My first Mod... Starcraft 2

I haven't , but I will try that. I don't know if it will help this row of lights, since the LEDs are located in the recessed part of the case. I am really hoping that once I get the rest in they will help get rid of some of the bright spots.

So it has been a while since I have posted. I have been busy with work and progressing on the keyboard at the same time. So here is a big update as to where I stand. Sorry if this gets to massive.

So what I have done is put a large array of LEDs in the base of my keyboard. I origanlly planned on only using 20 or so lights, but it quickly ballooned to over 40. Needless to say it should light up fairly well. So here is a pic of the back of the keyboard so that you can see my "wonderful" wiring skills.

You might notice some little white pieces on the back of the keyboard. These are small pieces of styrene tube that I am using to help keep the top of the LED flush with the bottom of the keyboard.

So here is what it looks like in the light. You will also notice that I have installed the switch on the upper left side. I will get into this later.

And here it is in the dark

There are some bright spots but I think I will live with those for now. So as for the switch I had originally planned on making the keyboard multi colored. Well with the number of LEDs that I already have in the base I decided that a single color would be fine. So the switch now is going to control whether the lights are on or off. This switch is a 6 position switch so I plan on using at least 4 of them 1-Off, 2-Logos ( to be installed later), 3-Keys, 4-Keys and Logos. At this point I do not have any ideas for 5 or 6. I want to install a base behind the dial that will contain small LEDs that will light up depending on the position of the switch.

As for the keys I am starting on the letters first. I have drilled holes through the center of the keys and hollowed it out to match the post that is behind each key.

I then glued a small piece of transparency over the holes and sanded it down to be flush with the key. I am also going to sand the surface of the key to help give it a frosted look.

I will then place cut outs of the letters and paint around them. I plan on then removing the letters and clear coating the whole key.

Well I believe that is it for now. I am going to try something special with the space bar, but am not sure how that will work out yet.

Also another thing that I am going to do is extend the top of the keyboard by about 1 inch. This will help the dial and my military power switch sit better on the keyboard.

Hell yeah! That is one damned fine mock-up you got there, this should be cool! Sorry, I arrived a little late)

Well this is a brief update. No pics as I am just drilling holes in keys, gluing and weeding the letters for each key. Long tedious work. Hopefully I will have it done soon, depending on what my holiday schedule is. I am also working on a plexiglass logo that I will be placing on the keyboard and lighting with blue leds. Once I get some work done on that I will post some pics. Until then happy holidays
:santa:

Hey here I am again... Finally. Sorry for such the long delay between posts. It seems like I just got to sit down from the holidays. Of course traveling back to Michigan to celebrate Christmas on two different weekends. Along with celebrating New Years and our Anniversary(New Years Day and 2 years if your curious). So here I am again, and I am sorry and happy to say that I might go away for a while again. We are now looking for a new home, so that is going to take most of my time.

Well on to the updates. I have finally finished all of the keys, except for the space bar. The space bar is going to take a little more work. I have something in mind for that (more to come later). So now I am modding the outside of the keyboard and getting ready to paint it. I have to encase the bottom of the keyboard to hide the wiring. In doing this I have to leave some holes open in order to screw it together. So I am drilling holes in the bottom and filling them with some styrene tubes that I have.

I am adding bondo to the keyboard now to smooth the edge out and fill in some holes.

I have also been working on the logos. I finished the Blizzard name, but the Starcraft is proving to be more of a problem. I will get it eventually. I simply printed the logos onto a sticker sheet and then traced them with an exacto. From there I use my smallest dremel engraver to cut away the outside. With the Blizzard logo I then painted the dremeled area with a satin black. I plan on putting these on the left and right side of the keyboard and back lighting them with some blue EL wire that I have and have them switchable with the switch I am installing on the top of the keyboard.

And Finally a couple of my christmas presents

Thanks Mom and Dad

Thanks Mom and Dad Inlaw

Small LCD from Nintendo DS, Not sure where or how I am going to use this

This is a screen from PSOne portable. I have seen mods online on how to get this to work with a VGA input. It should work nicely on the front of the case.

I also hope to start working on the actual case. I will be getting the frame around this weekend and move from there.

Is that small DS screen the touchscreen one because if you could get that functional it would be badass.

Sand the top of those LEDs to help diffuse the glow, you won't have as noticeable bright spots either.

I really like the keyboard mod. I've never seen anyone do it for all the keys, just as a back light.

Keep it up! :D

Actually I did sand all the LEDs, the problem is that there is little, to no space for the LED's to diffuse in. I think next time I do something like this I might try to either install small LED's inside the keys (2mm LEDs) or use lots of EL wire. I think the second would be more economical and need very little modification of the keyboard.

As for the DS screen I believe the touch screen part is separate from the screen, but I could be wrong. Either way I need to first find a driver for the LCD.