UL30 Backlit Keyboard Mod

thanks hydra, helped a whole bunch. i'll make sure to take a snapshot of the layout before any soldering takes place to avoid messing up.

 

It's In Stock On Asus!!! I Just Ordered One!!!

 

@hydra ... very good advice, for any project :yes:

the q110 is a tiny mcu, and I have had to brush up on my solder skills... fortunately I bought 2 so that if (more like when) I toasted the first I would have a back up to work with.

I also purchased the q113 (for 3.5-5v sources)... just in case... (ten bucks well spent in my opinion... for all 3 mcu)

I am using a .01 uF polyester film pc mount cap... how close did you trim your leads to the cap... and do you heatshrink it as one "package"

For me... I simply took 3 wires.... twist and tinned 3 ends together, and soldered the remaining three ends to the respective ground pins.

As for wire run (length measurements)... I simply went longer than I would need and will trim at terminal ends as neccessary.

Again, great work by all contributors (Soulsabre, Skyrise and now Hydra)...

great thread!

 

Hey guys. I'm a new ul80vt owner. Ive been browsing this thread and have a couple questions. I did a thread search for ul80vt to see if I could find the answer, and while I found a little, i just want to double check.

For the ul80vt, do I follow the same instructions as the original post? Also, do I order the same keyboard that is linked from the original post? Or do I use this one? Or are those the same?

Also, just curious, what is the sgp palm rest? I tried googling it but couldn't really find what it is?

Sorry for the stupid questions that i'm sure have been answered numerous times already!

Thanks!!

 

If the keyboard used by the ul80vt is the same as that of the ul30vt, then I'm sure following the instructions is fine.

SGP palm/wrist rest: SGP Wrist Rest for ASUS UL30VT - eBay Skins Protectors, Laptop Cases Bags, Computer Accessories, Computers Networking. (end time 20-Jun-10 16:49:50 AEST)

 

why not get a multimeter and test a bunch of 5v points, then put the laptop to sleep and test them again to see if any turn off?

i doubt any would turn off, but if you find one, you can use that point

 

finally got mine installed! only thing that is a bit of annoyance (not much) is that because there are so many cables under the keyboard, that if I press down really hard on it in the middle of the keyboard, the lights go out. Not a big deal cos no one would type that hard on the keyboard. Lovin' the backlit keys - missed them so much since coming from a Dell Studio XPS 13!

 

amazing
i can sit here and gloat about all the crazy things we have done to notebooks but this mod makes it atop my list of ingenious mods which puts the best thing i ever done to shame.

 

Can someone with U80 open up their keyboard and find out how things are wired?

It'd really be nice to use function keys for F3 and F4 keys and the Auto on A key.

 

The point that I used as shown in the first post doesn't have any power when it's put to sleep. This all seems really weird that people's backlit still remains on during sleep when mine doesn't...

Haha... thanks? I didn't think it was all that impressive lol.

Here are the pics of the U81... which is (I think) basically the same thing. Here you can see the connector of where the backlit keyboard is supposed to go. It's probably not possible to make the F3 and F4 keys to work since it might be hardware limitation. I can't remember where I got these pics =/

 

I just tried putting my laptop to sleep and to hibernate mode - the backlit keys do turn off when the laptop is set to sleep as well as hibernate mode. Not quite sure why some people are having issues with the LEDs still being on when the laptop is in sleep/hibernate mode. Maybe it depends on which 5v+ point you choose.

 

so F4 key etc probably turns on/off of the 5v connection...gah only if someone could figure this out

 

Has anyone figured out how to install the backlit keyboard for a UL50 yet? I ordered the keyboard from Asus, it will be here tomorrow. I was hoping there would be an easy 5V point to reach under the keyboard but there wasn't (that I could find). I would like to avoid taking apart the entire bottom of the computer to find one but I may have to. Any help/advice would be great.

 

hey bro i just got the u30jc (i5)...awesome except i want a backlit keyboard do you think it will work the same? preciate some feedback.

 

by the way i'm in toronto and if you know someone who will do it i will pay and hopefully then can integrate it into the F4 key or whatever key it is intended to be. I'm not sure what keyboard i have but i have the small shift key on the left side of the keyboard and it is annoying. ebay is sellin from hong kong the american version for 10 bucks + 10 bucks shipping.
preciate your help bro and others.

 

I am trying to bench test my qprox circuit (wow, did I have to improve my soldering skills) before putting it in my laptop.

I have my bench 5vdc powersupply... and I run a test lead (hot) to the (hot) leg of of the qprox circuit, but my question is where do I run the common (if I run it to the common leg of the keyboard it remains lit)?

I am sure that I missing the obvious...

 

Just finished the mod... wow.

Just a couple of thoughts:

1. As previously stated, this is a far superior keyboard to the stock in both feel and response. This really should have been the stock option for the ul30vt.

2. I too used the 5v pad that Soulsabre identified and my lights do go off when putting the laptop to sleep

3. For those interested... so far it appears that the keyboard draws about 1.5-2 extra watts during discharge.... so I would assume this would result in about 35 mins diminished run time. I will keep track of this and post a more accurate reflection after a few discharges.

