To Backlight or Not to Backlight

[Pacifist]

Should I go with backlighting or no for my next board? Caps will probally be thick ABS or PBT. I want to see what other people think.

Also how much power does backlighting drain? If I have a backlit 60% wireless board, would my batteries be significantly affected?

[Ghetto Caps]

back light use less. 

im guessing most of the people on this forum can touch type..



EDIT: your battery will drain like a madaF****  it would at least half your battery life.

any ways... what keyboard are you making

[Pacifist]

back light use less. 

im guessing most of the people on this forum can touch type..



EDIT: your battery will drain like a madaF****  it would at least half your battery life.

any ways... what keyboard are you making

Either sprit or mod a poker. Prefer to make a sprit board, as pokers are expensive. Was thinking about going down the 40% road, but it doesn't have a full alpha set. Put on an alum plate, ergo clears, an alum case, and I'll have a good travel board.

Either that or filco minila air or some other wireless board. Maybe matias has a 60% wireless board with quiet switches in the workings.

[Ghetto Caps]

back light use less. 

im guessing most of the people on this forum can touch type..



EDIT: your battery will drain like a madaF****  it would at least half your battery life.

any ways... what keyboard are you making

Either sprit or mod a poker. Prefer to make a sprit board, as pokers are expensive. Was thinking about going down the 40% road, but it doesn't have a full alpha set. Put on an alum plate, ergo clears, an alum case, and I'll have a good travel board.

Either that or filco minila air or some other wireless board. Maybe matias has a 60% wireless board with quiet switches in the workings.

Cool, personally i think wireless is not reliable for keyboards yet and not that use fil due to the fact your keyboard does not move like your mouse.
If your planning to travel with some laptop setup just get a short cable that's the perfect length.

[keymaster]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

[Pacifist]

back light use less. 

im guessing most of the people on this forum can touch type..



EDIT: your battery will drain like a madaF****  it would at least half your battery life.

any ways... what keyboard are you making

Either sprit or mod a poker. Prefer to make a sprit board, as pokers are expensive. Was thinking about going down the 40% road, but it doesn't have a full alpha set. Put on an alum plate, ergo clears, an alum case, and I'll have a good travel board.

Either that or filco minila air or some other wireless board. Maybe matias has a 60% wireless board with quiet switches in the workings.

Cool, personally i think wireless is not reliable for keyboards yet and not that use fil due to the fact your keyboard does not move like your mouse.
If your planning to travel with some laptop setup just get a short cable that's the perfect length.

I'd like a bluetooth board to use with a phone.

[Ghetto Caps]

back light use less. 

im guessing most of the people on this forum can touch type..



EDIT: your battery will drain like a madaF****  it would at least half your battery life.

any ways... what keyboard are you making

Either sprit or mod a poker. Prefer to make a sprit board, as pokers are expensive. Was thinking about going down the 40% road, but it doesn't have a full alpha set. Put on an alum plate, ergo clears, an alum case, and I'll have a good travel board.

Either that or filco minila air or some other wireless board. Maybe matias has a 60% wireless board with quiet switches in the workings.

Cool, personally i think wireless is not reliable for keyboards yet and not that use fil due to the fact your keyboard does not move like your mouse.
If your planning to travel with some laptop setup just get a short cable that's the perfect length.

I'd like a bluetooth board to use with a phone.

dang your hardcore... i just use a cheapo Anker Bluetooth one.

[Pacifist]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

Yea. At first I thought it was just a 60% minus the top row. Turns out it does that plus chop off extra keys. I can memorize one layer plus part of another, but not two.

With thick caps, the backlighting surrounds the caps right, making your board glow in a sense?

[keymaster]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

Yea. At first I thought it was just a 60% minus the top row. Turns out it does that plus chop off extra keys. I can memorize one layer plus part of another, but not two.

With thick caps, the backlighting surrounds the caps right, making your board glow in a sense?

Yes, this is a good example of what I'm talking about:

[Ghetto Caps]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

Yea. At first I thought it was just a 60% minus the top row. Turns out it does that plus chop off extra keys. I can memorize one layer plus part of another, but not two.

With thick caps, the backlighting surrounds the caps right, making your board glow in a sense?

Yes, this is a good example of what I'm talking about:

Show Image

The thing is...  He wants to go wireless, Im pretty sure he can't power 60 leds off batteries for a reasonable amount of time

[ebacho]

If your phone supports it you could just use an OTG cable instead of wireless/bluetooth.

[keymaster]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

Yea. At first I thought it was just a 60% minus the top row. Turns out it does that plus chop off extra keys. I can memorize one layer plus part of another, but not two.

With thick caps, the backlighting surrounds the caps right, making your board glow in a sense?

