Hey all,
I've got a Microsoft Natural Pro keyboard, and I want to mod the bejesus out of it. My mod falls into several categories:
1) Paint it black and find a way to get the letters and symbols white (UV reactive if at all possible, heard there was a way)
2) Backlight the keys with EL sheets from Being Seen: http://www.beingseen.com/sheets.html I'd be willing to use regular EL light, but that looks like it gives the best look. If possible, I'd want to add a switch somewhere to my keyboard that allows me to turn up/down the brightness and turn off the light. My keyboard has a sleep button, and if there was a (relatively) easy way to desolder or cut away the circuitboard and use the sleep button as my lighting power switch, I'd want to do that.
3) Change the LEDs from green to blue. Pretty easy compared to the other mods I want to do.
4) The big one. I want to add a Matrix Orbital LCD display (20x2 lines, http://www.matrixorbital.com/products/lk202-24-USB.htm) to the keyboard. I'd either want to mount it directly under the arrow keys / number pad or right under the space bar; wherever it would fit. I'd go for the inverse blue backlight (white text on blue background) LCD, USB version. Since my keyboard has an integrated USB hub I could simply use that for my LCD power and connection, meaning no extra cables to my system (this would be even better if I bought/modded a cable to be just the right length). It appears to me from reading the manual for the LCD that it doesn't need a molex connecter, but can anyone who has one verify that for me? More importantly, is it even possible to do all these mods I want to do, or should I put down the crack pipe?

All of those are extremely possible.

1. Get some UV reactive paint, that's easy enough to do. They sell some stuff at pctoys, I believe. You'd need quite a fine tip brush to do letters though.

2. I don't know how you'd power the EL lighting without an extra cord (it is 12 volts, right?), but to undo the sleep button, you can just unsolder the wires that lead from it to the circuit bored, then use those wires to connect it however you'd want.

3. Yeah, that's easy. And there are like 50 guides floating aroudn on how to do it too.

4. You'd have to make plenty of room, those things are pretyt big. I don't know if the LCD needs a molex, no idea. You can easily just make a hole for the usb cable to come out to the hub, or if you are daring you can straight solder it into the bracket inside. That'd be pretty hard though.

Overall, you could do it. Can't wait to see how it turns out if you do it.

Thanks for the advice. I REALLY want to do this, but am limited by two big things. One, the price on this could potentially balloon to $200-300 dollars, not including cost of keyboard (which I have). Two, I have no soldering experience and don't know how to do it. My modding skills are pretty limited, but if I decided to do this I think I could pull it all off. I'll be reading up on how to do this and will let you know if I do it.

Well, here's some help.

you can get a program to print labels for your keyboard keys, and if you print them in white, you stand a good chance of them glowing. There's also a program that PC magazine put together to remap your keyboard, if that will help you.

as for connecting the USB LCD to the hub, it is possible o attach everything on the inside. Open up the USB cable that runs to the keyboard cable and match wire colors, and then solder and/or heatshrink. That will work, but you will lose a USB port.Just running the cable out and plugging it in isn't bad, but you could also run it beside the Keyboard, go get black cold-weld tape from an auto parts store-it's like electrical tape, but it only bonds to itself, and seals itself permanently-and make them one cord, and then you can plug them both up in the back and still have your two usb ports.

The same trick will work if the LCD and EL stuff need molex connectors-lengthen the wires and make a bracket for molex connectors on the back of the computer. Then use the cold-weld stuff to make it all one cable.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that if the EL runs on 5 volts, you can just hook the power into the 5+ and the 5- line on the USB slot.

And UV reactive paint looks best under ultra-violet light, so you dril in holes somewhere and add in the UV LED's, alongside your regular num/caps/scroll lights.

Thanks for the suggestion about the USB cable. Perhaps instead of getting blue LEDs (my desk is surrounded in blue anyway, and I want to get the EL lighting blue) I can put in UV LEDs for the green ones. Also: if I plug the LCD into the USB port internally, would I still have 5 volt lines to attach the EL wire to? Ideally, I'd attach all the cables internally, but I was thinking I'd have to run a very long molex connector along my keyboard cable and then pass it through a PCI slot into my case. If I could do it as you suggest, AND power the LCD display, that would be best. Even if I lost both USB ports on my keyboard, I don't really use them anyway.

You could get some EL wire and do the edges? And then for the UV reactive paint take a tiny tiny bursh and get something to magnify (helps alot) and carefully trace over the letters, alow plentty of time to dry, and after a while of frequent use you might want to re-aply seeing as the paint might wear off. Good luck!


One more thing that pertains to modding, not the keyboard but still good to enhance the general area, is to mkae a glow pad, easy easy easy. Get some LEDs w/e color you want get a piece of plexi glass or lexan whichever both work the same. Cut out the plexiglass/lexan as the same shape as your mouse pad, drill holes on the backside edge of the lexan just big enough for the LEDs to fit in. Depending on size of the mouse pad you would probablly be best off using 3-4 LEDS. Any how drill the holes, put them in, then the way I made mine stay in was I found clear drying glue filled the holes with a little then put them in. Hook it up, make sure the wires are clean, a glow pad with nasty wires is a total waste. But wrap the wires and drape them of the backside of your desk and place the mouse pad on top and there yah go! Looks really good if done well!

Thanks Slick, I'd actually been wanting to do a glowpad, and still might decide to when I have some extra cash.

Another idea I had for lighting beneath the keys of my keyboard: perhaps there is enough room for a 12" or 4" cold cathode beneath the hotkeys at the top, and I could then find a place for the rocker switch in the back of the keyboard. Could that also be powered by a USB port internally?

possible, not really sure though. But glow pads arent really that much $. Home depot you can get a sheet of lexan/plexiglass for like 4-5 $ Then a pack of LEDs are like 4-5 $. I got my LEDs at www.superbrightleds.com, and if you do fit a CCFL in the keyboard I would love to see it!

CC run off 12 v, I believe, and USB only gives 5 v, and you'd be running the amps pretty hard, you only get 250 mA per port

Yeah, what he said!

That's what I wondered. Besides, the lighting effect would probably be better with one of those EL sheets from the link in my original post. Speaking of which, has anyone ever tried one of those/planning on trying one?

now, i assume you need to paint the keys black, then put the whit letters on later, while hard, i know of a really easy solution, that requires no painting with tiny brushes, even for the UV reactiveness, because if you are in black lighting, what lights up? WHITE, go to a hobby shop and look for rub on decals (they are printed backward on wax paper, you just put down some maskingtape as a guide and line up the letters you want, then rub on em with a penny) and bring a black light with, test the white letters (or perhaps neon if you would prefer) and pick your favorite font and UV reacticvity, after you put on the decals be sure to put on a coat or two of clear, so the letters dont come off

I also want to mod my keyboard, I dont know much at all about computers, but I want to install some neon lights, can anyone tell me some sites that tell me 'how to' and where to buy the parts cheap?

I also want to change the color of my optical mouse light, It's red and I want it to be blue, how would I go about doing this?

read the guide on changin the mx-700 on the main page of PR http://www.pcapex.com/modules.php?s=...icle&artid=132