If you've installed addressable RGB lights on your keyboard you can control them with QMK. Currently we support the following addressable LEDs on Atmel AVR processors:
QMK has the ability to control RGB LEDs attached to your keyboard. This is commonly called *underglow*, due to the LEDs often being mounted on the bottom of the keyboard, producing a nice diffused effect when combined with a translucent case.
* WS2811 and variants (WS2812, WS2812B, WS2812C, etc)
* SK6812RGBW
Some keyboards come with RGB LEDs pre-installed. Others have to have LEDs installed after the fact. See below for information on modifying your keyboard.
## Selecting Colors
QMK uses Hue, Saturation, and Value to set color rather than using RGB. You can use the color wheel below to see how this works. Changing the Hue will cycle around the circle. Saturation will affect the intensity of the color, which you can see as you move from the inner part to the outer part of the wheel. Value sets the overall brightness.
<imgsrc="gitbook/images/color-wheel.svg"alt="HSV Color Wheel"width="250">
If you would like to learn more about HSV you can start with the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV).
## Configuration
Some keyboards come with RGB LEDs preinstalled. Others must have them installed after the fact. See the [Hardware Modification](#hardware-modification) section for information on adding RGB lighting to your keyboard.
Before RGB Lighting can be used you have to enable it in `rules.mk`:
Currently QMK supports the following addressable LEDs on AVR microcontrollers (however, the white LED in RGBW variants is not supported):
RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes
* WS2811, WS2812, WS2812B, WS2812C, etc.
* SK6812, SK6812MINI, SK6805
You can configure the behavior of the RGB lighting by defining values inside `config.h`.
These LEDs are called "addressable" because instead of using a wire per color, each LED contains a small microchip that understands a special protocol sent over a single wire. The chip passes on the remaining data to the next LED, allowing them to be chained together. In this way, you can easily control the color of the individual LEDs.
### Required Configuration
## Usage
At minimum you have to define the pin your LED strip is connected to and the number of LEDs connected.
On keyboards with onboard RGB LEDs, it is usually enabled by default. If it is not working for you, check that your `rules.mk` includes the following:
```c
```make
#define RGB_DI_PIN D7 // The pin the LED strip is connected to
RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes
#define RGBLED_NUM 14 // Number of LEDs in your strip
```
```
### Optional Configuration
At minimum you must define the data pin your LED strip is connected to, and the number of LEDs in the strip, in your `config.h`. If your keyboard has onboard RGB LEDs, and you are simply creating a keymap, you usually won't need to modify these.
You can change the behavior of the RGB Lighting by setting these configuration values. Use `#define <Option> <Value>` in a `config.h` at the keyboard, revision, or keymap level.
| Option | Default Value | Description |
|--------|---------------|-------------|
| `RGBLIGHT_HUE_STEP` | 10 | How many hues you want to have available. |
| `RGBLIGHT_SAT_STEP` | 17 | How many steps of saturation you'd like. |
| `RGBLIGHT_VAL_STEP` | 17 | The number of levels of brightness you want. |
| `RGBLIGHT_LIMIT_VAL` | 255 | Limit the val of HSV to limit the maximum brightness simply. |
| `RGBLIGHT_SLEEP` | | `#define` this will shut off the lights when the host goes to sleep |
### Animations
If you have `#define RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS` in your `config.h` you will have a number of animation modes you can cycle through using the `RGB_MOD` key. You can also `#define` other options to tweak certain animations.
| Option | Default Value | Description |
|--------|---------------|-------------|
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHING` | | `#define` this to enable breathing animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RAINBOW_MOOD` | | `#define` this to enable rainbow mood animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RAINBOW_SWIRL` | | `#define` this to enable rainbow swirl animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_SNAKE` | | `#define` this to enable snake animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT` | | `#define` this to enable knight animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_CHRISTMAS` | | `#define` this to enable christmas animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_STATIC_GRADIENT` | | `#define` this to enable static gradient mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RGB_TEST` | | `#define` this to enable RGB test animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_ALTERNATING` | | `#define` this to enable alternating animation mode. |
| `RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS` | | `#define` this to enable all effect modes. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHE_CENTER` | 1.85 | Used to calculate the curve for the breathing animation. Valid values 1.0-2.7. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHE_MAX` | 255 | The maximum brightness for the breathing mode. Valid values 1-255. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_SNAKE_LENGTH` | 4 | The number of LEDs to light up for the "snake" animation. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT_LENGTH` | 3 | The number of LEDs to light up for the "knight" animation. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT_OFFSET` | 0 | Start the knight animation this many LEDs from the start of the strip. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT_LED_NUM` | RGBLED_NUM | The number of LEDs to have the "knight" animation travel. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_CHRISTMAS_INTERVAL` | 1000 | How long to wait between light changes for the "christmas" animation. Specified in ms. |
| `RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_CHRISTMAS_STEP` | 2 | How many LED's to group the red/green colors by for the christmas mode. |
You can also tweak the behavior of the animations by defining these consts in your `keymap.c`. These mostly affect the speed different modes animate at.
