OpenEVision

Your RGB keyboard, without the vendor's app.

OpenEVision is a free Windows app for keyboards with an EVision controller. Set lighting modes, paint every key, remap keys, keep backups, and run live effects like a music visualizer.

Version 0.2.0 for Windows 10 and 11 (x64). Works with keyboards that report USB id 320F:505B. How to check yours.

Type anything, or click a key. These are three of the app's effects.

Lighting

The keyboard's own modes, with every setting in reach.

Wave, breathing, static, reactive, starlight and the rest of the built-in modes, with brightness, speed, direction and color. A change is written shortly after you stop moving a slider.

They are saved to the keyboard itself, so they keep running with the app closed, on any computer.

The Lighting page: Spectrum cycle mode, brightness 4 of 4, a speed slider, direction and a color picker with preset swatches.

Key painting

Give every key its own color.

Click or drag across the keys with a brush color. With Live preview on, the keyboard shows the colors right away without touching its memory; Save to keyboard stores them in the Custom mode.

Fill all and Turn all off for a clean start.

The Key painting page with a rainbow painted across the keyboard from red on the left to violet on the numpad, a brush color and swatches below.

Software effects

Effects the keyboard can't do on its own.

The PC draws them and streams them to the keyboard while the app runs, also from the tray. Stop one and the keyboard goes back to its own mode.

  • Music visualizer
  • Typing reaction
  • CPU and GPU gauges
  • Rainbow
  • Plasma
  • Fire
  • Matrix rain

Or build your own: stack layers like ripple, stars, fire and music bars, set how they blend, limit each one to some keys, and drive it with the music or CPU load. Effects import and export as JSON.

Streamed effects only go to the keyboard's working memory, never to its flash.

The custom effect editor: a 'Gaming: fire + red WASD' effect with three layers (Ripple, Solid color on four keys, Fire) and the Ripple layer's blend, opacity, color and speed settings.

Key remapping

Caps Lock as Escape, on every computer.

Pick a key and make it another key, a modifier, a media key, or nothing at all. The change lives on the keyboard, so it works anywhere you plug it in, with no app running.

Remapped keys get a gold outline. Default restores one key; Reset restores them all. Fn can't be changed.

The Key remapping page: Caps Lock remapped to Escape and Scroll Lock remapped, both outlined in gold.

It writes to your keyboard. So it backs it up first.

OpenEVision talks to the keyboard through an undocumented protocol and stores settings in its flash memory. These are the guards around that.

Use it at your own risk. OpenEVision isn't made or endorsed by the keyboard's maker. Even with these guards, a wrong write could leave the keyboard misconfigured or, at worst, unusable.

Does it work with my keyboard?

Many keyboard brands use EVision controllers. OpenEVision only opens the one with this USB id:

VID_320F&PID_505B

Tested on a full-size ISO Turkish-Q keyboard with 126 LEDs. Other layouts with the same id may work for lighting and backups, but the on-screen keys won't line up.

  1. Open Device Manager

    Right-click the Start button and choose Device Manager.

  2. Find the keyboard

    Look under Human Interface Devices or Keyboards and open its Properties.

  3. Read the Hardware Ids

    On Details, pick Hardware Ids. If you see VID_320F&PID_505B, it's supported.

  4. Or just run the app

    With no supported keyboard plugged in, the Device page says so, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Install

One exe, no installer, no .NET to set up.

  1. Download

    Get OpenEVision.exe from the latest release, or the zip with the README and licence. SHA256SUMS.txt lists the checksums.

  2. Run it

    Put it anywhere and start it. It isn't code-signed, so SmartScreen may ask: choose More info › Run anyway.

  3. Plug in and go

    The Device page shows the keyboard's name, firmware and polling rate, and the factory backup is taken.

Good to know

PC
Windows 10 or 11, x64.
GPU gauges
Need an NVIDIA GPU with nvidia-smi, which comes with the driver. On AMD or Intel those gauges stay empty.
Privacy
No network connections, telemetry or update check. Typing effects watch which key went down only to light it; music effects only compute levels in memory. Nothing is stored or sent.
Alongside
Tray icon, start with Windows, picks up the last effect, light and dark theme. Close other RGB software while it runs, or they'll fight over the lights.