Case Mod - In Progress Project: SpeLL7 (COMPLETE 7/28 - FINAL PICS POSTED)

/\ lol

 

My apologies for the lack of updates and finished pics. I haven't had a lot of free time lately and what little time I have had was spent doing things around the house and finishing off what seems to be the last part of this project:

My G15 (v1) keyboard.

Now, I can't have a black LCD, black/red mouse (Logitech G9) and a silver and gray keyboard with blue LED's can I?



No, I don't think so either.

So, I'm tearing down my G15, giving the whole thing a nice coat of black vinyl dye, and swapping out those bothersome blue LEDs for some red ones.

This also gives me the opportunity to clean out the keyboard, there's some accumulated schmutz on the side of the keys that I need to hit with some isopropyl alcohol.

I had a bit of time in the garage today and got about 4 coats of vinyl dye on the frame, though it still needs a few more.

Here's a few pics of the teardown.



These were very easy to take out. Just a pop with a flathead screwdriver and they came right out.



Here's the LCD taped off and ready for paint, along with the media buttons.



This is a shot of the LED assembly of the keyboard. This is all it takes to light- the LEDs shine directly onto a piece of plexi that diffuses the light across the board. Pretty cool, IMO.

I hope to have some more shots within the next few days... bear with me! Once the G15's all done I will put my limited resources towards getting those final shots!

 

sounds good. I'm interested in what vinyl dye you're using and what you think about it when done.

 

This is an absolutely stunning project! Keep up the amazing work!

 

Whee! I'm back and I'm happy.

Waiting for glamor shots

 

Thanks all!

Painting is done pretty much... just a coat or three more of clear vinyl dye... I like how it came out. It's not shiny like paint, it actually looks like a stock black keyboard that was formed this way.

Now I'm waiting on my LEDs... I got some red "superbright" ones that have not arrived yet... I dont know what the deal is... allegedly they were sent "USPS First Class" but I ordered them 7/2 and here it is, 8 days later and still nothing. They shipped from Missouri -> NY so IDK... I think I could walk to Missouri in eight days, what has the USPS done, re-instituted the Pony Express?

 

Heh, USPS is the pits. My package from Sidewinder has been stuck in customs (New Delhi) for more than a week now. One would think they'd have some sort of arrangement with customs agencies around the world :/

 

Long time no post! Thanks all for your kind words and continued support.

Small update... G15 is DONE!

I think it came out really nice, just as I had wanted. It looks like it came out of the box this way... the red LEDs totally look nice with the G9 mouse and case sitting next to it...

Well enough talk, here's some pics.

This is it turned off:



With the LCD up:



And with the LCD down:



I sprayed the whole thing to make it uniformly colored.

Next up, a couple of night shots:





The red Logitech logo is probably the coolest thing illuminated, IMHO. I had to leave the silver because that is actually a thin plastic "sticker" if you will, and if I painted over it the Logitech logo would have been lost.

Lastly, if anyone's curious, I used SEM vinyl dye... satin black and then low luster clear coat:



The one thing I'm mulling is to get a piece of thin red transparent film to put over the LCD... what say you?

I'm in the process of buying a house, so I hope I will find some free time to get those final pics up. I haven't forgotten, and I know you haven't either!

 

Just read the entire project and it just too good for wards and I like your sense of humor with the Blodrage lolz

Very jaw dropping material.

 

Impressive V1 G15 you have there. I have been thinking about changing the led's on my g11 as well, but have never gotten around to it. What type of led's are they?

 

Thanks for the kind words!

I used 11 8000mcd / 30* viewing angle / 5mm LEDs. I had to drill out the holes in the g15's piece of acrylic to make them fit and even then they barely did. Logitech used something like 2.5mm square LEDs, I used 5mm round, go figure it didn't fit initially lol. If I were to do the mod again 3mm LEDs would definitely be the way to go.

 

Absolutely love the red!

 

Great mod blackflag! The G15 looks much better all black. Isn't the LCD backllit? Can you not just swap the backlight for red LED's?

Otherwise I think the red film would work rather well with the blue being so light

 

Good to know, I have some spare 3mm's laying around. Might give it a try soon.

 

very cool!

 

Very very cool G15 mod, love the red LEDs. I was going to do the same thing but I was going to use white LEDs and CF vinyl.

 

Ah that keyboard looks downright SCRUMPTIOUS now.
Great stuff

 

Looks good, but I wanna see the CASE

>.<

hahahaha

 

just read the tread and am lovin your mod skilzs and that key board looks so sexy. one of the best mods i've seen so far.

 

Been following this -magic- casemod for a long time now and I got to say that it turned out beyond expectations!

Gotta love the colour scheme, and the keyboard looks like factory made! Maybe Logitech should get some pictures so they know how much potential a new colour can give

Keep up the good work, blackflag!

TheGovernator