Modding Illuminating my Wireless keyboard

I have a Wireless logitech elite keyboard and I was wondering what it might take to illuminate it with EL wire. I found an adapter that takes 2 AAA batteries, and I plan on fitting it into the keyboard. Has anyone had any xperience with battery powering EL wire, and how long it might last? If you have any suggestions\experience with this mod, please reply

my keyboard:


the adaptor:

 

I have the same keyboard and mouse, I have not started modding it yet, because it is so beautiful I will practice on other cheap keyboards first


I did notice that some of the keyboard seems to be semi transparent. Underneath the keys, etc. Maybe you could mount a CC under there, but it might be too big.

Let me know what you end up doing

 

i say you should use LEDs instead of EL wire

 

I would agree

 

I like the way the EL wire lights the keyboard up better. When using led's, the keyboard is only lit up in a few spots. Ill consider that if the EL wire doesnt work out.

thanks

 

If you used ultrabright leds and something shiny underneath them, the light should carry well. My friend has done this with his keyboard (it's wired... but the same idea).

 

use heat shrink ans some fiber optics...

 

As a side note....

Hello everyone! I am a new poster here and new to the whole modding buisness, and would like to start modding my PC to be a bit more of a piece of art then just a hunk of metal! These forums and the Bit-Tech website are fantastic and have given me loads of ideas so thank you all!

In addition to the lighting of the keyboard (which I may do if I ever get brave enough!), I just wanted to say, I have taken apart the mouse... nearly completely... and I promise you it will be a nightmare to change the LEDs in it. I am not really an elctrics wiz, but from the looks of it its one tiny LED in there to indicate its charging, and another large one underneath within some sort of mirror complex lighting up the desk! Has anyone succeeded in modding these mice before? I dont know about you guys but blue LEDs are my favorite, and having blue LEDs on my case, and hopefully my CD drives is fantastic! Now if only I could get the mouse to match.

And to add to all of this, has anyone succeeded in modding the LEDs on the docking port for the mouse/IR reciever? Those great big green lights are just awfull! Anyway, any help would be much apprectiated!

Always.

 

how many amps does it use??

and what AmpHours are the batteries rated at??

think think this is how it works... can someone back me up??

for example if it draws 100mA and the batteries are 2A (look at only one as they are in series) then it will last 20hrs...

you can get more it my adding say 2 more batteries in parallel with the originals to double the ampage given....

 

NO!!! dont run it off batteries. use a lot of tripple or AA bats. even two 9volts. yes, people have taken mice apart, and yes, it is a lot easier than one would think.

 

I have to say, my MX700 is such a beast, I am not even touching it. Open yours up, you will see :O (I'll look for a pic on the net later)


p.s. stupid keyboard is lagging. I have to assume this isnt normal because this keyboard is so 1337.

 

I have opened it up before. It is fairly simple. I dont even plan on bothering with the electronic sections hidden behind the silver area of the keyboard. Therefore, I figure I cant harm anything. I'll only remove the plastic. I'm going to first test the life of the EL wire and then figure on wheter i need to include an adapter on the outside of the keyboard so that i may recharge the batteries overnight. Any ideas on how I might do this?

 

2nd vote for side-lit fiber optics

 

Wireless mice are horrible for changing LEDs, compared to wired ones.

 

i like el wire better becuse i like the effect but have u tried to take out the batt that power the whole thing and replace with something more powerful mabye a R/C car batt

 

those are designed for high power output for a short amount of time so your gonna get light for about 1/2 hour max

 

I'm trying to find a plain AAA battery chager with a removable AC wall mount adaptor, but I can't seem to find one that only holds 2 AAA batteries. If I could find this, then i could hack it up, put it inside of my keyboard, and use it as a recharger of the batteries that would power a seprate circuit that the EL wire was on... I'm trying to figure a way out to rig it out of a 4 AAA battery charger. I guess my only chance to figureing this out is to expiriment. If anyone sees a AAA battery charger that has a removable wall mounted AC adaptor, let me know... lol that's a lot to ask for.

 

i am going to do this on my mini gyration keyboard as well... is 4 AAA even 14 volts??? If i remember correctly it is 10, so maybe ad another one.

 

Nicad batt's are 1.2v each ... 4 = 4.8v (dry cells are 1.5v each) going to need 10 cells to = 12v
DB