UL30 Backlit Keyboard Mod

Great job on the banner and organizing your first post Soulsaber, but maybe you can add a link to ncc170k and cybertim's up there with skyrise's link. Just a though to help the thread be easier to navigate and even mroe legit ;-)

 

Hey guys, i saw the banner, it seems like theres different colours? is it possible to change it?

 

Unfortunately the keyboards from the banner are not really our backlit keyboard. It's false advertising on soulsaber's part. For now the only option is white, unless someone is brave enough to do some LED swaps on their keyboard.

 

What's the lowest level gauge I can use that will work? Will 16 work? 10?

 

By "low" I think you mean the thinnest wires, which would actually have a higher gauge (30, 35, etc). A 30 gauge wire has about .1 ohm of resistance per foot, which is not that high given its thin diameter. if you wanna use 35 gauge, the resistance triples to about .3 ohm per foot. So as long as you dont use some crazy thin wire like 40 gauge, you should be safe, as the current draw from the LEDs is pretty low.

 

This thread had inspired me to implement a similar solution on my N71JQ.

You can have a look at my mode here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...-n71jq-backlight-keyboard-implementation.html

I have modified the touch sensor control circuit and implemented a touch pad sensor that is hidden behind plastic.

 

NEW ASUS G72 G72GX G73 G73JH US BLACK KEYBOARD BACKLIT - eBay (item 310234325205 end time Aug-15-10 02:46:49 PDT)

this should work for the UL50

 

yep, except shipping from china is going to take a loooooooong time, get his one instead.
NEW ASUS G73 G73JH Keyboard With Backlit - eBay (item 260636169089 end time Aug-14-10 20:31:05 PDT)

 

i wish the dimming would work or i didnt have to hack in some stuff to make it work...

 

where are you putting the touch sensor?

 

yeah but that one doesnt have arrows on wasd

 

i tried reading over and understanding the earlier post on this matter, but i still find this slightly confusing and daunting.

How exactly do we switch the keys so that we can replace the black backboard with the silver one like in the OP? The black looks out of place with my mostly silver Asus

 

I Know But They Look Cool!

 

Yup you pretty much have to pry off that layer carefully... be careful not to snap the frame in half or something. After you get it off you have to use some sort of glue/epoxy to put back on all the little points sticking out to put it back together.

 

First post updated with links and stuff. Thanks for the suggestion, hopefully people will find this helpful!

It's not entirely false, the keyboard on the right of the banner is that of the UL30!

If anyone wants to know, the purple keyboard is a Saitek Eclipse II and the orange one is a i-rocks KR-6820E-BK backlit "gaming" keyboard.

 

Looks great! + rep for you good sir. Hopefully I'll be adding something to the thread(color mod) when my keyboard and laptop get here.

 

hey, how do we strip off the rubber isolation of the thin wire gauge?

 

wire strippers?

I'd love to see a more integrated solution for the keyboard dimming/ power etc...

Any one build the touch sensor? how did that work out ? will it "sense" through the case? Are there conditions as where to place it, like some where too thick or too thin etc..?

 

Hey,

I built a touch sensor. I placed it in the ram compartment right on the plastic bridge between the two sticks. I had to file a bit of the metal coating on the plastic cover for it to be able to sense. the touch sensor is very responsive and i am completely happy with the mod.

I placed the IC next to the HD and wired the sensor to the ram compartment next door. i do have to tilt the laptop to toggle on/off (no dimming). But i wasn't willing to take apart the case any further and i was not sure if i could pull off making the sensor next to the keyboard.

as i stated on an earlier post, i was helped by my engineer friend so my technical knowledge of the circuit is not amazing

hope this helps!

 

Soulsaber,

I saw on your original photo that your backlit keyboard had the identical cable as your stock keyboard. Where did you find yours?

I also did some test of the backlit keyboard and confirmed the LED had a decent brightness when driven with 10mA of current (Voltage was at about 3-4V). I am considering driving the LEDs with an LED driver chip to improve power efficiency instead of powering of the 5V line.

 

I got mine directly from ASUS from the link I posted in the first post ( http://estore.asus.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=5277), but this has been out of stock ever since I posted this guide it seems haha...

 

if i have a U80A laptop, can i just buy a backlit keyboard and straight swap it out for the backlit verson without any soldering?

 

out of curiosity, could you wire it to a usb and then disable or enable the usb in windows to turn it on or off? you might have to find the right one from the root hub but im wondering if it could be done.

 

If I buy an Backlit keyboard just to get a better keyboard but with no plans to connecting the wires will it be ok? (I'm pretty sure the answer will be yes but I'm asking just in case )

 

yes it will be but it wont light up

 

But then USB wouldn't work, I almost always have my g9 connected... and laptop cooler.

 

Just an update on my alternative power source idea...

