12'' Powerbook Backliting Keyboard..... need your guys' help

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12'' Powerbook Backliting Keyboard..... need your guys' help

alright, i know everyone was disappointed with not having backlit keys in the 12" Powerbook. I didnt really care much till i purchased a 17" about a month ago and was wondering if i could pull it off on my 12" powerbook. I saw the guy that did the fiber optics on his ibook. I liked the idea and wanted to do the same thing on my 12". So heres my questions....

1. I want to purchase a 17" powerbook backlit keyboard off ebay, take off the backlit panel on the back of it and then put it on my 12" keyboard and somehow wire the power to my screens power or some power somewhere inside (thats where i need your guys help and advice. it looks like its) The guy who did the ibook wired a LED up to his screens power supply and id like to do that.

2. With number one being said, exactly how much power and whatnot does it take to run the backlit apple keyboard. I dont care to much for the ambient sensors (dont like them anyway) I want it either on whenever my screen is on, or i was thinking about wiring up a on off button next to the power button and make it match (but thats later).

guys let me know your thoughts and everything... seems like its to cramped and everything in there.. but i know its gotta b possible..

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Backligthing ...

The backlighting arrangement on the 15" and 17" PowerBooks is more complex than you'd think. On those machines, the backlighting element (fibre optics) are attached to the top case and the keyboard is attache to the top case over the element. (the element is the entire length of the keyboard with the a slit in the top case where the fibres go through) Since it is fibre optics, there will be a big bunch of where the lighting element for the fibre is - this isn't a small bundle - such that on a 12" iBook G4 that I did this mod on - I had to remove the 56k modem. To put in a 12" PBG4, I do not see this being a remotely trivial task - as everything in the 12" PB is crammed tight to begin with. The backlight can run off of the internal usb connection (which drives the bluetooth - you can piggyback) - the backlighting will be on when the computer has power - even when the computer is off. You'll have problems with power management and severely reduced battery life.

I would advise against doing this.

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