Dell XPS m1530 with Backlit Keyboard - Mod instructions

This thread provides pretty detailed instructions for modifying two different keyboards into a single working backlit keyboard for the Dell XPS m1530 Notebook.

Credit to Green Leaf for the original mod.


EDIT: Video of a finished mod.
XPS m1530 backlit complete - YouTube


You can find the original discussion by clicking here:

Goal: To build an independently backlit keyboard for the Dell XPS m1530 Notebook that is:

A: Mostly uniform in color (black)
B: Has good backlight output (+5v or better)
C: Allows easy disassembly of the system for upgrades, cleaning and repair.
D: Easy enough for most people to install without a lot of tools or trouble
E: Possibly/Optionally has an On/Off switch of some sort

Current Project Status (as of 2012-02-29):

Goals A, B, and C are met and complete.
Goal D is subjective, but I believe i accomplished it.
Goal E remains incomplete thus far


Materials Needed:

Studio "doner" backlit keyboard (part number 0KR766)
XPS m1530/Vostro "base" keyboard (Model NSK-D9201, P/N 9J, N9382. Bought from This Ebay Seller.)
Butter knife or similar thin tool (for removal of keys)
Solder
Soldering Iron
Extra LED/Power Button Board (just in case, this one is optional)
Electrical Tape
Phillips Screwdriver
Careful hands
Patience


Disclaimer:

This Mod project requires the essential destruction of one keyboard, the complete disassembly and destruction of another. It also requires you know how to create at least 3 solder points. The author and the website this mod has been posted to takes absolutely no responsibility for actions that lead to the destruction or damage of your system.




Part 1: Create a single keyboard out of two, in a single color.


The m1530 used the keyboard part number 0mu194, as did the 1420 1520 1521, and so on. I researched keyboards that fit those other models, and found that some Vostro keyboards are also interchangeable with the m1530. This means that you can have a completely black, backlit keyboard, though be aware that the space bar and all keys on the top row will NOT be backlit, and will also feel slightly different from the rest of the keys.


STEP 1.0: Remove the aluminum metal shield from the back of the "Base" keyboard:

Here is a picture of the back of the correct keyboard. This keyboard will be our "base" keyboard, the one that actually gets installed into the m1530.


Turn the Base keyboard over and remove the plastic film. Once you have done that, you will notice a piece of metal that is kind of riveted to the back of the keyboard. gently and carefully remove this metal sheet. It does not take much force.

Here is a picture of the removed shielding.


and here is what our Base Keyboard looks like with the shielding removed. Note that this picture is technically upside-down.




STEP 2.0: Remove all keys from the "Base" XPS m1530/Vostro Keyboard except Esc, F1 - F12, Num Lk, Prnt Scrn, Insert, Delete, Spacebar


Keep in mind that the Space Bar of the Doner Keyboard is a different size from the one on the Base Keyboard and therefore can't be changed. Also, the top function buttons have their bases/holders "turned sideways" on the Doner Keyboard, so they will never ever fit on the Base keyboard that we are trying to mod. As a result, you don't need to remove them, so skip the following keys:

Esc, F1 - F12, Num Lk, Prnt Scrn, Insert, Delete, Spacebar

How to safely remove keys:

GO SLOWLY!!!

2.1: Take a small thin object with a slight bit of a "point" and slide it under the key, near the top, between the key holder and the key itself. I used a butter knife.

2.2: Once in position, simply rotate the wrist of the hand holding the butter knife or similar tool. The key will "pop" off it's base. Each key is held by at least 4 points on each base, so done correctly, this method "pops" two of those points off.

2.3: With the first 2 points popped, slide the butter knife to the next edge and repeat the process. This may seem silly, but do NOT force it too much. You really do not want to snap the parts of the key that attach to the base. The very first key i removed off the backlit board, i broke one of these things, and I had to find and buy a replacement key.

2.4: Remove *ALL OTHER* keys from the Base keyboard. We do not want any keys where we are going to work on it. This is to make sure you don't accidentally put keys in the wrong position.