IT WORKS! I'm amazed because nobody came up with something like this in 28 pages. I just squeezed two wires coming from the keyboard on both sides of a 3 volt watch battery and it lit up. All that's left is to run the wire so it gets to the battery in the RAM compartment (yeah it fits; in fact 6 would fit if I wanted it to light up more....) and to a switch on the side... So what is the best possible switch for small spaces???

 

any success on the u30jc?

 

This sounds interesting, could you provide some pictures?

 

Because your method requires you to constantly replace the battery.

 

The elegant solution would be to use a hidden touch sensor like me.

Your method will work, but it is not a solution where you do it one time and then just use it without any regular maintenance (replacing batteries).

 

I just did the mod but the lights on my keyboard arent that bright, if its almost totally dark i can def see the lights, but otherwise I cant, they dont look as bright at the pics on the first page. Could i have gotten a crappy keyboard? or did i hook it up wrong? its def working though. I used 30AWG wire i got from radioshack and the wire glue with some crazy glue on top to secure it. thanks!

 

I had the same problem when I used the wire glue. Maybe I got crappy wire glue or maybe wire glue just sucks, but for me the solution was to solder it. Once I did that, the lights were super-bright and noticeable even in daylight. I'm betting that's the problem you're having, too.

 

Yes as mnrbradley mentioned, the wire glue does not work very well. It seems that it has high amount of resistance. I tried it also and had the same problem. The keyboard was not getting enough voltage.
Soldering was the solution for me as well.

 

Has anyone done this with the UL50 series successfully? If so, what 5v source did you locate? I managed to ruin my original keyboard, and of course it is out of stock, so I ordered a G51 keyboard. I am assuming they are compatible, since its the same size and such, just the G51 has backlighting, so I might as well hook it up!

 

would the battery idea be a good way of just testing the illumination part of the keyboard? for the life of me cannot get it to lightup, the keyboard itself works fine after sliding in the just the main cable part, so im trying to narrow down whats wrong. I just wanted to test it at first so im only using tape to hold things in place but it wont give me any joy. Now im trying to narrow down what could be wrong, is it possible for that flimsy data strip to be faulty? is there a way to check? I thought maybe it was the wire i was using, its from a soldering kit i bought 2 yrs ago and barely touched so its sat in a shoebox all this time however i was able to do the simple lightbulb trick with a AA battery and it lit-up so now im not so sure whats to do next, just lookin for some idea tbh.

 

Just ordered one of these keyboards to put in my UL80Vt

Awesome mod and I think it will make this great notebook even better!

 

Have you grounded it? It needs to be grounded to light up.

 

If you broke off some of the 'clamps' that hold down the keyboard, any ideas on what you could use to hold it down? I tried using double sided tape, but it was very thick and not sticky enough. Would very thin/strong tape work better?

 

well for whatever reason now i can get it work, i was grounding it at the same screw point that was indicated with a red arrow in one of your diagrams, i think it was the wiring itself not holding in place at the point from the keyboard cable like it was sliding out of position from the contact (it was crap tape tbh)

i believe a glue/epoxy was mentioned in previous pages however i guess theres no changing it back once thats done.

 

I just finished doing my U30jc, it uses the same keyboard as the one that has been used here by everyone.
The only problem that i had was finding the 5V connection because it looks very different then the pics that are posted here.
I ended up opening my dvd drive and soldering the wire on the sata power connector, from there i routed the cable to the keyboard.
It was pretty easy to do as soon as i found that 5V line.

 

Alternatively, you could have taken the supply from 5V pin of any of the USB ports.

 

I wanted to do that but then i have to open up the laptop and i didn't wanna go that far.
Right now i just took out the dvd drive which is very easy and it is also very easy to remove if i have to send it in for warranty work.
I think this is the best mod you can do to the U30jc, i really like the laptop but it was just missing the backlit keyboard.
I am glad that found this thread.

 

Hi excellent thread! I'm about to order the u33jc bamboo laptop. Could a nice soul be kind to post all compatible backlit keyboards besides the U80V cause I live in Sweden and have trouble finding parts. Thanks!

 

Finding ASUS parts should be easier for you as one of the best ASUS part shops is located in Sweden.
Look here: Asus Spare Parts

I myself ordered some parts from them in the past.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Yes i knew about that site but they only have chargers for the u80v so that is no good. What other models has the backlit keyboard that would fit the u33jc

Update: I found it http://www.asusparts.eu/product_info.php?cPath=163571_67674_76961_142653_142869_142884&products_id=37132 this one fits the u33jc right?

 

Could you post up a guide detailing how you did it on the u30jc? I am a complete newb at this and do not want to mess up anything lol

 

Got the keyboard and started looking at my UL80Vt-A1. The keyboard is about .75mm thicker than the original one but I think that should be ok. I also found a good +5V lead

I will put up pictures once my camera battery charges (cell phone does not have a macro setting ) lol

 

Asus backlight keyboard for the U20A is actually 284mm, this is a 12.1" laptop
Maybe it's to small for your 1201 but maybe it will help you anyway... check out the link

Backlight Keyboard U20A