Dashkey: Modified XArmor U9BL-S custom lighting demo

I purchased a U9BL-S keyboard looking to upgrade to a good mechanical from my G15 rev1 that I've had for years, but didn't want to lose the macro functionality so I set to replace the controller in my keyboard and write my own macro system for it. Since I was doing that anyways, I decided to also rewire the backlighting to allow me to individually control each LED. This is a demonstration of the currently supported backlighting modes. They are, by number:

1: All LEDs off
2: All LEDs off with active Lock keys
3: Full backlight (dimmer than a stock U9BL-S)
4: Full backlight with inverted Lock keys
5: Low brightness mode
6: Alternating LEDs
7: "Alphabet soup" animation test
8: "Breathing" Animation (full keyboard)
9: "Breathing" Animation (logo)
0: Fading key trails (approx 500ms light time, up to 12 keys lit simultaneously)

For anybody wondering, this is all done within the keyboard; no OS interaction is required at all for any of the behaviour shown in this video.

See the related geekhack post for more info:
http://geekhack.org/showwiki.php?title=Island:19096

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• keyboard
• mod
• modified
• mechanical
• cherry
• mx
• brown
• xarmor
• u9bl
• u9bl-s
• atmel
• avr
• usb
• led
• backlight
• fading
• g15
• logitech
• controller
• custom

[MrStealthist]

Holy crap, I was looking into the non-backlit version, but this is definitely worth it.

[siberx4]

@MrStealthist Do note that this keyboard has been heavily modified to make the backlighting a lot more customizable; the stock keyboard lights all keys simultaneously with varying brightness levels, similar to the modes shown from 0:47 to 0:52. The stock keyboard goes about as dim, but goes about twice to three times as bright on the upper end; I reduced the maximum brightness for my modified one as there's no conceivable reason I'd need it so blazingly intense.

[TheQuiroz5]

I have to ask if you know what this keyboard have that the original dont?

[siberx4]

@TheQuiroz5 Considering I modified it, I would hope I know what's different ;)

The original keyboard could only adjust the brightness of all LEDs together - everything was either off, or 4 levels of brightness with every key the same. Modified, I can individually control each LED both in terms of being on/off and its brightness. This allows me to display any information/pattern I can think of with the LEDs in the keys.

[Nietsnebarg]

That's incredible, must have taken a while for all the wiring and circuitry.

[MadCrokodile1]

wow! that's sick, man! :O

[cxgamer]

That last one is cool. :D