2.5: Start from one side or the other, removing from the bottom row on up. I'm right handed, so i started on the right side from the right arrow key at the bottom, working my way up to the Home key. I also worked my way left to the Alt key, and continued up, removing the keys one at a time.

2.6: You don't need to be too gentle here, but you must be sure that the Base Keyboard keeps all of its white plastic key position brackets.


Here is a picture of the two keyboards together, with our "base" keyboard at the top, and the studio "doner" keyboard front and center. You'll notice i had already began removing keys from the doner keyboard.



Here is a picture of the Base keyboard with the backlight behind it and a couple of keys installed, for testing purposes.




Our Base keyboard is now ready to take in the keys from the doner keyboard!



STEP 3.0: Remove keys *ONE AT A TIME* from the "Doner" Backlist Studio Keyboard except Esc, F1 - F12, Num Lk, Prnt Scrn, Insert, Delete, Spacebar

How to safely remove keys:

GO SLOWLY!!!

3.1: Start from one side of the Doner keyboard, removing the keys from the bottom row one at a time, then move on up to the row above. I'm right handed, so i started on the right side from the right arrow key at the bottom, working my way left till i had removed the Alt key. I then worked my way up to the next row, eventually making it to the row that containted the Home key, removing the keys one at a time from the Doner Keyboard and placing them on the Base keyboard in the right location.

3.2: Take a small thin object with a slight bit of a "point" and slide it under the key, near the top, between the key holder and the key itself. I used a butter knife.

3.3: Once in position, simply rotate the wrist of the hand holding the butter knife or similar tool. The key will "pop" off it's base. Each key is held by at least 4 points on each base, so done correctly, this method "pops" two of those points off.

3.4: With the first two points popped, slide the butter knife to the next edge and repeat the process. This may seem silly, but do NOT force it too much. You really do not want to snap the parts of the key that attach to the base. The very first key i removed off the backlit board, i broke one of these things, and I had to find and buy a replacement key.

3.5: With the current Backlit "Doner" key removed, locate the position it is supposed to be installed to on the Base Keyboard.

3.6: Place the doner key on the Base Keyboard in the proper location. When you put keys on, adjust carefully and apply equal pressure all over the key until you feel it snap into place on all four sides. Done right, the Doner key will most likely stay "stuck" in the down position. Use your butter knife to gently lift up under the key and get it back into position. Then, test out the key for responsiveness and bounce by repeatedly pressing it. If the Doner key keeps getting stuck, remove the it and place it back on to the Base Keyboard again, then repeat Step 3.6 until it no longer sticks.

3.7: Repeat Steps 3.1 - 3.6 for each key, going one key at a time.

3.8: When all the keys have been properly moved, go into a dark room and shine a light from the back of the Base/Modified Keyboard. You should be able to see all your transferred keys light up from the front, like this:



Step 4.0: Remove the backlight film from Doner Keyboard

i kinda forgot how i did this, but it was dead simple...the sticker for the studio backlit Doner keyboard is on the backlight film itself. you want to very very carefully pry it off the keyboard, paying very special attention to how you lift up around the copper colored film that contains the circuits printed on it. you do NOT want to tear this, ever. Note that the Doner keyboard's ribbon cable is glued to this also. pry it off as well, SLOWLY.

 

Part 2: Installation (Mod complete, instructions still need clarity rewrite)



Step 1: Physical Install and "Always On" Wiring


Here is an easy to use common ground that doesn't tie up anything.



Here is a nice place to pull +5v...the bottom of the various LEDs on this little board all have either a weak +3v or a pretty strong +5v, and none would be too hard to solder to.



and here is the result of applying the +5v from here. I was in a lit room when the pic was taken, but you can clearly see the backlight is functional from here:



Anyway, for those who don't care about turning off the backlight, there is your solution: get a second power/LED board for cheap, solder a wire from one of the +5v LEDs to the backlight ribbon cable's positive side, solder a wire on the negative side of the cable, and screw it into the upper right screw that is exposed when you pull off the bezel.

i suggest using a second power/LED so that you don't screw up your main one, just in case something goes wrong. Cover the edge with a small bit of hot glue to prevent shorts.