 

I just finished it too on a different model, check my post in the N71JQ owners lounge:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/457176-asus-n71jq-owners-lounge-106.html#post6337002

N71 and N61 owner's can use the aluminium panel above the keyboard as touch sensor.

Many thanks to Soulsaber and Skyrise!

 

Great job on the backlit keyboard!! I am really amazed at how many people have done this mod now... I never thought it would be so popular haha.

 

Just bought a UL30A-X5 just now...I even got the 1 day shipping. I can't wait!! Can anyone recommend a usb dvd-rw drive?

Also has anyone uninstalled the multi-touch on the trackpad? I'm worried that it's more of a gimmick.

 

get asus external to match it i guess

 

can we get our ul30 series to do the similar with touch sensor? if someone could do like an extremely noobfriendly guide,,, >.<

 

I just called Asus, and the salesperson said they have never carried the backlit keyboard (according to her, it's a brand new item not yet stocked). Says they have it ordered, but it takes at least 3 weeks for them to get it from the factory overseas. As of yet, they've received no confirmation of shipment, so she said it would be at least 3 weeks before they receive any shipments.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/465841-ul30-backlit-keyboard-mod-9.html#post6131157

That's crazy, of course they carried it before, many of us have purchased it there and now it's out of stock lol. You can always try eBay, shipping might end up faster.

 

Do you have an auction number or link handy? I suspect the only one I can find is a non-Asus brand:
Keyboard Backlit US - eBay (item 170496531951 end time Jul-07-10 05:29:17 PDT)

 

Quoted from other thread. Cannot find this thing anywhere. Asus webstore is sold out, and I have no idea whether or not it'd be too small for my A1

 

Nobody knows?

 

NEW ASUS U80 U80A U80V Series US Backlit keyboard Black - eBay (item 170496531106 end time Jul-07-10 05:25:35 PDT)

This should fit ul30 just fine. since my ul50 backlit keyboard was from a ux50.
With bing cashback, this is actually cheaper than the estore one.

 

Thank you very much for your response.

Is that keyboard the same as this one: NEW ASUS UL30 UL30A UL30VT Series Keyboard Backlit US - eBay (item 170496531951 end time Jul-07-10 05:29:17 PDT)

The pictures from the U80 keyboard and the Ul30 keyboard look almost identical.

I bought the keyboard I just inked to and it came today.It was also too small for my UL30VT-A1. It's about an inch smaller on the width, and a half-inch smaller on the length.

This is very frustrating. I didn't think it'd be so hard to get a backlit keyboard for a UL30VT-A1.

 

Oh no - I just bought that same keyboard for my UL30A. If it's wrong, I'm going to be very disappointed! The auction says it is supposed to fit a UL30, UL30A, UL30V!

 

soulsaber....do you know of any place that can do the mod with the key active to turn the keyboard on and off. I would rather pay someone to do it.

 

I received the keyboard yesterday from this ebay auction:

NEW ASUS U80 U80A U80V Series US Backlit keyboard Black - eBay (item 170496531106 end time Jul-07-10 05:25:35 PDT)

and I can say with certainty that this is the correct size. It is not an inch too small for my UL30A-X4, and I believe the same keyboard is used in all UL30 and UL80 notebooks.

For those wondering about the back plate, it does come off fairly easily, but you have to unscrew all of those screws on the back and the difficult part is that the screws require a VERY small screwdriver. We had some tiny screwdrivers and even most of them were too big. Finally I was able to get all of the screws out, and then I had to carefully pull the two cables off of the backplate (they are taped on) and then carefully slip the cables through the notch in the backplate as I removed it. I'll post some pictures when I have a minute.

 

Another question: for those of you that switched the faceplate to the original silver one, how did you re-glue it? I can't seem to get the plate to sit all the way down on the keyboard, it only sticks in spots.

 

To the people that are able to sleep with the lights off, could you highlight or point out specifically which solder points were used to gain this effect? Also could you verify the exact model ul30 as there is a few slight variations. Thank you.

You have peeked my interest and I will probably open mine up and check it myself this week.

Also, to stilljammin: after taking the faceplate off, you cannot really properly restore it as u have broken the riveted plastic bonds holding i together. You could glue it but I do not know how that would go. Mine luckily snaps back in enough spots to hold it.

Cheers all and Welcome to the Backlit UL30 club.

 

Hmm... I guess if you got all the parts you could find a experienced solder person to do it for you... but I am not sure where you would find someone like that.

I used epoxy to stick it onto all those little points (just a really small amount on all the pokey things). Works perfectly.

The spot/pad I used is this one here:

 

Yes soulsabre, thank you. So the other pad(s) the ones above that have sleeps leds on. I will be switching mine soon, thank you. I might even glue my bezel down too.

 

That's a good idea. I think most of mine broke off unfortunately.

 

stilljammin, the clearance between the face plate and the keys isn't much, so if u just used a bit more glue, it would still stick. I glued mine successfully with a a gel-like glue last weekend, try something out use your head.

