Glow in the dark keys

[thatgui]

As far as I remeber this was already considered during the rubber matt design for the P1. It was ultimatley dismissed as it was complicated to apply during the manufacturing process. That may not be the case anymore if an other company produces the keymat, but the cons still persist:
 

• Not ideal for a clamshell device - you would need to deliberately keep the pandora open and out of the bag/pocket to make this work
• Glow effect would probably last not very long
• Glow effect would probably be diminished by the light emitted from the display

I'am not so keen on having a light above the display either. I like my thinkpad a lot but the thinklight isn't as good as a (properly) backlit keyboard, and it always districts me a little when its on.

 

[bzar]

Also, you can't turn the glow off. Backlighting xor neither.

 

[Klumpen]

Clamshell design (that prevents any light from getting inside)

+ bright screen (that calibrates your eyes so that you cannot see not so bright lights anymore)

+ glow in the dark keys (that need light input for a while and are not very bright)

= fail

 

[kirkanoss]

i'am for backlighting have it on my pc keyboard and love it has 3 settings for how bright it is and can turn it off when not needed

 

[PokeParadox]

Clamshell design (that prevents any light from getting inside)

+ bright screen (that calibrates your eyes so that you cannot see not so bright lights anymore)

+ glow in the dark keys (that need light input for a while and are not very bright)

= fail

I was all for glowing keys until you pointed out the fact that the clam shell would prevent "recharging" the glow... :/

Some way to make the keys visible in low/no light conditions would be appreciated...

 

[WizardStan]

A prperly calibrated UV LED in the hinge perhaps? Something selected and designed by an expert so that we know it won't cause eye damage.

edit: to flouresce the keys directly, I mean, not recharge them for glowing in the dark.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Why can't we use the Power LED, Blutetooth, Wifi, and SD Cards LEDs for keyboard backlighting then?  Right now P1 has all these on the hinge which I always turn them off as they are too bright in a dark room.  If somehow we can place these under the keymat at strategic points, I think it would "kill two birds with one stone" - no additional wasting of battery power but have a backlit keyboard.

 

[Neelix]

Then they would be either somewhat less useful as indicators or rather ineffective as backlights... probably both...

- Neelix

 

[Grench]

Then they would be either somewhat less useful as indicators or rather ineffective as backlights... probably both...

- Neelix

Actually, that could work. Use RGB LEDs for backlights. You can control the color and intensity with those.

There would probably need to be at least 5 lights behind the keys - think of it as the spots on the 5 side of a 6 sided dice.

The base backlight color could be white.

The top left of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-blue for bluetooth activity.

The top right of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-green for WiFi activity.

The bottom left could pulsate white-orange for SD0 activity.

The bottom right could pulsate white-orange for SD1 activity.

The center backlight could go dim-green for standby.

The whole keyboard could change from white to greenish white when plugged in.

What color each goes to under what condition could all get driven in a settings menu.

Heck, you could even tie them to an Audacious plugin and have the backlights pulsate and change colors to fit the music being played.

 

[Klumpen]

Right, let's put the indicators inside of the clamshell...

*badumtss*

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

^ @ Grench: Awesome!  A very colorful keyboard! Yay!  I like it very much, I mean it.   Hopefully ED reads this and see if it's doable.

 

[Fzero]

That would be pretty damn sweet I like the lighting/pulsating of kboard for things like B/T and charging, imagine that would look very nice

 

[comradekingu]

How about a status led that can go into hyperdrive?

 

[Asiyura]

Manufacturing two type of keymats (normal ones, glow in the dark ones) in large enough quantities so that a manufacturer accept the order is not possible (or rather not affordable). IIRC they had to order at least 10000 pandora cases to find a manufacturer, and they had a hard time to find someone accepting an order that small…

Since the plastics will be different, each variant of the keymat may need its custom-made mold (and mold making is fÙ¢#ng expensive) depending on the plastics used (plastic tend to retract after molding, but that shrinking depends of the materials, the additives etc. used in the plastic).

Honestly, forget it!

I'd rather have a nice backlit keyboard, that kind of leds don't suck that much power from batteries (don't forget that they don't need to be as bright as backlight in a screen).

And I really doubt that the backlit keyboard was the main cause of iCP2 problems…P. successor is in its elaboration phase, there is no production deadline to respect. So a backlit keyboard can be planned without trouble, the BOM isn't yet done!

