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RGB Lighting

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:

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.

If you would like to learn more about HSV you can start with the Wikipedia article.

Configuration

Before RGB Lighting can be used you have to enable it in rules.mk:

RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes

You can configure the behavior of the RGB lighting by defining values inside config.h.

Required Configuration

At minimum you have to define the pin your LED strip is connected to and the number of LEDs connected.

#define RGB_DI_PIN D7     // The pin the LED strip is connected to
#define RGBLED_NUM 14     // Number of LEDs in your strip

Optional Configuration

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.

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_ANIMATIONS`		`#define` this to enable animation modes.
`RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_SNAKE_LENGTH`	4	The number of LEDs to light up for the "snake" mode.
`RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT_LENGTH`	3	The number of LEDs to light up for the "knight" mode.
`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.

// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the breathing mode
const uint8_t RGBLED_BREATHING_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {30, 20, 10, 5};

// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the rainbow mode
const uint8_t RGBLED_RAINBOW_MOOD_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {120, 60, 30};

// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the swirl mode
const uint8_t RGBLED_RAINBOW_SWIRL_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {100, 50, 20};

// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the snake mode
const uint8_t RGBLED_SNAKE_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {100, 50, 20};

// How long (in ms) to wait between animation steps for the knight modes
const uint8_t RGBLED_KNIGHT_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {127, 63, 31};

// These control which colors are selected for the gradient mode
const uint16_t RGBLED_GRADIENT_RANGES[] PROGMEM = {360, 240, 180, 120, 90};

RGB Lighting Keycodes

These control the RGB Lighting functionality.

Long Name	Short Name	Description
	`RGB_TOG`	toggle on/off
	`RGB_MOD`	cycle through modes
	`RGB_HUI`	hue increase
	`RGB_HUD`	hue decrease
	`RGB_SAI`	saturation increase
	`RGB_SAD`	saturation decrease
	`RGB_VAI`	value (brightness) increase
	`RGB_VAD`	value (brightness) decrease
`RGB_MODE_PLAIN`	`RGB_M_P`	Switch to the static no animation mode
`RGB_MODE_BREATHE`	`RGB_M_B`	Switch to the breathing mode
`RGB_MODE_RAINBOW`	`RGB_M_R`	Switch to the rainbow mode
`RGB_MODE_SWIRL`	`RGB_M_SW`	Switch to the swirl mode
`RGB_MODE_SNAKE`	`RGB_M_SN`	Switch to the snake mode
`RGB_MODE_KNIGHT`	`RGB_M_K`	Switch to the knight animation
`RGB_MODE_XMAS`	`RGB_M_X`	Switch to the Christmas animation
`RGB_MODE_GRADIENT`	`RGB_M_G`	Switch to the static gradient mode

Hardware Modification

Here is a quick demo on Youtube (with NPKC KC60) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKrpPAHlisY).

For this mod, you need an unused pin wiring to DI of WS2812 strip. After wiring the VCC, GND, and DI, you can enable the underglow in your Makefile.

RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes

In order to use the underglow animation functions, you need to have #define RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS 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:

#define RGB_DI_PIN F4     // The pin your RGB strip is wired to
#define RGBLED_NUM 14     // Number of LEDs

You'll need to edit RGB_DI_PIN to the pin you have your DI on your RGB strip wired to.

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