That is clever and all, but a much simpler method (and one I would personally consider more elegant) is to use a photocell mounted somewhere on the machine (probably on the top of the lid, as not to be effected by the LCD itself) to trigger the LED at a predetermined level of darkness.

Posted at 12:22 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by TJ

@TJ

What do you do when it’s dark out and you don’t want it on? i.e watching a movie, leaving the lid open on a desk, etc.

Posted at 12:29 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by Harold

but then what about when he’s watching a video in the dark?

Posted at 1:11 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by tossy

mmm very nice hack indeed, very convenient, i like the choice of manual control, the auto activated ones irritate me, i might just do this to my acer, using pixace08M as the microcontroller

Posted at 1:28 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by cameron

Tossy, the point of the hack is the clever method he used to switch it on and off, not the simple addition of an ‘always on’ illumination source, which would be irritating for films etc. as you mention.

This is great hack. I may borrow these idea…. I’m thinking along the lines of painting beneath the keys a nice reflective light then using three or four 3mm blue LED’s to get a nice glow from beneath the keys.

Thanks for the idea

Posted at 4:18 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by Liam

i have a thinkpad with the light already on it and guess how many times i’ve used it. NONE!! its pointless if you have a backlighted LCD screen because the light from there is 100x brighter than the little light up top. Nice little hack, but entirely useless.

Posted at 10:41 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by shadymilkman

Why not have it directly connected to the caps lock LED? I mean, if someone is noobish enough to need to know exactly where a key is in the dark, they are probably noobish enough to leave the caps lock on.

Posted at 11:07 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by Crash

@shadymilkman

Going to have to completely disagree with you there. The keyboard light is a very useful feature to have on the ibm laptops especially when in the dark. The lcd hardly illuminates the keyboard unless you have it pointed down towards the keyboard.

Nice hack and well executed. Making it turn on that way is even more effective than the fn+pg_up configuration it is on my ibm a20. Good work!

Posted at 11:16 am on Oct 31st, 2006 by Robert Brown

@shadymilkman

I also have to disagree. I use the led alot when in the dark. The screen never provides enough light when you need to use random keys.

Nice hack. Something alot of people could find usefull.

Posted at 2:03 pm on Oct 31st, 2006 by splitime

liam, I know, I was just responding to the first dude. seems like a well designed system he made.

Posted at 2:59 pm on Oct 31st, 2006 by tossy

@crash

I challenge you to know where every key is on a laptop keyboard. Considering I own about 3 laptops and they all have a different keyboard layout it is nice to have a lit one to find say the page up key. And it is not just being able to find your keys it is being able to see what you are doing.

Posted at 10:30 am on Nov 1st, 2006 by Robert Brown

nice, but how are you going to find the caps lock key in the dark, heh? ;)

Posted at 11:09 am on Nov 1st, 2006 by Hans

Ran across this by google search and I often work (really mostly play) late into the night.

Being able to see the keys late into the night is important, I normally spend good amount of time into the night and when it gets to late I have to look down sometimes, If I cant see they keys then I have to stop what im doing and figure it out.

Its useful, like a Real panic button!

Posted at 11:23 pm on Sep 15th, 2009 by Jackey