T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

O.O

one of the big points with the mercs is the swappable keys though... you know those $20 "keysets" for battlefield 2 etc...

isn't EL wire basically a bunch of low powered LED's on a wire though? tbh i'm pretty much a complete noob when it comes to modding and wiring...

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Please don't call me Muncha, as cheese is not the only insinuatable munchable object; Ch33z will suffice. Oh, and i almost forgot to express my love for Heru
Planned upgrades (kind of in order): 22" Monitor, Goliathus Omega (mousepad), new chair, Windows 7, CM 690, new desk, Ideazon ZBoard MERC, Sennheiser HD201, bong, DX 11 card(s)+necessary PSU
Epic things happening in 2010: Toy Story 3, new H.I.M album, Supreme Commander 2, MechWarrior, The Elder Scrolls V, Mafia II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioshock 2, Crysis 2, Iron Man 2

timxirish

Actually, the keysets are for Ideazon's Zboards. The Merc keyboards are not compatible with them, but they still use the Z Engine (allows you to edit any key to do anything; gamepad on left side is treated as independant).

As for EL Wire, nah, it's a bit different:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroluminescent_wire

Here's a good place to start for LED wiring:
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/H...20an%20LED.htm

It's where I started, and it explains the different ways you can wire them, resistor general rules of thumb, and of course a nifty resistor calculator.

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T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

lol?

__________________
Please don't call me Muncha, as cheese is not the only insinuatable munchable object; Ch33z will suffice. Oh, and i almost forgot to express my love for Heru
Planned upgrades (kind of in order): 22" Monitor, Goliathus Omega (mousepad), new chair, Windows 7, CM 690, new desk, Ideazon ZBoard MERC, Sennheiser HD201, bong, DX 11 card(s)+necessary PSU
Epic things happening in 2010: Toy Story 3, new H.I.M album, Supreme Commander 2, MechWarrior, The Elder Scrolls V, Mafia II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioshock 2, Crysis 2, Iron Man 2

Anier

Dude, awesome Guide and post, nothing more i can say

timxirish

Thanks Anier.

As a small update, I am about to order my SMD LEDs to continue this three part guide of mine, and have gone with quite an eccentric combination.

There are 9 bicolor LEDs in this keyboard, correct? To replace them I would need 18 single color LEDs. For the longest time I was stuck on trying to figure out what colors I wanted.. I couldn't decide between giving up blue and red or adding green and yellow... well.. Eventually I decided I'd do something completely outside the box-- use all four colors!

Color setting A will be an assortment alternating in green and blue (GBGBGBGBG), and color setting B will be an assortment alternating in yellow and red (YRYRYRYRY). This means that I will get green, blue, and the product of their mix in setting A, and yellow, red and orange in setting B. When in setting C, the yellow and the green will mix, and the blue and the red will mix.

This is about to get really interesting!

I'm buying my LEDs from a member on Xbox-Scene, and am waiting for a reply for a shipped price. As soon as I get them I can go to work and document everything.

EDIT: It has recently come to my attention that Ideazon has been aquired by Steelseries. I'll edit my first post to reflect that soon, but if someone could add a Steelseries tag to this thread, it would be greatly appreciated.

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T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

so are the ZBoard's called Steelseries ZBoards now?

__________________
Please don't call me Muncha, as cheese is not the only insinuatable munchable object; Ch33z will suffice. Oh, and i almost forgot to express my love for Heru
Planned upgrades (kind of in order): 22" Monitor, Goliathus Omega (mousepad), new chair, Windows 7, CM 690, new desk, Ideazon ZBoard MERC, Sennheiser HD201, bong, DX 11 card(s)+necessary PSU
Epic things happening in 2010: Toy Story 3, new H.I.M album, Supreme Commander 2, MechWarrior, The Elder Scrolls V, Mafia II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioshock 2, Crysis 2, Iron Man 2

timxirish

Indeed.

Steelseries apparently decided to keep all the product names the same, it's just wherever you'd typically see "Ideazon" would be replaced with "Steelseries". So yes, they still call the software for the boards the Z Engine.

So far the only change that has annoyed me was the removal of Ideazon's forums, as Steelseries hasn't currently bothered to replace it with one of their own. Perhaps they're working on this in the background though. I really don't know.

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T3h_Ch33z_Muncha

Will steelseries be improving the drivers do you think?

__________________
Please don't call me Muncha, as cheese is not the only insinuatable munchable object; Ch33z will suffice. Oh, and i almost forgot to express my love for Heru
Planned upgrades (kind of in order): 22" Monitor, Goliathus Omega (mousepad), new chair, Windows 7, CM 690, new desk, Ideazon ZBoard MERC, Sennheiser HD201, bong, DX 11 card(s)+necessary PSU
Epic things happening in 2010: Toy Story 3, new H.I.M album, Supreme Commander 2, MechWarrior, The Elder Scrolls V, Mafia II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioshock 2, Crysis 2, Iron Man 2

timxirish

Well, all I know so far is that the current latest is much better than it was the year the keyboard was released. I forget where exactly they changed their UI, but it was somewhere in the macro editing feature.

I strongly suggest that anyone who has owned a Merc or Merc Stealth for over a year or so should download the latest driver.

EDIT: Perhaps they've already improved the drivers! It's also possible this UI update I spoke of was by their hand. Last I downloaded the driver, they had just acquired Ideazon within the month.

Check this out (taken from their downloads page):

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