NeonTrim 4' Keyboard EL Kit Review
Date : Saturday, 16 March 2002
Author : Wolfman
Provided by : J. A. LeClaire
NeonTrim
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.
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.
Installation and Testing
Once you're removed the PCB, locate the power and ground wire. You can do this using a multimeter or just by plugging the keyboard in and connecting the wires from the inverter to the wires on the keyboard PCB. I know this is not the right way so if you screwed up your keyboard doing this, it's your fault! :O) For those of you having the same keyboard as I have, the 5V line is the redish/pinkish wire and the Ground is the black wire next to it. Remember, Microsoft OEM Internet Keyboard! You can clearly see both wires in the picture below. Once I got the right wires connected, the EL cable lights up. I'm a little disappointed though a my choice of colour. It turns out to be a little more to the green side than blue. :O( Anyway, it works so that's all that matters for now. ;^)
Now you will have to find a good spot on the keyboard internals to place the inverter. You have to make sure that the two keyboard parts will not be obstructed by the inverter when you're putting them back together. I found a suitable spot but as I have suspected, the wires are to short to reach the PCB. I had to extend the wires by soldering extra cables to it so that it could reach the keyboards' PCB. Nothing major, just would love to see longer cables provided. If it's too long, you can cut it no problem. Took me just a few minutes to modify it and its' ready to go. I slowly removed the 5V and Ground from their connections on the PCB, wound the wires from the inverter around them and put on a little solder to ensure proper conection and slide them back into their respective positions.
Now it's time to route the EL cable to the front of the keyboard. You first have to remove all the keys from the main section. Why only the main section of the keyboard is simply because the 4' of EL cable is not enough to cover everything. I would love to be able to pull it over to the numeric keypad and the "F" buttons on top. Anyway, once the keys are removed, drill a small hole (2.5mm or slightly larger) at the location where the EL Cable will enter the front portion of the keyboard. Once you've done that, put the top cover back on and make sure it goes on without any obstructions. It's a good idea to plug the keyboard in at this moment and test the EL cable again. This step ensures that no contacts have come loose from the previous steps.
I basically have the EL cables go from one end of a row and then back down over the other row until there's no more cable to route. I used the same method as Thor had used in his Keyboard EL Guide, holding the EL cable in place with the crocodile clips. Using the supplied tube of SuperGlue, use a few drops in between the keyboard and the EL and use the clips to hold it in place till the SuperGlue dries up. It doesn't take long for you to do this and the EL cable will stay in place after the glue has dried and the clips removed. Overall, it took me roughly 10 minutes to route and glue the cable in place.
Now that the cables are in place, I tested the kit on last time to ensure that it lights up and put the keys back in place. You can see from the pictures below that the EL kit adds a really cool touch to the keyboard and makes it glow in the dark! It's quite bright as well and the I can use the keyboard keys as normal wthout any ostruction from the EL cable below it.
Conclusion
Having no prior experience with an EL cable kit, I find that the NeonTrim Keyboard EL Kit is a nice and cool addition to all the mods I've done so far. It spices up your boring keyboard and gives it a nice glow, not forgetting that little brag factor you have when your buddies sees your keyboard lights up! :O) But it's not without it's quirks though. First of all, I would recomend some kind of protection for the inverter and also the bare wire leads. Heatshrink does the job pretty well and I would recommend NeonTrim to implement it. The other thing that needs to be rectified is the short wires from the inverter. Some might not find it a problem for their keyboards but not everyone uses the same brands/models of keyboards and longer wires are definitely welcomed. Price wise, for US$34.95, the above should have definitely been included/looked into.
Pros
Cons
I would like to thank Francine from Neontrim for the opportunity given to VH to check out their Keyboard EL Kit. They've also got a 10' LineLight Computer Kit that you can use for lighting up the inside of your case or the edges of your window, etc. so you might want to check that out as well. And thanks to you too for reading and enjoy the site! Cheers all!