Project Update:
This project has become quite the undertaking, but we’re starting to make some great progress on the hardware. One of the challenges that we’re currently trying to solve for is to properly backlight both the etching part of the paddle as well as the notification LED’s. In addition, we’re trying to solve for the LED Bar effect as shown in this configuration of the switch:
We’d like to allow for people to have different colors available for the notification LED’s and the backlit part and so far the idea is to have a strip of LED’s run down the middle of the switch and then LED’s running down both sides. However, the challenge is the light bleed.
A competitors switch has solved this by blocking out the side LED’s but their LED’s are so tiny that it’s easy to accomplish. The manufacturer came back and said we could do the same thing, but the configuration would look like this:
We’re pushing back because we think they can accomplish the LED Bar effect by adding some light pipes and/or some sort of barrier to prevent the light from shining into the middle of the switch and we have a couple ideas sent over to them for review.
We should have some sort of answer before they leave for Chinese New Year which starts on February 7th.