keyboard backlight

anyone tried to put a backlight in their keyboard? white m5n's keyboard is rather opaque, a backlight would be pretty unique (and cool!!)

alex

 

Sadly..i think the only stock backlit laptop keyboard is the powerbook >_>....sadly..because I'd love to see this feature more...

 

Yeap.. but what's kinda ironic is that ASUS is the ODM for Apple...

Maybe next time, they'll add backlighting, which I admit is pretty cool

 

Apple might have some kind of licensing restriction that says Asus can't copy their designs or unique features in non-Apple products, which is why we haven't seen it yet.

 

You're not going to buy one, but I did custom build one once for a magazine. You don't have to have much talent to actually make one, but you do need to have the idea, know where to pick up the parts and trust you're not going to screw something up when soldering.

Basically you coudl order the smallest LED's you can find off the internet, wire them in series and connect them to the power button....... then you're keyboard you light up whenever your power button is light up...... it'll go to sleep when the computer does because the power button goes off at the same time....

Neat mod.......I might do it again just to demo it, but it's a little too complicated and time consuming to put into production.

 

Is there normally enough room under the keys for the leds or do you put them in between or something? I'm guessing that the Asus keyboards are totally opaque too so you'd only get light shining out between the keys?

Very interesting idea though....

Phil
W2Vc-U005P

 

... no, only some of them are opaque...... namely the M6 (Z70) /M7 (Z71) and W1/W2/W3/W5 series..... that makes up a lot of the current line, but the S5/M5 (Z33), M3 (Z61) are translucent which makes for an even cooler effect, but the S5/M5 are a little too small for even the smallest led's I've found.. You could insert them into the rear of the keyboard itself and if you take the time you could make it very low key and professional looking...... in my opinion, the W2 would look sick with a soft orange, white or blue glow under the keyboard.

 

i thought that some ibm's have backlights?
i wouldn't think it would be too hard to wire it up, depending how good you are with a solder, and how much room there is for those dots of solder before you short it with something else