Keycap color poll

[admin]

Because the Blingboard64 has 70 RGB LEDs that can display virtually any color I would to figure out what color keycaps should be used.  I can have any color and translucent percentage, so let me know what you think would be a good choice and I can add it to the poll.

[Karidian]

I’m hoping to find keycaps that will look mostly opaque while still allowing enough light to shine through for backlighting the keys. Dark translucent black?

[deruku]

What would the color from the Youtube Video be called? Translucent white? Semi-translucent clear? Those look great.

[xzn2p3]

Is it possible to get the function keys in a different translucent color?

[admin]

I’m hoping to find keycaps that will look mostly opaque while still allowing enough light to shine through for backlighting the keys. Dark translucent black?

The current keycap campaign's Translucent Black is dark, but allows LEDs to show through.  Here is an example with just blue LEDs - this was a Mechboard I believe.

   

[admin]

What would the color from the Youtube Video be called? Translucent white? Semi-translucent clear? Those look great.

That is clear.

[admin]

Is it possible to get the function keys in a different translucent color?

Yes, you will be able to select your color of main keycaps as well as the function keycaps, and those sets can be different colors.

[Karidian]

I’m hoping to find keycaps that will look mostly opaque while still allowing enough light to shine through for backlighting the keys. Dark translucent black?

The current keycap campaign's Translucent Black is dark, but allows LEDs to show through.  Here is an example with just blue LEDs - this was a Mechboard I believe.

That looks perfect!

[admin]

I’m hoping to find keycaps that will look mostly opaque while still allowing enough light to shine through for backlighting the keys. Dark translucent black?

The current keycap campaign's Translucent Black is dark, but allows LEDs to show through.  Here is an example with just blue LEDs - this was a Mechboard I believe.

That looks perfect!

Here is another with green LEDs with the same Translucent Black keycaps.

[darkvision]

Here is another with green LEDs with the same Translucent Black keycaps.

This was my MechBoard64 with green LEDs and translucent black. However, the translucent black keycaps were not a good choice as the green LEDs are very bright. You can see this more clearly in the picture here. The lighting is so strong that you are dazzled by it.

   

This is because normal LEDs are installed from above and the LEDs are therefore located directly under the keycap.

   

You can't compare this with the BlingBoard64, as the LEDs are located on the circuit board and the illumination is provided from the backside of the switch (at least it looks like this on the campaign video).

I had other LEDs that were less bright, but they weren't really visible through the keycaps. With the MechBoard64, translucent black depends heavily on the type of LED, especially as the brightness cannot be adjusted. On the MechBoard64, I would only use opaque keycaps so that the (bright) light only shines through between the keys. I also had tested blue LEDs with translucent black and those were nearly invisible. Here is a comparison between green and blue.

   

Green: 20mA, 3.0-3.2V, 6000-8000mcd
Blue: 20mA, 3.0-3.2V, 3000-4000mcd
Red: 20mA, 2.0-2.2V, 1000-2000mcd
Yellow: 20mA, 2.0-2.2V, 2000-3000mcd

Red/yellow did even shine through an opaque (original C64C) keycap.

   

Since there is not Blingboard64 kit without switches i will think about a Supa kit and use Cherry MX RGB Brown instead. And maybe an additional set of keycaps, depending on the poll.

I keep fingers crossed that this campaign will be easier to finish then the keycap campaign.