Backlit keyboards suck!

[typo]

I have had many backlit keyboards. The LED's go bad sooner or later. Never anywhere near the rated 50,000 hours or more. Deck's original keyboard said 200,000 hours. 7 boards lasted a few months.I do not think any serious typist would be using a backlit keyboard?

[romevi]

They're a cool novelty, but the one keyboard I add them on I wound up turning them off. Of course, I still keep my LEDs for locks, but for quotidian use they remain off.

[nelamvr6]

You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't share that opinion.

And I'd have to say that my experience with backlit keyboards is very different from yours. I've never experienced a failure of an led on a backlit board.

[nguyenhimself]

I have had many backlit keyboards. The LED's go bad sooner or later. Never anywhere near the rated 50,000 hours or more. Deck's original keyboard said 200,000 hours. 7 boards lasted a few months.I do not think any serious typist would be using a backlit keyboard?

>I have these problems
>Therefore everyone in the world must also have these problems
>I am the world. Nobody else matters.
FYI this is you right now.

[romevi]

I have had many backlit keyboards. The LED's go bad sooner or later. Never anywhere near the rated 50,000 hours or more. Deck's original keyboard said 200,000 hours. 7 boards lasted a few months.I do not think any serious typist would be using a backlit keyboard?

>I have these problems
>Therefore everyone in the world must also have these problems
>I am the world. Nobody else matters.
FYI this is everyone right now.

ftfy

[typo]

My bad then. I figured this plagued all of them. If it is just me chalk that up to bad luck. I have had so many LED failures it is silly. Honestly though you do not often see these in offices(if they are provided by the Employer). I thought the new ones were SMD so would be better but they seem to all still be hole through. It is not actually bad LED's usually in fact. It is bad soldering. That is a lot of extra solder. For instance Topre is but very simple and reliable. The RGB adds all that soldering. Just like failures of Cherry switches compared to Topre. More Cherry's fail than Topre I take it. Still, I did not mean this the way you folks feel I did. Let me rephrase "backlit keyboards suck for ME".

[tp4tissue]

Static charge kills leds.

Make sure ur computer is grounded properly, shouldn't have an issue.

[Sintpinty]

Backlit keyboards, although might be looking "cool" for some people, it serves no purpose.

Some person asked a question on Quora that said "Do backlit keyboards make my typing faster"?

[frydaja]

The only problem I had with a backlit board was the uniformity of lights, some keys had an orange-ish tint on them. Though that's on a really cheap Chinese board.

Otherwise I consider backlighting as an added-value thing, rather than "flashing lights for kids".

[darrenph1]

To each their own. I work in a dark edit bay every day. Having backlit keys isn't a necessity but it sure make its easier to see what you're doing.

[typo]

Oh yes, I do prefer them in dark. It is just that they keep going bad on me. As I said it is the solder, not the LED's. Nothing I cannot fix. Just a pain.

[darrenph1]

Oh yes, I do prefer them in dark. It is just that they keep going bad on me. As I said it is the solder, not the LED's. Nothing I cannot fix. Just a pain.

Good to know. I’m just starting up on learning to build my own. Have a small space cat macro pad coming to start practice on. I’ll eventually need to figure out putting RGB lighting on though since I want to use my builds at work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[typo]

Assembling keyboards is very basic electronics. You do not even need to know how to read a Schematic. Maybe for the controller but probably not in most cases. It is just being handy with an iron. I would most certainly invest in a quality temp controlled soldering station and desoldering station. That is a lot of money unless not so good Chinese brands. So you kind of need to be serious about it. Most of this is done at very low temp like 15-25 watts. Or you will wreck it. You could just get a $10 25 watt iron but it will not cover all bases, difficult to handle and just a royal pain. With quality equipment I can populate a Cherry type board in less than an hour. I can desolder it even quicker. That is all you really need but good ones are costly. It is certainly not advanced electronics. If you want to make key caps with lost wax or whatever that is darn expensive investment too but you can sell them then. To put a LED on a Cherry switch is very easy but they make them already anyways. I just find these backlit boards a lot of cold solder joints. Maybe my luck. No big deal to fix. It is just a pain because it takes much longer to take apart then to do the repair. LED's rarely blow out at 5 volts. It is just the soldering. I thought it was just cheap Chinese boards but my Topre RGB has bad solder joints too.

[rajendra82]

Bad solder joints suck, but they can be on the pins switches or LEDs, but this does not mean backlighting as a feature sucks. It is not forced on you in any way, and can be turned off when typing in a well lit environment. I do it all the time as day changes to night. Some keycap sets only work well in one mode or another, but I chose one that does both pretty well.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Still running a Ducky YOTD from 2012 and all the LEDs are fully functioning

[typo]

Bad solder joints on a Topre RGB can only be on the LED's! I use GMK caps. I like the light shines underneath and not through. Also I have a custom Titanium case and Paracord cable. This is an expensive keyboard now so just upsets me.

[tp4tissue]

                                                                           

To each their own. I work in a dark edit bay every day. Having backlit keys isn't a necessity but it sure make its easier to see what you're doing.

One'd imagine backlit keyboard owners behave in the same manner, as women who wear expensive lingerie under their normal clothing.

It's physically useless and unseen, but makes them _feel_ different/ more confident.

[Sintpinty]

                                                                           

To each their own. I work in a dark edit bay every day. Having backlit keys isn't a necessity but it sure make its easier to see what you're doing.

One'd imagine backlit keyboard owners behave in the same manner, as women who wear expensive lingerie under their normal clothing.

It's physically useless and unseen, but makes them _feel_ different/ more confident.

I don't need rainbow while i'm typing.

[Sup]

Backlit aka show all your filth between your keyboard for the world to see 

[rowdy]

All of my backlit keyboards are still performing perfectly, from an LED perspective.

A couple of them the thin keycaps are wearing out, but these were purchased years ago when ABS keycaps were still a thing.

Like the Ducky Shine Yellow Edition I am using now (with Filco yellow keycaps) all the LEDs are still fine.

[rowdy]

All of my backlit keyboards are still performing perfectly, from an LED perspective.

A couple of them the thin keycaps are wearing out, but these were purchased years ago when ABS keycaps were still a thing.

Like the Ducky Shine Yellow Edition I am using now (with Filco yellow keycaps) all the LEDs are still fine.

And I still think these LEDs are more orange than yellow, but that's a different story.