what illuminated switches are easily available? (US)
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elithebearded
- Location: US
- DT Pro Member: -
Lots of places, including the wiki here, claim that Cherry makes MX switches with integrated LEDs, eg MX1A-11RW, but I can't seem to find any for sale. Are there other options? Something with space for me to install my own LED (eg a T1 size) would be fine, too.
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Findecanor
- Location: Stockholm, Sweden
- DT Pro Member: 0011
All Cherry MX have space for a 3 mm LED but the LEDs would have to be without base and not be too high.
If you look a pictures of them in the wiki, you will see a circular depression on the top housing where it is supposed to go. There are two tiny holes at the bottom where the leads are supposed to come out. If you get the right LEDs then you could install them into regular switches.
A LED, a jumper or a pre-installed diode would occupy the same space so you can have only one of those options at once. Modern keyboards are usually made with double-sided printed circuit boards (obviating the need for jumpers) and with the diodes being tiny surface-mounted diodes on the circuit board.
If you look a pictures of them in the wiki, you will see a circular depression on the top housing where it is supposed to go. There are two tiny holes at the bottom where the leads are supposed to come out. If you get the right LEDs then you could install them into regular switches.
A LED, a jumper or a pre-installed diode would occupy the same space so you can have only one of those options at once. Modern keyboards are usually made with double-sided printed circuit boards (obviating the need for jumpers) and with the diodes being tiny surface-mounted diodes on the circuit board.
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elithebearded
- Location: US
- DT Pro Member: -
Are the holes predrilled? That would make it very easy.
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Plasmodium
- Location: UK
- Main keyboard: QPAD MK80
- Main mouse: Logitech LX3
- Favorite switch: Cherry brown
- DT Pro Member: -
You mean the hole in the switch for the LED? Yes. All Cherry MX switches (and clones, too) have an LED 'slot' in the case, with tiny holes so the LED's 'legs' can stick out the bottom. I got my switches (Gaterons, but they're identical to Cherrys) from Massdrop and I tested them straight away with a 3mm LED. You just push it through from the top.
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Stabilized
- Location: Edinburgh
- DT Pro Member: -
There are a set of four holes along the front portion of the bottom housing, the two inner ones are designed to facilitate a LED, the two outer ones are designed to facilitate a diode (or a jumper).
Here is a picture from the wiki, it shows the bottom housing of a Cherry switch with the two outer holes occupied by a jumper wire. You can see that there are two additional holes between the two outer ones, these are the ones for the LED.
Here is a picture from the wiki, it shows the bottom housing of a Cherry switch with the two outer holes occupied by a jumper wire. You can see that there are two additional holes between the two outer ones, these are the ones for the LED.
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Plasmodium
- Location: UK
- Main keyboard: QPAD MK80
- Main mouse: Logitech LX3
- Favorite switch: Cherry brown
- DT Pro Member: -
Here is a mobile phone pic of one of my gaterons with LED inserted.
There are indeed, as stabilised said, 4 holes in the bottom. I guess you could use those for RGB LEDs, too.
There are indeed, as stabilised said, 4 holes in the bottom. I guess you could use those for RGB LEDs, too.
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elithebearded
- Location: US
- DT Pro Member: -
Oh, great, thanks guys. I must have been looking at the wrong pictures on the wiki, because I didn't see predrilled holes.