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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 (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
RGBLED_SPLIT (Optional) For split keyboards, the number of LEDs connected on each half directly wired to RGB_DI_PIN

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, decrease hue when Shift is held
RGB_HUD Decrease hue, increase hue when Shift is held
RGB_SAI Increase saturation, decrease saturation when Shift is held
RGB_SAD Decrease saturation, increase saturation when Shift is held
RGB_VAI Increase value (brightness), decrease value when Shift is held
RGB_VAD Decrease value (brightness), increase value when Shift is held
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

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
RGBLIGHT_SPLIT Not defined If defined, synchronization functionality for split keyboards is added

Effects and Animations

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

Mode number symbol Additional number Description
RGBLIGHT_MODE_STATIC_LIGHT None Solid color (this mode is always enabled)
RGBLIGHT_MODE_BREATHING 0,1,2,3 Solid color breathing
RGBLIGHT_MODE_RAINBOW_MOOD 0,1,2 Cycling rainbow
RGBLIGHT_MODE_RAINBOW_SWIRL 0,1,2,3,4,5 Swirling rainbow
RGBLIGHT_MODE_SNAKE 0,1,2,3,4,5 Snake
RGBLIGHT_MODE_KNIGHT 0,1,2 Knight
RGBLIGHT_MODE_CHRISTMAS None Christmas
RGBLIGHT_MODE_STATIC_GRADIENT 0,1,..,9 Static gradient
RGBLIGHT_MODE_RGB_TEST None RGB Test
RGBLIGHT_MODE_ALTERNATING None Alternating

Check out this video for a demonstration.

Note: For versions older than 0.6.117, The mode numbers were written directly. In quantum/rgblight.h there is a contrast table between the old mode number and the current symbol.

Effect and Animation Toggles

Use these defines to add or remove animations from the firmware. When you are running low on flash space, it can be helpful to disable animations you are not using.

Define Default Description
RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS Not defined Enable all additional animation modes.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_ALTERNATING Not defined Enable alternating animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHING Not defined Enable breathing animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_CHRISTMAS Not defined Enable christmas animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT Not defined Enable knight animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RAINBOW_MOOD Not defined Enable rainbow mood animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RAINBOW_SWIRL Not defined Enable rainbow swirl animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RGB_TEST Not defined Enable RGB test animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_SNAKE Not defined Enable snake animation mode.
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_STATIC_GRADIENT Not defined Enable static gradient mode.

Effect and Animation Settings

The following options are used to tweak the various animations:

Define Default Description
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_BREATHE_CENTER Not defined If defined, 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_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
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_KNIGHT_LED_NUM RGBLED_NUM The number of LEDs to have the "Knight" animation travel
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_RAINBOW_SWIRL_RANGE 255 Range adjustment for the rainbow swirl effect to get different swirls
RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_SNAKE_LENGTH 4 The number of LEDs to light up for the "Snake" animation

Example Usage to Reduce Memory Footprint

  1. Remove RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS from config.h.
  2. Selectively add the animations you want to enable. The following would enable two animations and save about 4KiB:
 #undef RGBLED_NUM
-#define RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS
+#define RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_STATIC_GRADIENT
+#define RGBLIGHT_EFFECT_RAINBOW_SWIRL
 #define RGBLED_NUM 12
 #define RGBLIGHT_HUE_STEP 8
 #define RGBLIGHT_SAT_STEP 8

Animation Speed

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

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

// 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 uint8_t RGBLED_GRADIENT_RANGES[] PROGMEM = {255, 170, 127, 85, 64};

Lighting Layers

By including #define RGBLIGHT_LAYERS in your config.h file you can enable lighting layers. These make it easy to use your underglow LEDs as status indicators to show which keyboard layer is currently active, or the state of caps lock, all without disrupting any animations. Here's a video showing an example of what you can do.

To define a layer, we modify keymap.c to list out LED ranges and the colors we want to overlay on them using an array of rgblight_segment_t using the RGBLIGHT_LAYER_SEGMENTS macro. We can define multiple layers and enable/disable them independently:

// Light LEDs 6 to 9 and 12 to 15 red when caps lock is active. Hard to ignore!
const rgblight_segment_t PROGMEM my_capslock_layer[] = RGBLIGHT_LAYER_SEGMENTS(
    {6, 4, HSV_RED},       // Light 4 LEDs, starting with LED 6
    {12, 4, HSV_RED}       // Light 4 LEDs, starting with LED 12
);
// Light LEDs 9 & 10 in cyan when keyboard layer 1 is active
const rgblight_segment_t PROGMEM my_layer1_layer[] = RGBLIGHT_LAYER_SEGMENTS(
    {9, 2, HSV_CYAN}
);
// Light LEDs 11 & 12 in purple when keyboard layer 2 is active
const rgblight_segment_t PROGMEM my_layer2_layer[] = RGBLIGHT_LAYER_SEGMENTS(
    {11, 2, HSV_PURPLE}
);
// etc..

