Question about LED Compatibility and Replacement

[Art of Payce]

I want to change the color of the orange LEDs on this Monoprice MP-GBL4 to white. I might consider up to two additional colors. This board's backlighting is quite dim though. According to this review by RavenII, it's due to 3.18V being shared between two LEDs, meaning 1.59 V each. This might be a dumb question, but I don't know: Is there any way to safely tinker with the voltage for a slightly higher brightness? I'd think not, but I couldn't find pics of the PCB either. In any case, I think I'll settle for the color replacement.

My main question: How and where do I find compatible replacement LEDs? Are all LEDs created equal? What specs do I need to look for? I looked this up on the Reddit mod guide, but I didn't find an answer. Thanks everyGHbody.

[qwack]

If you want your LEDs to be brighter, you have to increase the current, not the voltage (LEDs are constant voltage devices). The LEDs on your keyboard are probably wired in parallel — meaning that voltage is not divided between them. If you want to increase the current flowing across them, you probably need to replace a bunch of resistors (perhaps as much as one per LED, depending on how the current is regulated on this particular keyboard).

Regarding LED shapes, you will probably find this thread interesting: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=54702.0

[Art of Payce]

Thanks a ton, qwack! I learned a lot from that thread. Bookmarked. Your photos of the 1,8mm were great too.

I'm probably going to be satisfied with the stock current levels, but for the sake of knowledge... Would you happen to know how to replace resistors? Also, how do you find out how the current is regulated on a particular board? Would be on the spec sheet or something?

[qwack]

To replace a resistor, just desolder the one you want to remove and solder the new one in place. They must ideally be the same size. Nowadays most keyboards use SMT components (diodes, resistors, and pretty much everything else but the LEDs themselves), which are much smaller and harder to work with, especially if you have little or no experience with soldering.

Manufacturers do not usually disclose the inner working of their keyboard controllers, especially since backlight is still a discriminating feature, so we users are left to determine how a specific backlight works by reverse-engeneering it (identifying the components on the pcb, working out how they are connected and such).