```c
// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the breathing mode
// These control which colors are selected for the gradient mode
QMK uses [Hue, Saturation, and Value](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSL_and_HSV) to select colors rather than RGB. The color wheel below demonstrates how this works.
<imgsrc="gitbook/images/color-wheel.svg"alt="HSV Color Wheel"width="250"/>
Look in `rgblights.h` for all available functions, but if you want to control all or some LEDs your goto functions are:
Changing the **Hue** cycles around the circle.
Changing the **Saturation** moves between the inner and outer sections of the wheel, affecting the intensity of the color.
Changing the **Value** sets the overall brightness.
```c
## Keycodes
// turn all lights off (stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_disable();
// turn lights on, based on their previous state (stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_enable();
// turn all lights off (not stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_disable_noeeprom();
// turn lights on, based on their previous state (not stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_enable_noeeprom();
// where r/g/b is a number from 0..255. Turns all the LEDs to this color (ignores mode, not stored in EEPROM).
rgblight_setrgb(r, g, b);
// HSV color control - h is a value from 0..360 and s/v is a value from 0..255 (stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv(h, s, v);
// HSV color control - h is a value from 0..360 and s/v is a value from 0..255 (not stored in EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv_noeeprom(h, s, v);
// Sets the mode, if rgb animations are enabled (stored in eeprom)
rgblight_mode(x);
// Sets the mode, if rgb animations are enabled (not stored in eeprom)
rgblight_mode_noeeprom(x);
// MODE 1, solid color
// MODE 2-5, breathing
// MODE 6-8, rainbow mood
// MODE 9-14, rainbow swirl
// MODE 15-20, snake
// MODE 21-23, knight
// MODE 24, xmas
// MODE 25-34, static rainbow
rgblight_setrgb_at(r,g,b, LED); // control a single LED. 0 <= LED <RGBLED_NUM
rgblight_sethsv_at(h,s,v, LED); // control a single LED. 0 <= LED <RGBLED_NUM
```
You can find a list of predefined colors at [`quantum/rgblight_list.h`](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/quantum/rgblight_list.h). Free to add to this list!
|`RGB_MODE_RGBTEST`|`RGB_M_T` |Red,Green,Blue test animation mode |
|`RGB_MODE_RGBTEST`|`RGB_M_T` |Red,Green,Blue test animation mode |
note: for backwards compatibility, `RGB_SMOD` is an alias for`RGB_MOD`.
?> For backwards compatibility, `RGB_SMOD` is another alias of`RGB_MOD`.
## Hardware Modification
## Configuration
Your RGB lighting can be configured by placing these `#define`s in your `config.h`:
Please add the following options into your config.h, and set them up according your hardware configuration. These settings are for the `F4` pin by default:
// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Knight" animations
#define RGB_DI_PIN F4 // The pin your RGB strip is wired to
If you need to change your RGB lighting in code, for example in a macro to change the color whenever you switch layers, QMK provides a set of functions to assist you. See [`rgblight.h`](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/quantum/rgblight.h) for the full list, but the most commonly used functions include:
|`rgblight_enable()` |Turn LEDs on, based on their previous state |
|`rgblight_enable_noeeprom()` |Turn LEDs on, based on their previous state (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_disable()` |Turn LEDs off |
|`rgblight_disable_noeeprom()` |Turn LEDs off (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_mode(x)` |Set the mode, if RGB animations are enabled |
|`rgblight_mode_noeeprom(x)` |Set the mode, if RGB animations are enabled (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_setrgb(r, g, b)` |Set all LEDs to the given RGB value where `r`/`g`/`b` are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_setrgb_at(r, g, b, led)` |Set a single LED to the given RGB value, where `r`/`g`/`b` are between 0 and 255 and `led` is between 0 and `RGBLED_NUM` (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_sethsv(h, s, v)` |Set all LEDs to the given HSV value where `h` is between 0 and 360 and `s`/`v` are between 0 and 255 |
|`rgblight_sethsv_noeeprom(h, s, v)`|Set all LEDs to the given HSV value where `h` is between 0 and 360 and `s`/`v` are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM) |
|`rgblight_sethsv_at(h, s, v, led)` |Set a single LED to the given HSV value, where `h` is between 0 and 360, `s`/`v` are between 0 and 255, and `led` is between 0 and `RGBLED_NUM` (not written to EEPROM)|
Additionally, [`rgblight_list.h`](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/blob/master/quantum/rgblight_list.h) defines several predefined shortcuts for various colors. Feel free to add to this list!
## Hardware Modification
You'll need to edit `RGB_DI_PIN` to the pin you have your `DI` on your RGB strip wired to.
If your keyboard lacks onboard underglow LEDs, you may often be able to solder on an RGB LED strip yourself. You will need to find an unused pin to wire to the data pin of your LED strip. Some keyboards may break out unused pins from the MCU to make soldering easier. The other two pins, VCC and GND, must also be connected to the appropriate power pins.
mtei
6 years ago