A prperly calibrated UV LED in the hinge perhaps? Something selected and designed by an expert so that we know it won't cause eye damage.

edit: to flouresce the keys directly, I mean, not recharge them for glowing in the dark.

Adding a UV led to make chemical composants that are going to loose their property with time seems a bit ridiculous to me…

 

[Neelix]

Then they would be either somewhat less useful as indicators or rather ineffective as backlights... probably both...


- Neelix

Actually, that could work. Use RGB LEDs for backlights. You can control the color and intensity with those.


There would probably need to be at least 5 lights behind the keys - think of it as the spots on the 5 side of a 6 sided dice.


The base backlight color could be white.


The top left of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-blue for bluetooth activity.


The top right of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-green for WiFi activity.


The bottom left could pulsate white-orange for SD0 activity.


The bottom right could pulsate white-orange for SD1 activity.


The center backlight could go dim-green for standby.


The whole keyboard could change from white to greenish white when plugged in.


What color each goes to under what condition could all get driven in a settings menu.


Heck, you could even tie them to an Audacious plugin and have the backlights pulsate and change colors to fit the music being played.

URGH!   Nice for some perhaps , but to me it just sounds really nasty.  Me, I want my backlighting to be uniform,  or close to it, and I want my indicators to be discrete from the backlight.

- Neelix

 

[Fzero]

Definitely something I imagine will be a bit Marmite - love or hate it.

Can we get this, if could sequence them with games too, like some people do with their arcade cab buttons, would be impressive. To me, but I'm for this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNCHbMvFPZY

 

[hedwards]

Definitely something I imagine will be a bit Marmite - love or hate it.

Can we get this, if could sequence them with games too, like some people do with their arcade cab buttons, would be impressive. To me, but I'm for this

It would be somewhat useful to have backlight keys at night as the brightness of the screen makes it all but impossible to make out the keys.

I'm just skeptical that this is possible without making the keyboard ridiculously expensive. This is just one of the downsides of this type of clamshell design, you can't build an LED into the case and assume that it's going to be pointed properly at the keyboard. Although, that would be sweet and I guess they could design the case to have a stop that would leave it partially open like a laptop. Perhaps have a dial that would allow adjusting the location of the light.

I doubt it's practical, but it would be awesome if it could happen.

 

[Neelix]

While I can't deny that that looks very cool,  I also have to say this video has only firmed my opinion that I would never want my keyboard backlights changing like that while I was using it.

-  Neelix

 

[Fzero]

@hedwards, Yeah, the actual 'how-to' is beyond me ... I wouldn't know where to start on doing this stuff.

@Neelix, but... Imagine just standard white light LED characters on the keys whilst typing away on some document, then you return to desktop, and click on that MAME icon ... a nice little 3 second wave pattern of colour as it launches ... then returns back to standard again as you browse your rom list. Wouldn't fancy that?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Then they would be either somewhat less useful as indicators or rather ineffective as backlights... probably both...


- Neelix

Actually, that could work. Use RGB LEDs for backlights. You can control the color and intensity with those.


There would probably need to be at least 5 lights behind the keys - think of it as the spots on the 5 side of a 6 sided dice.


The base backlight color could be white.


The top left of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-blue for bluetooth activity.


The top right of the keyboard backlight could pulsate white-green for WiFi activity.


The bottom left could pulsate white-orange for SD0 activity.


The bottom right could pulsate white-orange for SD1 activity.


The center backlight could go dim-green for standby.


The whole keyboard could change from white to greenish white when plugged in.


What color each goes to under what condition could all get driven in a settings menu.


Heck, you could even tie them to an Audacious plugin and have the backlights pulsate and change colors to fit the music being played.

URGH!   Nice for some perhaps , but to me it just sounds really nasty.  Me, I want my backlighting to be uniform,  or close to it, and I want my indicators to be discrete from the backlight.

- Neelix

Sorry but how important are these discrete indicators?  For me, I don't see the importance of them.  I always have all these lights (Power LED, SD cards LEDs, Wifi LEDs, Bluetooth LED) off and they don't affect anything.

Definitely something I imagine will be a bit Marmite - love or hate it.

Can we get this, if could sequence them with games too, like some people do with their arcade cab buttons, would be impressive. To me, but I'm for this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNCHbMvFPZY

This is a little too much.  I just want backlighting using the existing LEDs