Hi everyone,
Does anyone know how well the uConsole’s keyboard backlight should light up the keyboard? To be frank, i get some keys like the a, w, g, j, 7, and 9 keys lit up ok, but the surrounding keys are very dimly lit (even on max brightness). is this normal? Or perhaps is my diffusion paper insert not aligned correctly?
that’s normal. my 7 and 9 are very bright compared to the rest. With the - = \ being the dimmest. all are a usable brightness though.
I also have a Beepy/Beepberry which uses a clone of the BlackBerry keypad. That little keypad lights up very evenly compared to the uConsole’s. It’s much smaller, so easier to light, but I think some clever design went into it as well. I haven’t pulled the keypad apart but since it is hard plastic I feel that there are some light pipes (clear resin in the right shape) built-in to the design.
If I had a wish for the uConsole, it would be for a keypad more like the HP calculators (HP 12C, 16C, 17B, 48SX/GX, 71B) and old palmtops (HP 95LX, 100LX, 200LX). They are a membrane based keypad with a hard plastic frame of hinged caps.
Brightness depends on whether that white plastic sheet between keyboard and rubber keypad is installed or not…
With that white plastic light diffuser: light is more even but very dim, almost unusable.
Without that white plastic light diffuser: light is uneven, but usable, text pretty readable in low light.
Wow, you weren’t kidding! I tried removing the light diffuser, and it was like night and day! What used to be very very difficult to read, now comes through very nicely. It might not be as even, but having extremely even dim light is kind of useless.
To be honest, I’m not sure how many people would prefer using the diffuser. It almost seems like it should have been called out as optional in the install guide, as the default of not having one seems like the much better choice.
Only really want the backlight when it is really dark. I don’t need it when I can see the letters.
I was fiddling around with this recently and took some comparison photos in the dark with low/high settings and no diffuser/yes diffuser. IMO the choice is clear.
Without the diffuser (last two photos) it is brighter and, visually, I think it’s more uniform. That means I can have the keyboard on the lowest brightness setting, saving battery, and have better overall visibility.
I kinda get what clockwork was going for but I think it’s objectively better to not install the diffuser.
