Hi, I’m David - I’m new here but it looks like a friendly space. Hope this is posted in the correct place… I’ve a question about hand-wiring…
So I’ve made a little macro-pad with a teensy and QMK - no PCB, just hand-wired switches. For my next project I’d like to hand-wire a custom 30%, but this time I want to add back-lighting. I’ve read around but I don’t get the basic ideas.
Can QMK control on/off and brightness with switches, diodes and teensy/pro-micro alone, or do I need an LED controller as well?
I’m looking at these switches - could I just pop in LEDs and wire everything up?
If I wanted to go 110% with rgb and those ripple effects, would that need an additional controller?
Those switches support the through holes for LEDs but seems like it could get hairy quick for hand-wired?
I haven’t looked deeply - but depending on the effects you might want - I think you’d need to wire in a mosfet chip for current control? (Newb myself, so hopefully you get a more definitive response as well) - regardless - Welcome!
Thanks @dwrowe, I guess at this point people use PCBs but I’ve got zero experience making those, so that’s a project for the future. You mention mosfet chips and I remember VInnyCordeiro talked about those in this thread on in-switch LEDs, so you’ve confirmed that’s the direction for me to go, thanks a lot.