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Old 16-05-2002, 10:26 AM   #1
Ben Moorhouse
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Default Glowing Keyboard

I saw some of the keyboards they used in some of the really old sci-fi films, and how they tend to glow around the edges. I then saw some glow wire, which is as simple as it sounds; wire that glows!

I decided to put it in my keyboard, so i took all the keys off my keyboard... BAD MOVE! first thing you should do is to make a note of where all of the keys are. It doesn't matter whether or not you think you know the keyboard like the back of your hand, when it comes to putting the keys back in, one by one, its just too confusing.
I laid the wire where the keys would go. It ran along each row to get the best out of the glow. After all, its no halogen bulb!
I had extra wire when I had done the main part of the keyboard, so I drilled a hole through to the cursor keys, and put the wire around them. I STILL had some left, and so I drilled through to the keypad, and outlined that. I then drilled a hole into the top of the keyboard (near the circuit and the LEDs) and another next to where the keyboard wire comes out of the keyboard case.
The wire between the inverter supplied with the wire, and the glow wire was far too short to reach the case, so I cut them, and soldered some more on (just normal wire, infact I used some that I had taken off a broken psu). I ran this the length of the keyboard cable, into the case and plugged the inverter into one of the molex connectors. I then put the keyboard back together, which due to my stupidity took hours, and the use of notepad.
And finally, and hour and a half (which could be just half an hour) later IT WAS FINNISHED
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Old 16-05-2002, 12:12 PM   #2
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so i took all the keys off my keyboard... BAD MOVE!


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Old 16-05-2002, 01:50 PM   #3
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Lol! Yea! ok, walked into that one!

I meant ;'#-=`,./ and all them keys. Its just confusing. Or at least I think it is.
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Old 16-05-2002, 06:17 PM   #4
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I had some glow wire until a about a month ago, and decided to illuminate the front of my case, but the high pitched whine from the invertor drove me crazy (crazier anyway ) so I got rid of it!

Have you got any pics of your modded keyboard?
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Old 17-05-2002, 10:27 AM   #5
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I dont have a cam, I can take some if you have a digi cam you could lend me? My inverter doesn't whine... maybe yours had a fault or something, because even when my case is open I cant hear a thing.
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Old 17-05-2002, 10:32 AM   #6
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Extra thing I've done now...

Whenever I wanted to detach my keyboard, I had to remove the soldering, which was a bit of a pain!
So I took the male power socket from my old PSU, and clipped the plug off an old power cable. I soldered the plug onto the end of the glow wire cable (keyboard end). I cut a hole in my case for the socket with a dremel, and soldered the inverter end of the cable to the socket. I can now plug and unplug it like a power cable, looks quite professional too I think... being modest of course!
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Old 18-05-2002, 10:19 AM   #7
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Yeah i got the whine too!
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Old 18-05-2002, 10:31 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally posted by OsKool
Yeah i got the whine too!


Yeah - I read up on it yesterday, and most inverters do apparently whine - and most can hear it
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Old 18-05-2002, 10:39 AM   #9
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I tried the keyboard glow thing & tried to use the power from the usb connection inside the keyboard so i didn't have the extra cables problem.
It worked but the power wasn't enough or something cause the glow was very dull.
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Old 18-05-2002, 12:05 PM   #10
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Yup... you'll only get 5V from the USB connection, whereas the Molex connector you usually connect it to gives out 12V. I think you'd probably just have to extend the power cables by drilling a hole in your case somewhere - perhaps on a backplate?
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