I decided to switch to my Vortex Race 3 TKL for a more programming-centric job from the Vortex Tab 90M that felt a little better for email and spreadsheets. The Race 3 has Cherry MX Silent Reds vs. the Vortex Tab 90M’s Cherry MX Silent Blacks.
A couple of things that were a little bit difficult to follow were:
- How to set up the Race 3 for Mac (it had been used on a Windows PC most recently and never really used on a Mac). This Reddit thread gives some suggestions on how to optimize that.
- How to program the LEDs (for just basic effects):
The LED programming was fairly simple once I understood it (see here for a copy of the manual). The cool LED effects when you type are accessible by pressing the Pn key + one of the ‘1’ through ‘5’ keys. ‘4’ and ‘5’ have multiple effects:
Pn + ‘4’ cycles different “display single color LED mode”s which means that the interactive LED effects appear in context with your
- [no effect?]
- Interactive mode – keys light up as you type.
- Flash vortex mode – keys pulse around the keyboard originating from your keystrokes
- Aurora mode – keys pulse in color around the keyboard originating from your keystrokes
Pn + ‘5’ cycles different “Display full color LED mode”s which means “display on all the keys regardless of context”:
- [no effect]
- Full key light mode – just 100% on
- Breath mode – keyboard pulses
- Vortex mode – RGBs cycle in different phases with each other.
- Rain drop mode – random drops of “color” appear on the keys
Pn + X – brightness down for the above effects
Pn + V – brightness up for the above effects
Pn + [< key] and Pn + [> key] are LED speed up and down.