Part 4: Wiring for an On/Off Switch

Unfortunately, the use of the WiFi switch just isn't plausible for this application. There is too much power drain when pulling the +3v off the LEDs. This led to an interesting discussion, however....

the use of the Scroll Lock or NumLock key as a switch! It would function similar to the way i've been told the backlight actually worked, though without the step-down intensity. Essentially, keeping scroll lock off would produce no backlight, while turning it on would produce backlight. You turn the scroll lock on and off with the FN+NUMLOCK key.

this could possibly have some negative issues, but generally speaking Scroll Lock really isn't used too often for any modern application that i know of.

I tried attaching the wire to the Scroll Lock LED....and found that the LED is constantly producing +5v from the bottom!!!


Damn it all, so close!!!


As for having a switch to actually make this work, i'm going to go with the Scroll lock idea. I feel like the natural state should be Backlight, however i can only make that work with a hex inverter, and then we start getting kinda complicated.

So, for a switch, i see 2 very viable options, and one not so viable.

Option A: NumLock.

NumLock has a default state of -ON- for our systems. This means that during normal use, the NumLock LED will be on and it will be in the natural state. If we need to turn off the backlight, NumLock doesn't have too much of an adverse effect when it is off. Your Mileage May Vary.​

Option B: Scroll Lock

Similar to NumLock, Scroll Lock really doesn't "hurt" a system's user when it's on or off. Scroll Lock would be preferred over NumLock as it would be nearly completely independent, however the fact that a system's natural state is with Scroll Lock off makes this a little difficult to recommend without testing how Scroll Lock ON affects the end user.​

Option C: Media Direct Button

This button is a momentary push-button that does almost nothing for us while in windows 7. I don't like this option as much, mainly because it would require someone to hold the button down in order to maintain an effect. The idea here is to leave the natural state of the button as -ON- for the backlight, and when you push the button, it would turn the light off. This really isn't a good solution at all, imo, but it might just be what some people want, so i'm throwing it out there as possible. I'm not going to work with this one though.​

As for the to X-Lock keys, i was given 2 ideas:

1. The +5 is constant, even when the light is off, so when the light is on, there has to be a switch to complete the circuit on the ground side of things. Find an tap into this switch in place of the normal ground, pull +5v from the original location. When the LED goes on, the circuit completes, lighting up both the keyboard and the LED for whatever lock key you chose.

2. Using a photo sensor as a switch instead, place a photo sensor next to whatever LED you want to use as your trigger. When the LED lights up, the photo sensor will "see" it and trigger the backlight's state.


I think Idea 1 is easier to accomplish, so long as a test can be done to find where the switch completes. I think Idea 2 is far more elegant and doesn't require testing on the LED board, but it will cost a tad bit more and require a little bit of extra attention.

So, there you go!

 

Notes section:

The Light Issue

Worked on it some more tonight. Tested the backlight film with a plain battery.

At first, I used a single 2032 battery to provide the juice. There is totally a difference between positive and negative on the lightboard. This should have been expected by anyone, but it wasn't really made clear by Green Leaf. In the following pictures, i've soldered a wire to each lead. White to Positive, Red to Negative. Yes, i know i got the colors backwards per standards, but it's what i had to work with.





Here is the board lighted by itself, followed by it lighted behind the original keyboard "front plate"




Now, here is the "front plate" of the new keyboard:



A single 2032 battery only provides 1.5v. As a result, the following images are rather dim. Add to the fact that the new "front plate" has so much more metal, and you can see the disappointing results.






I added a second 2032 battery in series, and things began looking brighter, literally.







For giggles, i tried a 9v battery also.





In conclusion, we absolutely need at a minimum +5v to get useful light out of this keyboard.


It will probably be at least a week before i update this. Next step will be to install the keyboard into the unit to make sure it works without the backlight. The step after that will be to see if the WiFi switch point is viable to use. After that, i wire that switch up and test it in place. If it works, i then put the keyboard back in properly and do a video.


Update:

It's going to take a little while to get fully used to the new keyboard. I've had my old XPS m1530 keyboard for about 4 years now, and you can really feel that i've worn it in.

