A guide detailing how to enable underglow on the Zeal60 with WS2812 LEDs.

Zeal60_UnderglowGuidePublic.md

RGB Underglow Strip on the Zeal60: A Guide

A. Connecting the strip

You might find the full PCB image helpful. Ignore the red boxes!

1. Connect V+ to the receiving end of the thermistor labeled F1; connect GND to the board's GND pin. (Avoid connecting +V to the board's +5V pin - you will likely overload the thermistor, and you will limit your maximum brightness.)

   

2. Connect DI to PB0.

   

3. Should look something like this when finished:

   

B. Enabling the strip

1. If it is not present already, add the following to your keymap's Makefile:

   RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes
   AUDIO_ENABLE = no     #Underglow animations cannot be used with audio.

2. If it is not present already, add the following to your keymap's config.h:

   #define RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS    // Underglow animations. 
   #define RGB_DI_PIN B0          // The pin your RGB strip is wired to
   #define RGBLED_NUM 35          // Number of LEDs
   #define RGBLIGHT_HUE_STEP 5    // How much each press of rgb_hue changes hue
   #define RGBLIGHT_SAT_STEP 10   // How much each press of rgb_sat changes sat
   #define RGBLIGHT_VAL_STEP 10   // How much each press of rgb_val changes val

3. If they are not present already, add the following keycodes to your keymap to control the RGB strip: RGB_TOG (on/off), RGB_MOD (step through modes), RGB_HUI, RGB_HUD, RGB_SAI, RGB_SAD, RGB_VAI, RGB_VAD (HSV increase/decrease). Add these to your keymap.

C. Dealing with current limits

USB 2.0 ports on laptops provide up to 500mA max, but USB 3.0 ports can provide up to 900mA; USB 3.1 up to 1.5A; and powered USB hubs even more. We can run our keyboard at a higher brightness if we draw more power. The Zeal60 uses 500mA at max brightness. This means that you have about 400mA remaining for the strip to use on a USB 3.0 port; 1000mA free on a USB 3.1 port, so on and so forth.

Warning: This means you will need to turn off your RGB strip before connecting to a USB 2.0 port, as USB 2.0 cannot sustain the current necessary!

1. If not present already, add the following to your keymap's config.h. Change variable definitions based on your needs.

   // Current limiting.
   #define USB_MAX_POWER_CONSUMPTION 900     // Limit device max power consumption.
   #define RGBSTRIP_CURRENT_LIMIT 400        // Strip current limit in mA.
   #define RGBSTRIP_MAX_CURRENT_PER_LIGHT 60 // mA per light when at max brightness.

2. Toggle on the LED strip (RGB_TOG) and step through animations (RGB_MOD) to test it out!

D. Troubleshooting

Issue: Keymap compile errors/flickering underglow
Solution: The Zeal60 firmware as changed quite a bit in the 2 years since I wrote this guide. Check out my qmk-firmware repository instead of the official one or Wilba's. Then try compiling from either the zeal60 branch or the zeal60-personal-old branch after applying the changes as described above.

E. Sources and resources

A. Connecting the strip.

• In-depth description of connecting an RGB strip to the GH60
• 32U4 Pinout
• Redditor describes connecting RGB strips on his Satan GH60
• Another Redditor on RGB with the Satan GH60

B. Enabling the strip.

• QMK Wiki portion on underglow
• Planck Makefile, config.h, and keymap.c config example
• Video demonstrating keycode functions and RGB modes on a KC60

C. Dealing with current limits.

• Discussion of cutting jumpers and adding resistors to lower current from Zeal60
• A selection of 900mA-1.5A current hold fuses - look for an SMD 0805-sized fuse.
• Video detailing technique to solder 0805 resistors
• QMK feature request to implement max power draw limits in config.h
• Commit enabling max power draw limits in config.h

when I tried to run make, I keep getting the "../../Makefile:490: recipe for target 'zeal60-allsp-allkm' failed
make: *** [zeal60-allsp-allkm] Error 1"

Any idea why? Thanks

What rgb strip is that? I need one just like that for my zeal60 link if possible pls