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Author Topic: LED indicators too bright on Leopold  (Read 5251 times)

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Offline fohat.digs

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« on: Mon, 02 April 2012, 19:43:20 »
I have a full-size Leopold blue that I like pretty well, but the 3 LED indicator lights are a blindingly bright blue.

I understand that my eyes are more sensitive than most, but the brightness of these is ridiculous. It interferes with my use of the board, especially in subdued lighting. And don't say "turn off NumLock" because the numpad is very important to me.

My next Cherry board will probably be a Filco, has anyone compared the LEDs side-by-side to discern whether they are a little easier on the retinas?

I have no problem doing the bits of tape over the lights, but that is just soooo ghetto ......
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Offline 1391401

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #1 on: Mon, 02 April 2012, 20:43:12 »
I agree!  I just got my first Leopold today, it's a tenkeyless and the LEDs are insanely bright.  I bought it for use at work so it won't be so bad but in dim light it is very annoying.  That being said, I noticed if I stick a regular key cap over top it will illuminate through the key cap ... might be a quick fix if you don't mind losing the window?

edit - nm lol I guess it doesn't work on full size cause the LEDs are on the board not the keys
« Last Edit: Mon, 02 April 2012, 21:07:45 by 1391401 »
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Offline Exort

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #2 on: Mon, 02 April 2012, 20:50:45 »
The Filco one are very bright, too.
Since I never look at the keyboard it doesn't matter to me.
« Last Edit: Mon, 02 April 2012, 21:19:35 by Exort »
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Offline Awful

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 02 April 2012, 21:02:01 »
The yellow ones on my Filco yellow edition are super bright. They hurt my eyes in the dark, thankfully I have no reason to ever have them lit unless I'm nerd raging on someone in-game.
« Last Edit: Fri, 06 April 2012, 21:06:42 by Awful »
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Offline darksakul

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #4 on: Tue, 03 April 2012, 00:58:33 »
I am thinking for very bright LEDs, there are a few solutions.

1. Easiest but cheesy, electric tape. No Light to bother you but its Ghetto.
2. Some kind filter over the LED, something to allow the light to pass though but will diffuse the light or something that is tinted to limit the amount of light that passes though
3. the most hard core, add resistors to the LED to reduce the brightness of the LED it self
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Offline mrmatt

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #5 on: Tue, 03 April 2012, 01:01:33 »
Try nail polish over the LEDs.
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Offline bionicroach

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 03 April 2012, 01:27:04 »
Maybe something like this would work?

http://lightdims.com/
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Offline HolidaySHRIMP

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #7 on: Tue, 03 April 2012, 02:13:48 »
Just took a sharpie to mine and they are significantly dimmer.  Was only able to hit the top and 1/2 of the sides because of the top half of cover but it did the trick nicely.
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Offline Human

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #8 on: Tue, 03 April 2012, 02:26:01 »
Blinding bright? Clearly you have not met ss7g or noppoo choc pro b4...
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Offline darksakul

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #9 on: Thu, 05 April 2012, 21:22:39 »
Just got my Leopold, yes those LEDs are bright, I ended up applying white vinyl electric tape to the inside of the Keyboard case where the LED indicator windows are.
The White tape is on the inside and should not interfere with anything, and the tape diffuses the light so the blue LEDs are not as bright.
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Offline tp4tissue

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #10 on: Fri, 06 April 2012, 07:26:26 »
You know what'd be really easy?  Stop looking at it!!!!
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Offline rknize

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #11 on: Fri, 06 April 2012, 16:51:02 »
They just love to use water-clear, narrow field LEDs on consumer electronics.  I have no idea why...I guess because it looks cool.  It's pretty much the worst choice for an indicator.  Even when you drop the current significantly with series resistance, the lens really focuses the remaining light.  At least 10k of series resistance is usually needed to quell the blue ones.  Sometimes more.  One trick, if you don't want to replace them, is to etch the LED lens with some fine sandpaper.  An opaque case works better for an indicator.  A quick fix is a sharpie, as someone else pointed out.  :)
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Offline NorrisB

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #12 on: Fri, 06 April 2012, 19:51:33 »
The McRip Effect
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Offline Pylon

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #13 on: Fri, 06 April 2012, 20:07:40 »
Soldering iron + resistors.
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Offline tp4tissue

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #14 on: Sat, 07 April 2012, 00:48:27 »
Quote from: rknize;569261
They just love to use water-clear, narrow field LEDs on consumer electronics.  I have no idea why...I guess because it looks cool.  It's pretty much the worst choice for an indicator.  Even when you drop the current significantly with series resistance, the lens really focuses the remaining light.  At least 10k of series resistance is usually needed to quell the blue ones.  Sometimes more.  One trick, if you don't want to replace them, is to etch the LED lens with some fine sandpaper.  An opaque case works better for an indicator.  A quick fix is a sharpie, as someone else pointed out.  :)

Put a thick layer of scotch tape on the inside of the clear cap window, helps diffuse the light
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Offline lucidlts

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LED indicators too bright on Leopold
« Reply #15 on: Sun, 08 April 2012, 08:55:50 »
Quote from: Human;565431
Blinding bright? Clearly you have not met ss7g or noppoo choc pro b4...

SS "fixed" the blinding white LED in 6GV2 from what I've compared with my 7G and 6GV2. :P
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