This time, it's time to attack the keyboard. The mod is quite similar with that
logomouse, so you should be able to manage even with lesser skills in electronics.
My own IBM keyboard caused me some trouble with a few hidden screws and their bases
which were hidden under the keys. Well, just rip off those keys with a screwdriver and
you can screw those screws.
I seeked the +5 v and ground with a voltage meter. Bravely solder those wires and the
voltage output is done. The schematics of the pins is from the end of the keyboard
cord.
So, the connection has only one 15 ohm resistance to strain the current to a level of
about 40mA. This is ample for supporting four LEDs. As you can see from the picture,
the LEDs have connected paralelly by twos, and then after eachother in a serie.
The LEDs used are 3mm, red and normal brightness. I drilled holes with a 3mm drill on
the surface of the keyboard and glued the LEDs with superglue(tm).
On the surface of the keys, the lenses were made in the same way as in the mousemod,
which means, drill the holes, seal the other side of the hole with tape and just fill
the holes with two-component glue.
And once again, we're merely short of a test. As you see, the red glow is noticable
even on daylight. So, you don't need any specially bright LEDs. The light is also
reflected to the edges of the keys, which gave us a neater look than we thought of.
Combined with the mousemod we have a definite crowd puller for your LAN sessions and a
target of envy of your friends ;).
So, this was what we had this time. Once again, I used red LEDs because I happened to
have those in my box. It's up to each of you which color to use in your own mods. Just
remember that you might need to recalculate the resistance because, as you know,
different LEDs have different voltage thresholds and currencies.
I hope this inspires you once again to mod your own "boring" computers and makes your
day a better one, and your life even a tad sweeter (...yeah, right).