I guess it's a matter of personal choice, but since I've managed to locate a vendor selling 5" B&W tv's for only

Ceawlin,I believe older CDU were monochrome. Newer units are color. Buttons are back lighted. Browsing through the sales literature on the Korry website is interesting. Nice pictures showing how they light buttons.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

Hmm.... Any way of lighting a button without buying an expensive pre-lit button? One method I was thinking was to have a 3-layered key which sits on a small micro-switch. An LED will sit inside the key in the middle layer. Excuse my ASCII drawing! ______ ______ ______| | | ___|_ | || text | | |led|_ | ||______| |______| |______| first second third layer layer layer ______ |______| key __||__ |______| switchThe third layer will be larger than the first two layers to prevent the key from falling out of the CDU unit. All materials will be clear plastic apart from the text layer which will be a thin white ABS sheet with the text print on it (black background with clear (ie white) text)What do you guys think of this? Is it feasible?

I think many of the commercially made, illuminated keyboards use a similar captive keycap. Rather than embedding the LED in the keycap, it's mounted on the circuit board next to the switch body. Most likely the LEDs are surface mount types which are a pain to work with. However, there are some low profile LEDs with leads that could be used on perf board. Tactile keyboard switches are cheap, as are LEDs. Most of the investment is the labor. Sounds like a good project. Wouldn't be surprised to hear that Ken over at DakenSkys has something like this in the works.Mikewww.mikesflightdeck.com

Well it was a good brainwave for a few minutes :(The range of led's is enormous, ranging in colour, size and shape. I'll just have to find some that are VERY cheap (you try buying 150 of them on a tight budget!) and the correct size and colour. The colour will be the difficult bit, as most are either red or green. Would a yellow one suffice for backlighting? I can get 3mm yellow ones that are pretty bright at a low cost. Any feedback and/or ideas on this topic would be great, and I'd love to hear suggestions from anybody out there!