Introduction

For a modder, some form of case lighting is always a welcomed mod. Neons, cathodes, LEDs and other form of lighting mods usually catches more attention than the modded case itself. Especially when it's nice and bright! One of the many ways to do this is by EL Cables (Electro-Luminescent). Unlike cathode or neon tubes, these EL Cables are flexible so that you can mount or route them in any way you want. You can route them to follow the shape of your case window or blowhole, or make up a shape of your favourite game logo/clan logo. Another interesting way is to use them to light up your keyboard as Thor has demonstrated here in his guide.

So I decided to do some EL Cable shopping for my modding project and I stumbled upon NeonTrim. I can't remember where I got the link from but I found myself browsing thru the store and looking at the various kits available. They have kits for your automobile, boats, glasses, safety vests and many more. They even did the lighting props for the movie "Con-Air"! And from what I've heard, even the Singapore Air Force is testing out their safety vests. So after a few emails back and forth with one Francine, my order's in the mail and she also threw in a Keyboard EL Kit for me to check out. As usual, I wouldn't resist a lady with an EL Cable! ;^P So a week later, the UPS guy showed up with the goods and here's the review for you folks.

The Kit

The EL Kit came nicely packed with all the necessary accessories needed for it's installation. Here's a quick rundown of what's inside.

• The 4' EL Cable
• 5V Inverter
• Velcro mounting
• Tube of super glue
• Instruction sheet

 

First thing that caught my attention was how small the inverter was. Being a 5V Keyboard EL kit, the whole unit needs to be mounted inside the keyboard chassis and this kit will fit in almost any keyboard with the small size of the inverter. Plus, it draws power from the 5V line, so there's really no need for any kind of power adapter to power it up. You do need to locate the 5V and Ground from your keyboard PCB though. The EL cable measures just a little over 2mm in diameter and this ensures it doesn't obstruct the normal operations of the keys on the keyboard.

 

Here's a closer look at the inverter and wires that's connected to it. f you look closely, you can see the tiny wires from the EL cable soldered to one end of the inverter. It can easily comes off if pulled. Some kind of protection, like heatshrinks is welcomed here. In fact, I think the whole inverter should be covered with heatshrink so that the wires/solder pads would not come into contact with anything in the keyboard chassis. The other thing is the two wires for connecting to the power line from your keyboard. For some, the length might be too short from the point where you mount the inverter and your keyboard PCB.

  

I decided to cover the inverter with some heatshrink tube before I actually go into the installation of the EL kit into my keyboard. You can find heatshrinks in all sorts of different colours and sizes over at HeatShrink.Com. Since I chose Ice Blue for the EL colour, I use a small piece of blue heatshrink. The heatshrink helps not only to prevent the bare wires from coming in contact with the keyboard parts, but also helps to secure it better to the solder points.

 

Now it's time to open up your keyboard! My favourite part! I'm using my old Microsoft OEM Internet keyboard for this review. It has been thru a lot and its' getting quite dirty as well. I took this chance to clean it up a little. The upper body of the keyboard is usualy held in place with screws and you will normally find these screws below the keyboard. Locate them and remove them.

  

Once all the screws are removed, lift the upper body of the keyboard from the lower part and the butons and PCB will be exposed. Depending on the brand/model, each of them will have different layouts and also position of the PCB and the power line. Here you can see a close up of the PCB and also the wires from which power and data is supplied to/from. You might need to undo a few screws to remove the PCB from the keyboard as in my case. I also opened up my other keyboard, the Internet Keyboard Pro and found it to have a totally different PCB design/layout, although both keyboards have the same basic external layout, so you might want to take note of that.

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