Hi,
I don't know why, but I was kind of expecting this kind of answer ;-)
Is the laptop's keyboard only option the Chicony P/N MP-03756GB-5287.
and associated variants, yes.
In fact the question I had in mind was more:
If there are such associated variants that can be (almost) drop-in replacement, but with backlighting...
Because I naively expected the producers to reuse their designs when adding such slight variations...
So the answer is no... Too bad
Or maybe the laptop case can be modified to allow placement of a few leds around the screen that would get light on the keyboard. I had this on an old T42p and it was better than nothing.
that would be much simpler - it's still abouuut... 2-3 weeks of work, redesigning casework
Ouch, I was thinking of just one or two small holes in the casing, and friction slip the LEDs inside... I would not have expected this to take significant work. It could even be done by careful drilling, without redesign.
that's assuming no LED circuits are needed and there's a convenient place to draw power off of. if it was under PWM control of something (to change brightness) that's.. 3-5 weeks of PCB design work and PCB assembly, 1-2 weeks of component sourcing and verification.
Here I show my almost complete lack of electronics-fu, I thought LEDs were so low power that they could get piggybacked to the display power line with just a 1K resistor added, and maybe a switch, to avoid needing to route a GPIO there just for that.
*deep breath*.... get a small $2 torch from walmart :)
That's where I'm coming from, and where I expected not to stay... :-)
Especially as this is absolutely not eco-conscious, the one I got lost leds after just a few weeks of light use, and now is getting useless. Maybe that was bad luck, but I'm not holding my breath with a new one...
But thanks for the very detailed answer.