RGB keyboard – A Hackaday Communicator badge with a built-in QWERTY keyboard got a glow-up: [makeTVee] replaced the look with a full RGB light-up front panel using side-emitting addressable LEDs—driven from the badge’s GPIO and paired with custom-printed keys held by a TPU m
At Hackaday Europe in Lecco, Italy, one badge pulled people in before it even started to type. Not because the communicator is new—it isn’t—but because the latest take on it looks alive.
The Communicator is a handheld wireless terminal with a QWERTY keyboard. It’s good as delivered, but [makeTVee] went further and turned its keyboard into a fully RGB light-up experience.
The change starts at the front panel. Thin, side-emitting addressable LEDs are built into it, and the keyboard keys are custom-printed to match the glow. Everything is held together with a TPU mat designed to keep the keys in place while maintaining that clean. integrated look. The LEDs are driven from one of the device’s GPIOs. making the light-up effect a built-in part of how the badge functions rather than an afterthought.
Seeing it in person at the conference matched what the video shows—care and attention in the build were hard to miss. The update also came with a practical thread: the original Communicator badge used a silicone cast set of keys. and these new keys are presented as an option that could be useful for anyone building a keyboard into a device.
If the Communicator itself is still unfamiliar, the launch announcement is where to start. And for the RGB keyboard transformation, there’s a video walkthrough embedded here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4FR6Jb-wLk
Hackaday Communicator badge RGB keyboard addressable LEDs GPIO maker projects Hackaday Europe Lecco QWERTY TPU mat