How easy/hard is it to replace LED's with different colors?

[PrisonSex]

I know how to solder, I just don't know how delicate that process is.

[rowdy]

As an alternative you could try the LED colour changers - little plastic insets that go under the keycap.  There is an IC for those atm.  Work best with white LEDs.

[PrisonSex]

As an alternative you could try the LED colour changers - little plastic insets that go under the keycap.  There is an IC for those atm.  Work best with white LEDs.

Right but my LED's are Red, so unless I like purple/orange and other shades of red I don't think those covers will give me a very wide color choice.

[rowdy]

As an alternative you could try the LED colour changers - little plastic insets that go under the keycap.  There is an IC for those atm.  Work best with white LEDs.

Right but my LED's are Red, so unless I like purple/orange and other shades of red I don't think those covers will give me a very wide color choice.

Heh no.  Same here - my backlit boards are red and green.

[Dreamre]

It's not hard, but it just takes time to do. Be prepared to spend the afternoon desoldering and resoldering the new LEDs.

[tp4tissue]

It's not hard, but it just takes time to do. Be prepared to spend the afternoon desoldering and resoldering the new LEDs.

if you get one of those bigger soldering tips it's quite fast to change the leds

[PointyFox]

Takes me about 20 minutes.  I do have a vacuum desoldering gun though..

[kolonelkadat]

Takes me about 20 minutes.  I do have a vacuum desoldering gun though..

lol thats cheating! Without one of those I cant imagine it taking less than several hours.

[tp4tissue]

Takes me about 20 minutes.  I do have a vacuum desoldering gun though..

lol thats cheating! Without one of those I cant imagine it taking less than several hours.

LED won't take several hours....

the only thing that takes several hours is switch swap.. lube.. stem swap.. that stuff is killer.

[dorkvader]

Do you have a multimeter?

Red LEDs will have higher resistance current limiting resistors (on many cases) so moving to almost any other LED will result in it not using as much power as it could. If you also desolder the resistors and replace them with lower valued ones you'll end up with brighter LEDs overall.

That said, blue / white LEDs usually have a higher luminous efficacy rating, and will produce more lumens per watt. you will probably be okay just desoldering them and soldering in new ones.

[AGmurdercore]

I have found it super mega hard to desolder the LEDs. No idea if the problem is from me, form the iron i am using or what but this thing is really pain in the ass from my perspective. Soldering the new once is easy tho but the desoldering is making me want to cry :X

[zoolzoo]

I have found it super mega hard to desolder the LEDs. No idea if the problem is from me, form the iron i am using or what but this thing is really pain in the ass from my perspective. Soldering the new once is easy tho but the desoldering is making me want to cry :X

I just bought suction desoldering iron from Radioshack for 14.99. Man was it worth it compared to soldering wick, especially for those little LED holes. Those are a pain in the ass with wick. I would get one seriously.

Actually I didnt think have high hopes because it was so cheap...but it works so well.

[dorkvader]

With some cheap soldering irons I couldn't melt some of the lead free solder on a motherboard recently. I had to flow some lead solder onto the area, which allowed me to heat it thoroughly and remove/ replace the component.

You may have similar issues with lead free solder on various boards. I haven't tried a cheap iron on a keyboard yet, but it might go smoothly.

Make sure you have a tip that's the right size.

[Pacifist]

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

[AGmurdercore]

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

Show Image

I have no real idea what these are but from the name you gave them these seem really interesting.

[dorkvader]

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

Show Image

I have no real idea what these are but from the name you gave them these seem really interesting.

They look like D-sub pins to me.

[kolonelkadat]

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

Show Image

I have no real idea what these are but from the name you gave them these seem really interesting.

looks like machine pin headers to my eyes. or at least thats what I would use.

[Pacifist]

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

Show Image

I have no real idea what these are but from the name you gave them these seem really interesting.

looks like machine pin headers to my eyes. or at least thats what I would use.

Whatabout those solderless LED holders?

Like these

Show Image

I have no real idea what these are but from the name you gave them these seem really interesting.

They look like D-sub pins to me.

Thanks guys

Pacifist, maybe it's not clear on the pics but that is a plate where you can use tools to open the switches. It came from the_Beast. So yes, you can still open the switch up since the pins are inserted in the bottom half of the switch.

For the LED pins I'll just copy what I said over at DT:

About the LED pins, I originally had the inspiration from an article on KBDMania. I only found the article again after I already did the mod 
http://www.kbdmania.net/xe/index.php?mid=best_article&document_srl=6246034&6246034_cpage=1

This guy tried different approaches to use these female headers. I also tried different things but figured I didn't want to do the effort of chamfering all of them precisely so I just cut them open completely and used only the pins. I did this for a whole keyboard as well, took me quite some time.

You can find em very cheap on Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3Pcs-Single-Row-40Pin-2-54mm-Round-Female-Pin-Header-/140910386490?ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:BE:3160

But be advised, you have to be mentally prepared to do this for a whole keyboard   

You can see how I did it for a Ducky Shine II TKL here:
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=50784.0

[tp4tissue]

With some cheap soldering irons I couldn't melt some of the lead free solder on a motherboard recently. I had to flow some lead solder onto the area, which allowed me to heat it thoroughly and remove/ replace the component.

You may have similar issues with lead free solder on various boards. I haven't tried a cheap iron on a keyboard yet, but it might go smoothly.

Make sure you have a tip that's the right size.

Motherboards are different vs keyboard because they usually use higher quality solder, AND on the other side, I'm assuming was a Large Cap you're trying to desolder..

Large caps act like heatsinks and absorb the heat from soldering.. which is why it can be hard to get them off.