strafe Does Does Strafe RGB MK.2 Do what I need per-key?

Pre-sales:

I am considering CORSAIR Strafe RGB MK.2 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard for purchase.

2 questions:

Question #1

Is there a newer keyboard which matches the MK.2 for the current ~$130 price? I need, USB, Per-Key RGB, keypad, toggle light on caps lock state(?), not flimsy.

Question #2

Nowhere in specs or marketing video is it clear that I will get full per-key RGB of the nature I MUST have.

I've seen per-key RBG advertised by a single, solidary 3rd party seller, but the corsair site sort of backhandedly says yes to pre-key lighting control, but I can not find a specific statement or spec that is an unconditional yes.

In particular for my personal needs, I could care less about rainbow colors, and it is nice to have optional per-key lighting with keypresses... BUT that is not enough.

Before I buy I MUST know that I can get a static white background, and I MUST know that I can additionally statically specify the color of each, any, or every key individually against a white background or dark background consisting of the rest of the keys.

This is important to me because at the age of 75, my sight is OK, but not as good as it used to be, and there is a chance that I will slowly go blind. The lighting of the keys with complete static control is and would be very helpful to me until I kick the bucket.

Sincerely, JS

All of the Corsair keyboards will have per key lighting, except a few models on the bottom of the price point or wireless ones. The Strafe series does. You will be able to set a base layer color (or not) and then set virtually unlimited number of individual key light effects. Making it an on/off toggle (like for caps lock) requires an extra programming step, but the effect can then be copied over and over and applied to other keys while changing the highlight color if desired.

You might also look at the K70 Mk2. series. It is the bigger brother to the Strafe and has an aluminum frame vs plastic. However, it tends to sell for about the same price, especially this time of year. There are some other subtle aesthetic differences and you get a USB passthrough on the K70 Mk.2. There also is a "low profile" version of the K70 Mk.2 with lower height keys. That may be of interest and from my experience it is also the quietest of the lot and possibly easier on the hand position. All of these models will do the lighting requested.

These are the directions for making a lighting toggle switch. It's not immediately apparent when you first start. There are separate and easier ways to use standard "light up when pressed and disappear" type lighting.

For a toggle switch you need to do this through the Lighting Effects panel.

1) Add a new lighting effect (+). Change it to Solid.

2) Change Start to "On key pressed"

3) Change Stop to "On key press"

4) Tick the play on pressed key box.

5) Choose your color and add the dots (+). Lighting time will not matter for this and it can stay at 1 sec.

6) Use CTRL + Left click to selectively apply the new lighting effect to whichever keys you want this for. This will need to be higher on on the effect list to cover over the base layer color. The higher effect on the list is always dominant.

Rather than repeat 1-6 to make another, you can use the 'copy effect' from the drop down menu to duplicate it. Then all you need to do is change the color and choose a different key(s) to apply it to. Each effect can be applied to one, multiple, or all keys. So you could do Caps Lock in red, then make all the F-keys purple or F1-F8 one color and F9-F12 another.