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macman88 · Mar 24, 2005, 01:01 AM

i know that this topic has been gone over alot but i would like to start a poll on how many people would really want a backlight keyboard. i know that i would really like to have one.

sminch · 06:29 AM

dunno, i don't think i'd use it more than once a month (omsomniatic web surfing). that said, if it's not even on 12" powerbooks (that's right, innit?) it might be pushing it to expect it on my 12" 'book.

anyone ever tried a retrofit?

sminch

gcvt · Mar 24, 2005, 05:13 AM

I'd love to have one, except for the cost and extra battery drain.

macman88 · Mar 24, 2005, 09:52 AM

is there a mod like putting led's under the keyboard. now that i think about it, that would work better on the g3 ibooks rather then g4 because of their clear keys. but there's got to be a mod for it.

sminch · Mar 24, 2005, 05:45 PM

i've never cracked open the keyboard on my ibook but it can't be that hard, surely? there must be a fair but of room under there for yeah, a few rows of leds and a bit of wiring. power it off a usb maybe and you're sorted...

two months after i bought her there's no chance i'm trying this on mine, but i'd be keen to see other's attempts!

sminch

castle3 · Mar 24, 2005, 08:02 PM

honestly, it would be cool if there was a mod for a backlit keyboard or even different color lights for the mod. Definately a feature I would use...as I do most of my computing at night.

Mojo · Mar 24, 2005, 10:17 PM

Or you can buy one of those nifty USB-powered lights that run about $20. Battery drain is minimal, particularly with the latest generation lights.

gcvt · Mar 24, 2005, 10:25 PM

I don't see what good lights would be under solid plastic white keys. If the light shined up through the letters on the keys....well, that would be cool. I'm just not sure adding light(s) to the current keyboard would be much help though.

Kyros · Apr 5, 2005, 12:07 AM

Originally posted by sminch:
i've never cracked open the keyboard on my ibook but it can't be that hard, surely? there must be a fair but of room under there for yeah, a few rows of leds and a bit of wiring. power it off a usb maybe and you're sorted...

two months after i bought her there's no chance i'm trying this on mine, but i'd be keen to see other's attempts!

sminch

To open it you basically just pull it off from the top. Extremely easy. Not sure how much room is under it though.

Rob van dam · Apr 6, 2005, 08:08 AM

Originally posted by Mojo:
Or you can buy one of those nifty USB-powered lights that run about $20. Battery drain is minimal, particularly with the latest generation lights.

do kensington make those

Ji Eun · Apr 16, 2005, 08:29 AM

someone's done this... running blue or purplish LED's between key rows and around the keyboard. it looked like crap actually in the pictures he posted.

segaslave · Apr 16, 2005, 09:28 AM

on the fly keyboard light spell checker/typing aid. now that would be cool...

say your typing and as you type it highlights possible letters in another color for you to use(maybe flashing the most plausable letter).

would help the people that still need to look down at the keys while typing and dont see the auto spell checker on the screen filling in mistakes. and also help people that can spell but just dont know where the letters are located. and kids would do well with it.... some one pay me money for this idea quick

macman88 · Apr 16, 2005, 12:02 PM

do you have a link to this ji?

Ji Eun · Apr 16, 2005, 12:27 PM

i don't know where i saw it. probably macnn, lol, but searching here and googling for a few minutes yielded nothing. go figure. anyway, it looked sickly.

FYI, the guy who did the thread on the Black iBook managed to install a backlit pbook keyboard in there. looked pretty weird being black and all, but there you have it.

pwhite1 · Apr 16, 2005, 01:46 PM

You have two small clips to release at the top of the keyboard and the keyboard lifts right out. It would be fairly easy to replace the G4 keyboard with a G3 with the clear keys. There isn't a heck of a lot of room under the keyboard but there should be enough to put some small lights underneath. After all that's where the wireless network card is located

Phil

mitchell_pgh · Apr 16, 2005, 04:06 PM

I don't see that major deal. Considering that's the reason we have the nipples on the f and j keys.

But for people that only use their index finders to type, it could be a major draw.

Ji Eun · Apr 17, 2005, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by pwhite1

You have two small clips to release at the top of the keyboard and the keyboard lifts right out. It would be fairly easy to replace the G4 keyboard with a G3 with the clear keys. There isn't a heck of a lot of room under the keyboard but there should be enough to put some small lights underneath. After all that's where the wireless network card is located

Phil

even if you could actually put lights 'under' the keyboard it makes no sense unless you drill holes in the keyboard since the keyboard bottom is metal, non-transluscent.

ah, found that page again. click the pic.

still looks crap to me.

gcvt · Apr 19, 2005, 03:13 AM

You're right Ji, that looks horrible....and is about what I expected.

pwhite1 · Apr 21, 2005, 12:41 AM

I'm not to wild about putting lights in my keyboard anyway. At least not in my I Book. My desktop system maybe. That's an easy one though since they make keyboards for the desktop computers anyway---if you want to spend the $79 they cost!

B Gallagher · Apr 21, 2005, 07:17 AM

what's the link for that pic? :O

jamil5454 · Apr 21, 2005, 10:03 AM

LEDs are useless unless you have clear keys for the light to shine through. Light coming from around the keys would make the actual letters on the keys harder, not easier, to see, right? Kinda like how you can't see the illumination of a traffic light when the sun is behind it.