As of this moment, i'm using the backlit keyboard hybrid. there is a definite difference in feel between the keys that belong on this board and the backlit keys, which stick up about 2mm or so above the normal keys.

I still haven't attached the power for the light yet. I'm kinda thinking that the idea to use the wifi switch isn't going to work for the masses, because of the location of the switch and how much the average user would have to do make it work. I ordered another wifi switch to try to test it out without ruining my actual switch, and i will try to make it work, but somehow i just don't think that people are going to like taking off the palmrest just to add the ability to use a switch for a backlight on the keyboard, when it will be MUCH easier just to hardwire it through the top somehow.

I still have the wires coming out of the unit to attach a battery to. I took a little video of it functioning with the 9v battery attached and will upload that to youtube later tonight. For now, we are about 3 steps away from backlight on this....testing with the WiFi switch to see if it's viable, finding another location if it isn't possible. adding a quick disconnect to make sure it's still easy to disassemble the system once i've got a location chosen, and doing a final clean up on the install and it's instructions.

Here is the YouTube video.

 

Wow this is amazing, monitoring this thread as if it was my precious!!
Please for the love of god make it work Good luck!!

 

~Removed, See first post~

 

New Update. Here's the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYG-zLJX2KI

 

Thanks!!

EDIT: Have you considered to remove the ODD completely? That would create enough room for alternative battery that might take us of the power for the keyboard and I think there is some kind of registry hack that should customize and make that Dell Media Direct Center button lunch something utterly different. I'll take a look at that good luck man

 

Eh, there's no need for that. the LEDs, accessible right when you install the keyboard, is capable of producing +5v and +3v.

The trick is getting someone comfortable enough to solder these points. Also, i have to find a way to tie the switch in.

the wi-fi switch works directly with the last two LEDs, each of which only gives +3v. Turning off wifi will turn off the LEDs, and attaching the power for the backlight to one of these will allow the switch to control the backlight. Unfortunately, since it is only +3v, not only is the backlight not very bright, but also the LED itself doesn't get enough voltage to keep it powered up to optimal levels.

still working on it. i'm just not an electrical/electronic engineer, so this might be a little slow.

 

I've altered the original 3 posts to clear up the steps. Still working on the project, but for those who can't wait and don't mind not having an on/off switch, the instructions thus far should be all you need.

For everyone else, i still need to order a new LED/Power board to try out my switch ideas. If it works, i'll update this thread.

 

And here is video proof of the mod functioning.


XPS m1530 backlit complete - YouTube

 

Now you mentioned numlock, how come you don't want to use the internal button next to the WiFi switch, you know the RSS button. But yes numlock should do fine, and if it does, I might do the same, nothing else to lose with such a laptop.

 

that button is a momentary push button. the moment you let it go, the light would turn off.

 

had an idea about a switch, not sure if it would work, and I'd need to grab some parts to look more into it, but, could you take another m1530 case (part that covers the LEDs and has the power/media direct buttons, and dremel a spot out for another button, i.e. the media direct one from another m1530 and then make that the power switch?

 

In theory, yes, you can take another switch and put it on.

In practice, i wouldn't do that here. far easier to attach the wires to a functional switch already.

All that said, i abandoned this project when the keys started falling off the base. this ended up being a waste of money, although the idea was sound. Maybe it was just my backlit keyboard's keys being cheap, or perhaps it was a larger than normal base, but whatever the issue, within 2 months my keys were falling off. it wasn't just one or two...at the end i had lost over half of my keyboard.

 

awesome mod, nice work

 

Awesome work! I'm having an issue sourcing the correct keyboards. I've purchased the same BASE keyboard referenced in this thread, and a Studio "doner" keyboard with the correct part number. I've purchased two of the base keyboards, as the first didn't seem to have the correct key brackets. After the second base board, I began to wonder if I had the wrong doner board.

My question is, exactly which doner keyboard did you use? I also noticed that your doner keyboard key brackets have a wider key mounting point on the bracket compared to the board that I purchased.

Thanks for any help you can throw my way,
Nathan