How to feed custom RGB Led keyboard backlight

laptopledrgb

I have found a lot of topics but none of them describe what I want to use it for. Basically I want to put 104 RGB Leds under my laptop's keyboard and be able to control them individually. The following list is my shopping list:

  • 104 RGB Leds with common cathode @ 20mA each = ~2.1A total
  • 7 LED drivers (TLC5940)
  • 3 voltage regulators (IRF9520)
  • 3 resistors @ 4.7K

Now I want to control each LED individually and I will create a proof of concept with an Arduino but my questions are as follows:

  • Is the laptop's keyboard cable capable of delivering ~2.1A?
  • How can I supply a clock to the LED drivers (straight from laptop motherboard)?
  • Would it be possible to control the LED drivers with a Windows driver or would I need a separate controller like an Arduino?

Best Answer

Your very best bet is to use Neopixel LEDs and a small Arduino as a controller. These are designed to be individually addressable, easy to wire together in a daisy-chain fashion and there are lots of examples of controlling them with Arduinos.

Adafruit is a great place to start: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide

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