of those processes are relevant or used in 3mm because it doesn't scale downward worth a crap. Almost all 3mm's are actually InGaN process (Indium-Gallium-Nitride) which yes, is same process as with those blindingly bright blue LEDs everybody was putting on everything. The color change is achieved through adjustments to the composition which shifts the wavelength from blue to white.

Based on a variety of factors, I'd say they're probably using latest generation InGaN for a 60deg at around 3V for a roughly 6500K temperature. I'd estimate the mcd on the '08 at around 1000-2000ish and the '87 at -500 from that give or take. It's impossible to tell for sure without a professional photography setup ensuring luminosity and color correctness though.

EDIT: Typo fix. Called '08 '88. Derp.