 

Has anyone worked out if its possible to use the Fn or F keys to control the backlit keyboard's on/off function - they must have this ability on other models that the keyboard's actually designed for?

I am also seconding the creation of a noob-friendly guide to installing (with an on/off switch)!

 

Well this notebook doesn't have a native power source for the keyboard's backlitting system, others are just using 5V power connections that are free on the motherboard. That's why it's so difficult, you can't just turn those power sources on or off with a flick of a switch so easily because they were meant for something else. The best shot of doing this would be going through a USB port, then binding a keystroke to execute a script to enable/disable that USB port.

 

I have my UL80VT, backlit keyboard, and conductive glue ready to go... but has anyone installed one of these on a UL80VT yet? I'm having trouble finding a +5 source... the guts are different from the UL30 or U81.

 

It should be relatively easy to find a +5V source... you gotta use a voltmeter to find one. Just poke one end to a grounded area (like a chassis screw) and then the other just poking around random points.

 

Hello,

Since i was looking for a new notebook i recently ordered a UL30VT (long! batterylife, light! and still able to play my steam games on the go).

But i really! wanted a backlit keyboard, but buying anything like the ul30vt is twice the price and often doesn't include an extra GPU for games (like the snoy s series or z series <- very expensive)

So when i found this topic i was thrilled.. i already ordered my backlit keyboard from ebay (only 20dollar or something) and i will receive my UL30VT next week.

But i would really love having the hotkeys that are able to turn my backlit for the keyboard on and of..
So i thought, why not sacrifice one USB port (i already have a ultra light notebook and i seldom need three usb ports at once, and if i do, i could easily use an extra hub). And make something that is detected by the OS and is able to turn the 5V on and of with software?

So i created this little program:


It will enable or disable an USB to UART controller. I managed to grab a USB to UART cable for only a few bucks from a hardware/computer store used for those matrix signs, you can program them from an USB port just like old computers used to do with there COM1 port.
So this is a very little logical board that is stuffed into your usb port and is detected by the OS as an COM1 (or 2 or 3 etc..) port.
nd it is very easy to send something through the COM port - and sending a signal is done by 5V bursts..

So check this:


I enabled my usb port from software and now it's transmitting ~5V (sometimes 4 or 5.5 - but this is probably due the test circumstances) with the hotkeys of my laptop (it's not the UL30VT yet but it will work on every laptop or usb port). As you can see the popup of my asus program turned the usb on .. nd when i turn it of, the usb is back to 0V.

I'm going to 'shrink' this cable to a smaller size (strip everything of) and solder it into the notebook to one of the USB ports.
I hope to show the results asap (probably later next week when i received all my stuff). Really hope this will work Looks promising so far.

 

Wow, cybertim, I really don't understand half of what you said, but that sounds really cool! Keep us posted on your results.

 

I've been following this thread with great interest. I've noticed Farnells (UK) are out of stock of the chip so was thinking of other things to adjust the on/off mechanism. Presumably the LED backlight is designed to work at variable voltage (changed by the F3, f4 buttons) to change the brightness of the light incrementally. Could this be achieved by installing in series a simple slider variable resistor, like on a set of headphones, to adjust this voltage from 0v to 5v.
Would anyone be able to test this concept, or diregard it due to some electircal theory which i have no idea about?
cheers

 

I like both of your ideas above,

Cybertim, do you think you'll be able to split the usb inside the laptop and use that perhaps to keep all usb ports alive? I'm looking forward to your results too. Being able to turn on/off the backlit with the hotkey would be amazing

 

It probably is possible to put something between the 'power' connection of the little logic board from the usb-uart and the usb-port connected to the mainboard. Maybe the qt110 chip, so you can put the usb-uart peripheral on and off, and while off, use something else connected in the usb port.

I received my ul30vt today, still waiting for the keyboard tho.
So there is no progress on testing it on the actual keyboard yet.
But i did extract the little logicboard from the usb-to-uart cable from the cable, and it's very small:



I also noticed on the voltage meter (multi meter) that it can send 3 and 5V signals.. so with a bit of luck it could be possible to also dim the keyboard backlit.

Hope i receive my keyboard soon so i can give you an update about this.

 

I also have a question regarding this mod.

I saw this and thought it was awesome (i have just enough technical prowess to complete the basic setup) , and on impulse bought wire glue and a backlit keyboard, but after learning that there's no built in way to turn it off (a stupid mistake on my part, should have read this entire thread), i'm concerned about only one real thing:

in essence, how bright is it? (i know you can't really see it in daylight, thats a given) but my one true concern is that its bright enough to be distracting while watching a movie in the dark, for instance, on a heavily dimmed airplane (does the glossy screen reflect it alot, causing a distraction as well?)

the parts are already on order, can't change that, its just up to me to install it, and this could very well be a dealbreaker (constant-on i can deal with, hopefully)

thanks in advance

 

cool cool, let's wait til cybertim gets to work on this mod, i can't wait

 

would anyone mind adding additional pictures of their setup installation of the backlight keyboard from the asus ul30 series?
thanks