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RGB Lighting

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.

Planck with RGB Underglow

Some keyboards come with RGB LEDs preinstalled. Others must have them installed after the fact. See the Hardware Modification section for information on adding RGB lighting to your keyboard.

Currently QMK supports the following addressable LEDs on AVR microcontrollers (however, the white LED in RGBW variants is not supported):

  • WS2811, WS2812, WS2812B, WS2812C, etc.
  • SK6812, SK6812MINI, SK6805

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.

Usage

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:

RGBLIGHT_ENABLE = yes

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.

Define Description
RGB_DI_PIN The pin connected to the data pin of the LEDs
RGBLED_NUM The number of LEDs connected

Then you should be able to use the keycodes below to change the RGB lighting to your liking.

Color Selection

QMK uses Hue, Saturation, and Value to select colors rather than RGB. The color wheel below demonstrates how this works.

HSV Color Wheel

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.

Keycodes

Key Aliases Description
RGB_TOG Toggle RGB lighting on or off
RGB_MODE_FORWARD RGB_MOD Cycle through modes, reverse direction when Shift is held
RGB_MODE_REVERSE RGB_RMOD Cycle through modes in reverse, forward direction when Shift is held
RGB_HUI Increase hue
RGB_HUD Decrease hue
RGB_SAI Increase saturation
RGB_SAD Decrease saturation
RGB_VAI Increase value (brightness)
RGB_VAD Decrease value (brightness)
RGB_MODE_PLAIN RGB_M_P Static (no animation) mode
RGB_MODE_BREATHE RGB_M_B Breathing animation mode
RGB_MODE_RAINBOW RGB_M_R Rainbow animation mode
RGB_MODE_SWIRL RGB_M_SW Swirl animation mode
RGB_MODE_SNAKE RGB_M_SN Snake animation mode
RGB_MODE_KNIGHT RGB_M_K "Knight Rider" animation mode
RGB_MODE_XMAS RGB_M_X Christmas animation mode
RGB_MODE_GRADIENT RGB_M_G Static gradient animation mode
RGB_MODE_RGBTEST RGB_M_T Red, Green, Blue test animation mode

?> For backwards compatibility, RGB_SMOD is another alias of RGB_MOD.

Configuration

Your RGB lighting can be configured by placing these #defines in your config.h:

Define Default Description
RGBLIGHT_HUE_STEP 10 The number of steps to cycle through the hue by
RGBLIGHT_SAT_STEP 17 The number of steps to increment the saturation by
RGBLIGHT_VAL_STEP 17 The number of steps to increment the brightness by
RGBLIGHT_LIMIT_VAL 255 The maximum brightness level
RGBLIGHT_SLEEP Not defined If defined, the RGB lighting will be switched off when the host goes to sleep

Animations

Not only can this lighting be whatever color you want, if RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS is defined, you also have a number of animation modes at your disposal:

Mode Description
1 Solid color
2-5 Solid color breathing
6-8 Cycling rainbow
9-14 Swirling rainbow
15-20 Snake
21-23 Knight
24 Christmas
25-34 Static gradient
35 RGB Test
36 Alternating

Check out this video for a demonstration.

The following options can be used to tweak the various animations:

Define Default Description
RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS Not defined If defined, enables additional animation modes
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHE_CENTER 1.85 Used to calculate the curve for the breathing animation. Valid values are 1.0 to 2.7
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHE_MAX 255 The maximum brightness for the breathing mode. Valid values are 1 to 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 The number of LEDs to start the "Knight" animation from the start of the strip by
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, in milliseconds
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_CHRISTMAS_STEP 2 The number of LEDs to group the red/green colors by for the "Christmas" animation

You can also modify the speeds that the different modes animate at:

// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Solid color breathing" animations
const uint8_t RGBLED_BREATHING_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {30, 20, 10, 5};

// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Cycling rainbow" animations
const uint8_t RGBLED_RAINBOW_MOOD_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {120, 60, 30};

// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Swirling rainbow" animations
const uint8_t RGBLED_RAINBOW_SWIRL_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {100, 50, 20};

// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Snake" animations
const uint8_t RGBLED_SNAKE_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {100, 50, 20};

// How long (in milliseconds) to wait between animation steps for each of the "Knight" animations
const uint8_t RGBLED_KNIGHT_INTERVALS[] PROGMEM = {127, 63, 31};

// These control which hues are selected for each of the "Static gradient" modes
const uint16_t RGBLED_GRADIENT_RANGES[] PROGMEM = {360, 240, 180, 120, 90};

Functions

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 for the full list, but the most commonly used functions include:

Function Description
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 defines several predefined shortcuts for various colors. Feel free to add to this list!

Hardware Modification

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.