Vortex Race 3 TKL LED Programming for Mac


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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.


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