Changing the Backlight Colour of a Saitek Eclipse or Gamers Keyboard

Unlike most backlit keyboards that use EL panels to light the keyboard, the Saitek solutions use LED’s and a light panel. This opens the product up to a huge number of different colour options, but yet Saitek still only offers the KB with Blue backlighting(Edit 2006 - Eclipse Special Ed is in RED). But you can change that, if you don’t mind voiding the warranty

What you’ll need



Saitek Gamers or Eclipse Keyboard
10 or 11surface mount LED’s (10 in KB, 1 in command pad), 0805 or SMA sized
10 or 11 surface mount 0805 resistors (may not be required depending on the colour of LED’s used)
Multimeter capable of measuring resistance, DC volts and performing a diode test (Optional)
Soldering Iron, preferably 45W and under
Precision Tweezers
Solder and flux (do not use flux designed for plumbing use)
Isopropyl Alcohol and small brush (Optional)
Phillips #1 screwdriver
Set of Allen Keys or Hex Keys

For this guide I’ve selected RED Lumex SML-LX23SIC SMA package LED’s which are available from Digikey. These have a Vf of 2.6V and I plan on running them at 20mA so I need resistors that are at least 120ohms.


Procedure

1. Remove the screws and carefully separate the halves, don’t forget the 4 on the top.







2. Leave the membranes in place and remove the PCB’s boards that run along the front edge of the keyboard. Unplug the wire from the main PCB, making sure to note the polarity!






CLICK FOR DETAIL

3. Measure the resistors and make sure they are of the correct value required for the new LED’s. The ones in my Eclipse were 82 ohms, I need 120 ohms. (If the LED’s you are using are from 3.6V to 5V you should be fine and can skip to part 5)

4. Remove the old resistor and place the new resistors. To remove surface mount resistors and diodes I alternately heat each side of the part quickly switching back and forth until the part slides off under minimal pressure.

5. With the diode check feature determine the polarity of the replacement LED’s and the stock LED’s (some keyboards to not have the polarity marked)

6. Remove the stock LED’s and populate the new LED’s. The package or datasheet should indicate the polarity, if not use the diode check. This is a one shot deal, on both KB’s I’ve done the LED’s were held down with glue or something and were destroyed in removing them


CLICK FOR DETAIL

7. Clean the affected areas with alcohol

8. Carefully return the PCB’s and wires to their locations. If you have used a larger LED like I have you will need to do some minor trimming to get the LED”s to fit in the correct locations, make sure they line up with the protrusions.



9. Make sure that the membrane is aligned and then snap the top back into place

10. Screw in the 4 bolts on the top side, then flip over the keyboard and inspect the screw holes, make sure the membrane has stayed in place and not blocked any of the holes.

11. Screw in the screws, flip over and enjoy. To be on the safe side you may want to connect it to a USB hub the first time you power it up, otherwise if you did something wrong, you could be dealing with a toasted USB port on your motherboard.

Saitek Gamers KB in Green



Eclipse KB in RED



Eclipse in Green


Originally Posted at ModdersHQ, Aug 17, 2005 RIP
Reposted in the old MB fourms Jan 24, 2006

Crud, my FTP no longer allows HTTP requests, pics will be fixed when I find a new host.

PIC's should be back!

wow is that yours that fucking sweet where do i get one?

Old pic's fixed. There should be some new ones tonight, I was feeling the urge for a colour change

my caps lock button on my Eclipse is always on even when my computer is turned off. I suppose i should use this guide and fix that.

Crappy pic (no tripod) and I probably went a little too dim. And there seems to be some issue with the board, when I try editing near the end of the original post, the window keeps wanting to scroll upwards, making it damn hard to edit things.