Blackwidow Ultimate Classic Lighting Effects

Is there any way to get the ripple effect on the Classic? The brightness can be controlled, there is a pulsate pattern, and I read that the 2016 monochrome backlit keyboard can use ripple. Even if it is through something external to Synapse, I would love to have this available. to me.

 

Nope, not possible. The reason why those effects exists for the Chroma and Ultimate 2016 is because the PCB can talk to each LED individually (so you can tell different LEDs to do different things). For example, you can tell one LED to be on and another to be off at the same time (necessary for the ripple effect). This is not true for the BW Ultimate Classic or the earlier BW Ultimates - with these, you can only issue a single command to all of the LEDs at the same time because they are wired to a single connected lane.

The pulsating pattern works for these keyboards because all the command does is: tell all the LEDs lights to increase brightness, increase, increase, peak, decrease brightness, decrease, decrease, off, increase brightness - repeat. You could also do strobe, flicker, and any other effect that tells all the LEDs to do the same thing at the same time.

 

That makes me sad. I would have gotten the newer 2016 model, but they only have it in green, which I hate. I really wish they offered them in other colors (outside of the Chroma, which is so much more expensive).

Thank you for both your reply and the detail you put into it.

 

Yeah I kept tossing up between a BWU 2016 vs a BW Classic. Ended up going with the 2016 because of the 2 year warranty and better lighting. Macro buttons didn't make a difference to me.

 

Don't mention it! I understand. Some people don't like Razer's color scheme but if you hate the green, I'm surprised you're a Razer fan haha. The CES 50% off sale would have been a nice chance for you to get the BW Chroma. There was also a sale last month where the BW TE Chromas were selling for $90 USD so I grabbed one!

 

Well that's why they got a BW Classic. I was on the fence about that too. I had both the Classic and the BWU 2016 in my cart at checkout for CES promo. Really wanted that blue lighting... but the 2 year warranty and the additional lighting effects won me over... but still leaving a no quite satisfied feeling... keeping an eye on Chroma deals now