Nope, this is not yet the pre-preorder link (still got a bit of time before that), but as Nikolaus tested the keymat with the real unit, it's time to report back on that.
Unfortunately, the backlight doesn't work as good as we hoped yet, but we are already working on improvements. Right now, we have 1 LED for four keys - but the light is not diffused enough to properly lighten up all keys.
There are multiple solutions to fix that:
* Increase the amounts of LEDs * Try to find a keymat material that improves light distribution (I know there are foils, but I don't know if rubber can be created in the same way) * Change the keymat so that only the key top is colored with black. This will improve the light distribution A LOT, but will also mean that the surroundings on the keys light up as well (which is the case on mostly every backlit keyboard I've seen, so no big deal).
We'll probably do a mix of all of those. Instead of 1 LED for 4 keys, we'll use 1 LED for 3 keys. The downside is that this will increase the costs of the Pyra a lot... by 0,40 EUR. ;)
Power consumption wouldn't be a problem, as each LED wouldn't need to be as bright as before, so each LED needs less power.
I've also asked the company to check whether there's some material available that distributes the light better.
Only printing the keys in black is easy as well: The mask needs to be changed so that only the tops will be covered with color. The reason this improves lighting a lot is simple: The further away you are from the LED, the larger the area the LED actually emits light to.
You can easily check this with a flashlight yourself: Make a spot on the wall. The closer you get to the wall, the smaller the spot gets. If you move away, the spot gets bigger.
Right now, the black paint stops the light of the LED after 1mm. If that's removed, then the light of the LED will go all the way to the top of the keymat - which is about 7mm further away. The spot becomes bigger, the lighting is more evenly distributed.
This is planned to happen next week and shouldn't delay things, so we're still planning November for the prototypes :)
I'll keep you informed, as usual!
Want to leave feedback, comment or see the pictures? Visit: https://boards.openpandora.org/topic/5600167-improving-the-keyboard-backgrou...