We combine these layers into an array using the RGBLIGHT_LAYERS_LIST macro, and assign it to the rgblight_layers variable during keyboard setup. Note that you can only define up to 8 lighting layers. Any extra layers will be ignored. Since the different lighting layers overlap, the order matters in the array, with later layers taking precedence:

// Now define the array of layers. Later layers take precedence
const rgblight_segment_t* const PROGMEM my_rgb_layers[] = RGBLIGHT_LAYERS_LIST(
    my_capslock_layer,
    my_layer1_layer,    // Overrides caps lock layer
    my_layer2_layer     // Overrides other layers
);

void keyboard_post_init_user(void) {
    // Enable the LED layers
    rgblight_layers = my_rgb_layers;
}

Finally, we enable and disable the lighting layers whenever the state of the keyboard changes:

layer_state_t layer_state_set_user(layer_state_t state) {
    // Both layers will light up if both kb layers are active
    rgblight_set_layer_state(1, layer_state_cmp(state, 1));
    rgblight_set_layer_state(2, layer_state_cmp(state, 2));
    return state;
}

bool led_update_user(led_t led_state) {
    rgblight_set_layer_state(0, led_state.caps_lock);
    return true;
}

Note: For split keyboards with two controllers, both sides need to be flashed when updating the contents of rgblight_layers.

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:

Utility Functions

Function Description
sethsv(hue, sat, val, ledbuf) Set ledbuf to the given HSV value
sethsv_raw(hue, sat, val, ledbuf) Set ledbuf to the given HSV value without RGBLIGHT_LIMIT_VAL check
setrgb(r, g, b, ledbuf) Set ledbuf to the given RGB value where r/g/b

Low level Functions

Function Description
rgblight_set() Flash out led buffers to LEDs
rgblight_set_clipping_range(pos, num) Set clipping Range. see Clipping Range

Example:

sethsv(HSV_WHITE, (LED_TYPE *)&led[0]); // led 0
sethsv(HSV_RED,   (LED_TYPE *)&led[1]); // led 1
sethsv(HSV_GREEN, (LED_TYPE *)&led[2]); // led 2
rgblight_set(); // Utility functions do not call rgblight_set() automatically, so they need to be called explicitly.

Effects and Animations Functions

effect range setting

Function Description
rgblight_set_effect_range(pos, num) Set Effects Range

direct operation

Function Description
rgblight_setrgb_at(r, g, b, index) Set a single LED to the given RGB value, where r/g/b are between 0 and 255 and index is between 0 and RGBLED_NUM (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv_at(h, s, v, index) Set a single LED to the given HSV value, where h/s/v are between 0 and 255, and index is between 0 and RGBLED_NUM (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_setrgb_range(r, g, b, start, end) Set a continuous range of LEDs to the given RGB value, where r/g/b are between 0 and 255 and start(included) and stop(excluded) are between 0 and RGBLED_NUM (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv_range(h, s, v, start, end) Set a continuous range of LEDs to the given HSV value, where h/s/v are between 0 and 255, and start(included) and stop(excluded) are between 0 and RGBLED_NUM (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_setrgb(r, g, b) Set effect range LEDs to the given RGB value where r/g/b are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_setrgb_master(r, g, b) Set the LEDs on the master side to the given RGB value, where r/g/b are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_setrgb_slave(r, g, b) Set the LEDs on the slave side to the given RGB value, where r/g/b are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv_master(h, s, v) Set the LEDs on the master side to the given HSV value, where h/s/v are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv_slave(h, s, v) Set the LEDs on the slave side to the given HSV value, where h/s/v are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)

Example:

rgblight_sethsv(HSV_WHITE, 0); // led 0
rgblight_sethsv(HSV_RED,   1); // led 1
rgblight_sethsv(HSV_GREEN, 2); // led 2
// The above functions automatically calls rgblight_set(), so there is no need to call it explicitly.
// Note that it is inefficient to call repeatedly.

effect mode change

Function Description
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_step() Change the mode to the next RGB animation in the list of enabled RGB animations
rgblight_step_noeeprom() Change the mode to the next RGB animation in the list of enabled RGB animations (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_step_reverse() Change the mode to the previous RGB animation in the list of enabled RGB animations
rgblight_step_reverse_noeeprom() Change the mode to the previous RGB animation in the list of enabled RGB animations (not written to EEPROM)

effects mode disable/enable

Function Description
rgblight_toggle() Toggle effect range LEDs between on and off
rgblight_toggle_noeeprom() Toggle effect range LEDs between on and off (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_enable() Turn effect range LEDs on, based on their previous state
rgblight_enable_noeeprom() Turn effect range LEDs on, based on their previous state (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_disable() Turn effect range LEDs off
rgblight_disable_noeeprom() Turn effect range LEDs off (not written to EEPROM)

