[Tenacious Dyl]

Hey Everyone,
I was reading about how the powerbook's break down, and it looks *very easy* to remove the new 12" al pbook's keyboard. I would love to have the blue back lighting like the higher end 15 and the 17 inch models do.

Is there a way I could simply "add" this lighting to the keyboard? And keep all wires, or other ugly things unseen.

*Note... I am looking for a system, where I can flip a switch to have the keyboard light up, and stay lit, or where if the computer is on, the lights are on, if the computer is off, the lights are off. I do not wish to make any fancy ambient light changes like the 17 inch!

So... could I somehow get the 17'' 's keyboard and replace it with mine... or is that impossible. How could I wire this to work? :-)

[spitty27]

isn't the 12" kb removable, and the 17" not?


sorry i dont know

[Tenacious Dyl]

UPDATE!

http://www.eoinnovations.com/paperlite.htm

Products such as that could easily be placed underneath the keys (with holes/slits cut to fit around parts on keyboard.

I think?

Also... looked at the innards of a 17inch powerbook today. The light sensor is undernearth the 'speaker mesh' on the top right.

The light sensor and wiring seems very thin and smal. I am thinking (perhaps!). If I took off my left shift key (I only use the right shift key, hehe) and just 'cut out' that area of the keyboard... put the light sensor there, and put the optics underneath the keys, and dressed up the light sensor, so the keyboard looks very nice. It is possible.

Of course, I could be even better/smarter... and just not use the sensor, and instead just run the thin light that I linked above beneath the keyboard.

Suggestions? Ideas? Advice? Experience?

*Please Let Me Know* I will update when I have more ideas / info.

[tooki]

Hacking a keyboard like that (cutting out parts) is an exceedingly bad idea, since removing one key will ruin all the keys whose electrics run under the key you remove.

tooki

[Tenacious Dyl]

Thanks Tooki for advice, but I don't mean hacking out pieces of the apple keyboard, I mean cutting like little "circles" in the thin illumnation lighting, so i can take off all the little plastic key tops, put the 'hole-punched' illumination lighting on, and then the keys again.

But! new idea... found a guy's site (in japanese) that taps into the lcd power line, and just runs ONE white (or what color you want) LED from it. Then, superglued to the one led, are 4 or 5 lines of fiber optic.

The led is in the tiny tiny grove under the keyboard, the fiber optic lines run under the keys.

The brightness of monitor determines brightness of Optics, and the optics are off when the monitor is off. It is brilliant.

One day, when I have the time, and find a soldering tool

[itomato]

This has come up before, for different situations (Pro kdb, ibook, etc) with some novel solutions:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...light=keyboard

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...light=keyboard

[Tenacious Dyl]

Thanks a lot itomato!!

Those threads helped a lot.

I think I am steal leaning on fiber optics, and an led that i can hide somewhere in a case. I am just cautious about where on a brand new 12" al pbook to tap into power for the led. Monitor power sounds right, but I don't want to mess anything up!!

Hrm....

[typoon]

What about switching it with a 15 or 17" keyboard I thought they all use the same keyboard.

[Tenacious Dyl]

typoon: if that is the case, then great, I would have a really expensive (probably at least 80 dollars) keyboard... with wires / optics leading off it... that require apple's other keyboard bits, the light, and sensor... which I have no room for. A simple LED, glue, optics, and a safe powersupply to tap into would be ideal....

I am waiting incase there are any other ideas or alternatives... the idea... less than 60 dollars... not much / no damage to machine itself or casing.

Thanks,
Dylan I.

[escher]

Originally posted by Tenacious Dyl:
I am just cautious about where on a brand new 12" al pbook to tap into power for the led.

Tenacious: I think that tapping into USB for power would be much easier than tapping into the display for power. USB wiring is much simpler, and it's right under your keyboard.

Escher

[COmie JOe]

Originally posted by typoon:
What about switching it with a 15 or 17" keyboard I thought they all use the same keyboard.

They are inact the same keyboard if you take a key off and shine a light behind it you can see it shine right thou it. How the back lighting is done is with One or two LEDs and then a number of strands for Fiber optic. If I am in town and get some time I might be able to get a pic to post (the 17in top case contains all the keyboard lighting