But in our case, there was no sweet spot (with the black layer on top).
Even with the minimum usable transparency, it wasn't diffuse enough, the LED light did not reach the key top.
Basically, there are two factors we need to take in account:
* Area the light reaches
* Brightness that reaches the top of the key
Making the material more transparent: Decreases the area the light reaches, increases the brightness
Making the material more diffuse: Increases the area the light reaches, decreases the brightness.
As mentioned in my last newspost already, even with an almost opaque (=minimum transparent) keymat, the area the light reaches is not enough.
So changing the keymat material itself could NEVER improve the situation, since the maximum reachable diffusion was not enough (this is what I tried to explain to you a few times already).
That's the reason we needed to find different solutions.
One would've been to remove the black coating on the keymat.
In that case, the light would not be stopped, but would leak out of the keymat into the case and then get into the keymat again.
The result: The light would reach a wider area (so all key tops should get light as well), but the key surroundings would also light up.
Another possible solution would be to increase the number of LEDs. This would - of course - also increase the area the light reaches.
Another possible solution would be to try to reflect the light more, so that the coating wouldn't eat it, but reflect it back as good as possible.
Our solution now is basically a mixture of all three.
But only changing the material without improving anything else would just've made things worse.
Even with the minimum usable transparency, it wasn't diffuse enough, the LED light did not reach the key top.
Basically, there are two factors we need to take in account:
* Area the light reaches
* Brightness that reaches the top of the key
Making the material more transparent: Decreases the area the light reaches, increases the brightness
Making the material more diffuse: Increases the area the light reaches, decreases the brightness.
As mentioned in my last newspost already, even with an almost opaque (=minimum transparent) keymat, the area the light reaches is not enough.
So changing the keymat material itself could NEVER improve the situation, since the maximum reachable diffusion was not enough (this is what I tried to explain to you a few times already).
That's the reason we needed to find different solutions.
One would've been to remove the black coating on the keymat.
In that case, the light would not be stopped, but would leak out of the keymat into the case and then get into the keymat again.
The result: The light would reach a wider area (so all key tops should get light as well), but the key surroundings would also light up.
Another possible solution would be to increase the number of LEDs. This would - of course - also increase the area the light reaches.
Another possible solution would be to try to reflect the light more, so that the coating wouldn't eat it, but reflect it back as good as possible.
Our solution now is basically a mixture of all three.
But only changing the material without improving anything else would just've made things worse.