hue, sat, val change

Function Description
rgblight_increase_hue() Increase the hue for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum hue
rgblight_increase_hue_noeeprom() Increase the hue for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum hue (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_decrease_hue() Decrease the hue for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum hue
rgblight_decrease_hue_noeeprom() Decrease the hue for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum hue (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_increase_sat() Increase the saturation for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum saturation
rgblight_increase_sat_noeeprom() Increase the saturation for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum saturation (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_decrease_sat() Decrease the saturation for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum saturation
rgblight_decrease_sat_noeeprom() Decrease the saturation for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum saturation (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_increase_val() Increase the value for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum value
rgblight_increase_val_noeeprom() Increase the value for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at maximum value (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_decrease_val() Decrease the value for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum value
rgblight_decrease_val_noeeprom() Decrease the value for effect range LEDs. This wraps around at minimum value (not written to EEPROM)
rgblight_sethsv(h, s, v) Set effect range LEDs to the given HSV value where h/s/v are between 0 and 255
rgblight_sethsv_noeeprom(h, s, v) Set effect range LEDs to the given HSV value where h/s/v are between 0 and 255 (not written to EEPROM)

layer functions

Function Description
rgblight_get_layer_state(i) Returns true if lighting layer i is enabled
rgblight_set_layer_state(i, is_on) Enable or disable lighting layer i based on value of bool is_on

query

Function Description
rgblight_get_mode() Get current mode
rgblight_get_hue() Get current hue
rgblight_get_sat() Get current sat
rgblight_get_val() Get current val

Colors

These are shorthands to popular colors. The RGB ones can be passed to the setrgb functions, while the HSV ones to the sethsv functions.

RGB HSV
RGB_WHITE HSV_WHITE
RGB_RED HSV_RED
RGB_CORAL HSV_CORAL
RGB_ORANGE HSV_ORANGE
RGB_GOLDENROD HSV_GOLDENROD
RGB_GOLD HSV_GOLD
RGB_YELLOW HSV_YELLOW
RGB_CHARTREUSE HSV_CHARTREUSE
RGB_GREEN HSV_GREEN
RGB_SPRINGGREEN HSV_SPRINGGREEN
RGB_TURQUOISE HSV_TURQUOISE
RGB_TEAL HSV_TEAL
RGB_CYAN HSV_CYAN
RGB_AZURE HSV_AZURE
RGB_BLUE HSV_BLUE
RGB_PURPLE HSV_PURPLE
RGB_MAGENTA HSV_MAGENTA
RGB_PINK HSV_PINK 
rgblight_setrgb(RGB_ORANGE);
rgblight_sethsv_noeeprom(HSV_GREEN);
rgblight_setrgb_at(RGB_GOLD, 3);
rgblight_sethsv_range(HSV_WHITE, 0, 6);

These are defined in rgblight_list.h. Feel free to add to this list!

Changing the order of the LEDs

If you want to make the logical order of LEDs different from the electrical connection order, you can do this by defining the RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP macro in your config.h.

Normally, the contents of the LED buffer are output to the LEDs in the same order. simple dicrect

By defining RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP as in the example below, you can specify the LED with addressing in reverse order of the electrical connection order.

// config.h

#define RGBLED_NUM 4
#define RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP { 3, 2, 1, 0 }

simple mapped

For keyboards that use the RGB LEDs as a backlight for each key, you can also define it as in the example below.

// config.h

#define RGBLED_NUM 30

/* RGB LED Conversion macro from physical array to electric array */
#define LED_LAYOUT( \
    L00, L01, L02, L03, L04, L05,  \
    L10, L11, L12, L13, L14, L15,  \
    L20, L21, L22, L23, L24, L25,  \
    L30, L31, L32, L33, L34, L35,  \
    L40, L41, L42, L43, L44, L45 ) \
  { \
    L05, L04, L03, L02, L01, L00,   \
    L10, L11, L12, L13, L14, L15,   \
    L25, L24, L23, L22, L21, L20,   \
    L30, L31, L32, L33, L34, L35,   \
    L46, L45, L44, L43, L42, L41    \
  }

/* RGB LED logical order map */
/* Top->Bottom, Right->Left */
#define RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP LED_LAYOUT( \
  25, 20, 15, 10,  5,  0,       \
  26, 21, 16, 11,  6,  1,       \
  27, 22, 17, 12,  7,  2,       \
  28, 23, 18, 13,  8,  3,       \
  29, 24, 19, 14,  9,  4 )

Clipping Range

Using the rgblight_set_clipping_range() function, you can prepare more buffers than the actual number of LEDs, and output some of the buffers to the LEDs. This is useful if you want the split keyboard to treat left and right LEDs as logically contiguous.

You can set the Clipping Range by executing the following code.

// some source
rgblight_set_clipping_range(3, 4);

clip direct

In addition to setting the Clipping Range, you can use RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP together.

// config.h
#define RGBLED_NUM 8
#define RGBLIGHT_LED_MAP { 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 }

// some soruce
  rgblight_set_clipping_range(3, 4);

clip mapped

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.