Sager NP9150/9170 Backlit Keyboard - Can you add more colors?

I was wondering if there was a way to change what colors you can choose for the keyboard, instead of just the basic ones that they give you. Is there a fie in Hotkey that contains the color information? Can you even edit it?

Thanks in advance.

 

isnt 7 colours enough?

 

I like the colors they have, but I want to have orange and other combination colors that are pre-programmed. And I just want to see if it is possible.

 

MSI have a color wheel which seemed to work when I put the clevo keyboard in my MSI, try downloading their app and see if it runs on a clevo machine too?

 

Just tried out the colour wheel from MSI, no luck and it does uninstall the current led controls from Hotkey, so repair the installation to get the controls back - Control Panel/Programs and Features right click on Hotkey and hit "change"

Direct link if anyone else wants to have a try.
MSI Global – Download Center

 

+Rep for trying and letting us know. It may be a limit of the firmware built into the sager machines perhaps?

 

Is there a file that specifically sets the colors?

 

I think it's embedded firmware in the IC.

 

Is there an API for the keyboard?

 

Yes, there is a basic application, with discrete choices for the colours.

 

Hmm. How can I access it for a program that I am trying to write?

 

there's no API (to answer that question directly). it's part of the hotkey utility so you'll probably want to poke around that directory.

 

*Incoming Boring technical discussion*

The colors that are enabled ARE embedded in the EC, and further-more they are embedded in the LED controller, which we have NO access to (its attached to the EC chip via GPIO). Basically it has one wire in and 3 wires out to the keyboard (RGB), the one wire in gives it the color mappings (Zone 1: Green, Zone 2: Red, etc) and then it looks up what the RGB codes are for that and makes the keyboard that color. Unlike the MSI version which the RGB lines are directly connected to the EC so you can get infinite colors. So there is no API, the hotkey program uses some indeterminate calls into WMI that makes the EC recognize and do stuff to change the colors, and you can't rewrite that LED controller firmware so you are only ever going to get the colors you have.

Trust me, we got a few programmers and tried already

Also if you install the MSI software you will mess up hotkey etc and may have to format your machine.

 

+1 Thank you for the very in-depth reply. It stinks that it is designed like that.

 

What if I have the steelseries keyboard installed in my mp9150? Of I install the MSI software will it mess up hotkeys? Will it allow me to change more colors?

 

If you install the MSI software you'll mess up the hotkey, remember to the computer there is NOTHING different with the steelseries keyboard, it doesn't know its changed. Because there is no intelligence built into the keyboard at all, its all on the motherboard.