LED Placement

[MagicMan]

I have a question about the placement of the LED lights. Would it matter if they were at the top of the switch or bottom? Would that effect keycaps in anyway?

[katushkin]

I have a question about the placement of the LED lights. Would it matter if they were at the top of the switch or bottom? Would that effect keycaps in anyway?

Boards have them in both configurations. Usually it only affects the way the light shines through the keys themselves. However, when you add things like LED colour changers, you can get into trouble with top mounted LEDs and the close proximity of some cases. I couldn't put an LED colour changer on the Esc key of my Keycool 84 because of the close proximity of the edge of the case.

the LEDs can only go in one place on the switch of course, but the orientation of the switch, I think, does not matter.

[user 18]

It does matter -- LED placement at one end of the switch will affect light distribution. If you have keycaps with backlit legends, you want the LED to be on the same side of the switch as the legend. Many backlit boards mount switches upside down (LED towards the F-row) and put the legend at the top of the key, so the legend is properly lit.

If you're using thick keycaps and just going for an underglow effect, it probably won't make much of a difference.

[MagicMan]

Thanks for the info I guess it wont matter a whole lot because I'm not trying to have it shine through the keycaps.