Yes, this is a good example of what I'm talking about:

Show Image

The thing is...  He wants to go wireless, Im pretty sure he can't power 60 leds off batteries for a reasonable amount of time

Then I would say for him to go wireless instead of having backlighting. I don't see the point of a wireless keyboard in most home setups, however.

[acidtrip69]

I don't have any backlighting on mine. it helps you learn to type by feel faster, but if you are going to get a keyboard with no lighting you HAVE to get thick PTB caps its must. If you want backlighting you can go abs or normal ptb caps i would go for the ptb caps

[exitfire401]

I don't have any backlighting on mine. it helps you learn to type by feel faster, but if you are going to get a keyboard with no lighting you HAVE to get thick PTB caps its must. If you want backlighting you can go abs or normal ptb caps i would go for the ptb caps

I wholeheartedly agree here. Thick PBT all the way, but personally, I would suggest them whether you go backlit or not. I have some KBT Thick white/red doubleshots on my new board, and the lighting effect is really cool.

[rowdy]

Not really backlit - on a wireless keyboard the increased drain on the battery would not be worth the slight underkey glow.

If you were going for backlight-friendly keycaps, then there might be a slightly greater incentive to go backlit, but again I would probably steer away from it due to battery usage.

[SpAmRaY]

The biggest question you've got to ask yourself is, are you going to use your keyboard in the dark?

[HipsterPunks]

The biggest question you've got to ask yourself is, are you going to use your keyboard in the dark?

[regack]

1) Do you like backlighting?

   No: Then why are we having this discussion?

   Yes: see question #2


2) Can you turn the backlighting on and off at will?

   No: Skip the backlighting

   Yes: See question #3


3) Will it always be wireless? (i.e. is wireless an add-on or a permanent mod?)
     
   Yes: Skip the backlighting, it would cost more and eat your batteries. 

   No: See question #4


4) If it still has a usb port, will you ever plug it in with cable?

   No: Skip the backlighting, it would cost more and eat your batteries.

   Yes: Get the board with backlighting and use it (the backlighting) situationally.

 

[moonexe]

40% just sounds like it would be a pain to use... Go with 60% minimum.

I like backlighting with thick, non-backlit keycaps. This seems to be popular among the Korean crowd as well.

Yea. At first I thought it was just a 60% minus the top row. Turns out it does that plus chop off extra keys. I can memorize one layer plus part of another, but not two.

With thick caps, the backlighting surrounds the caps right, making your board glow in a sense?

Yes, this is a good example of what I'm talking about:

Show Image

Is that aftermarket lighting? I'd love to have something similar on my G80...

[HPE1000]

I am not a huge backlighting fan, but I am going to backlight my board from sprit and use thick abs keycaps on it, GMK classic beige to be exact. I like the glow from under affect WAY more than glowing through the keycaps.


Although, I am going to say, I don't think any configuration of sprits board is going to be cheaper than a poker 2. Poker 2 can be had for 100-120.

Minimum price for sprits board

$50- PCB
$20- Cheapest Plate available from sprit (acrylic, not even metal)
$45- Lets say this is the cost of switches
$10- Leds
$???- What case are you putting it in???
$8- Stabilizers
$20-40- Shipping

There is probably even more cost behind it, soldering supplies, etc.

[eddie]

Backlights are pretty useless unless you're typing in the dark and can't touch type. If you can use blanks then there is no reason to have backlighting.

[moonexe]

I don't even touch-type and even I can use blanks...
Backlighting just looks cool. And sometimes looking cool is worth it.

[noisyturtle]

Do whatever you like most. Why do you need us to tell you how to live your life?

[moonexe]

Do whatever you like most. Why do you need us to tell you how to live your life?

Did you even read the original post? The concerns about battery life are the reason for his question, not whether or not others approve of his preference...

[SpAmRaY]

Pacifist if you do backlight make sure you get plenty of these 

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51126.0

[Pacifist]

Pacifist if you do backlight make sure you get plenty of these 

http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=51126.0

I already own some.

I am not a huge backlighting fan, but I am going to backlight my board from sprit and use thick abs keycaps on it, GMK classic beige to be exact. I like the glow from under affect WAY more than glowing through the keycaps.


Although, I am going to say, I don't think any configuration of sprits board is going to be cheaper than a poker 2. Poker 2 can be had for 100-120.

Minimum price for sprits board

$50- PCB
$20- Cheapest Plate available from sprit (acrylic, not even metal)
$45- Lets say this is the cost of switches
$10- Leds
$???- What case are you putting it in???
$8- Stabilizers
$20-40- Shipping

There is probably even more cost behind it, soldering supplies, etc.

I am going to install a custom plate and case and mod the switches and get different caps so I don't want to buy a Poker II. Too much wasted.




Thanks everybody for the suggestions, I have an idea of what I'm going to buy now.