K95 flickers

A colleague has the following problem with a K95. Oh, how brief the joy about that update was.

Can anyone reproduce this?

Set all keys to white.

Create a gradient effect from #00007f to white (many variations seem to work).

Apply that effect, set it to start on key press.

Now press a key and watch the whole keyboard slightly flicker for as long as the gradient effect is active.

Each of us see colors differently so you may or may not perceive a huge difference with 16.8 million color mode enabled. Visit our forums, load up a few profiles and see for yourself. Hopefully you like what you see. Similarly, some users may notice flicker in some combination of effects. While reducing flicker is possible, this would have impacted the keyboard response time. Performance is top priority at Corsair and we made the decision to keep the advance lighting options available despite some side effects. We hope you agree and if you find the flicker objectionable, you can revert to the original color mode for certain lighting profiles.

[edit by admin: fixed quote so the source is clear]

Didn't even think of checking over there. Oh, well.

Either way it's brilliant. Enjoy your flickering keyboards. Was totally worth the wait.

I'm just not seeing this flickering. I've set the entire keyboard black and used a gradient to all white, over 4 seconds, and then back to black. Smooth as glass, no flickering at all. I can spread out the effect to 20 seconds overall, same result. Even at 40 total seconds (20 to full white and 20 back to full black) I can't see, or discern, a single transition between colors.

This K65 RGB profile below now puts 87 different shades of white on the keys at the same time (or at least 6-bits color for each Red, Green, and Blue), where before it only displayed 8 (including black, or 3-bit color each for Red, Green, and Blue). I don't have enough physical keys to display 128 different shades, so we may even have 7-bit colors now. Seeing as 16.8 million total is the goal, which is 8-bit ... I think it's pretty safe to say that you are now in possession of your 16.8 million colors.

colortest.prf

Breathing.prf

Each of us see colors differently so you may or may not perceive a huge difference with 16.8 million color mode enabled. Visit our forums, load up a few profiles and see for yourself. Hopefully you like what you see. Similarly, some users may notice flicker in some combination of effects. While reducing flicker is possible, this would have impacted the keyboard response time. Performance is top priority at Corsair and we made the decision to keep the advance lighting options available despite some side effects. We hope you agree and if you find the flicker objectionable, you can revert to the original color mode for certain lighting profiles.

Basically Corsair are blaming us for seeing the flicker that WASNT there before.

My mate Razer Blackwidow Chroma RGB does NOT flicker, it's not as nice to use as this but this new flicker limits the possibilities now.

Basically Corsair are blaming us for seeing the flicker that WASNT there before.

My mate Razer Blackwidow Chroma RGB does NOT flicker, it's not as nice to use as this but this new flicker limits the possibilities now.

There definitely is a flicker since the update. Mine seems to be creating its own effects now. Disable the 16.8m colour mode and everything will be back to normal

Ok, I just found out why (I think) the keyboard is flickering with the new update. What they did to achieve the 16.8m colors is to change the protocol (not that much tho). What they previously did was sending a 64byte packet 5 times with all the RGB codes. When you select the 16.8m color option in the GUI of corsair it will send 12 packets of 64bytes.

They use a bulkmessage to send the 12 packets as fast as posible but the hardware cant really handle that much information at the same time. What i did in my own software is add a really small delay (5 milliseconds) between every 4 packets (so 3x a delay) and that removed the flickering for my software.

maybe someone from corsair is reading this and can fix it by just a little software update ;)

Here is a screenshot of the simple GUI i made (just for programming profiles when im not at home)http://i.imgur.com/BDYba5V.png

Ok, I just found out why (I think) the keyboard is flickering with the new update. What they did to achieve the 16.8m colors is to change the protocol (not that much tho). What they previously did was sending a 64byte packet 5 times with all the RGB codes. When you select the 16.8m color option in the GUI of corsair it will send 12 packets of 64bytes.

 

They use a bulkmessage to send the 12 packets as fast as posible but the hardware cant really handle that much information at the same time. What i did in my own software is add a really small delay (5 milliseconds) between every 4 packets (so 3x a delay) and that removed the flickering for my software.

 

maybe someone from corsair is reading this and can fix it by just a little software update ;)

 

Here is a screenshot of the simple GUI i made (just for programming profiles when im not at home)http://i.imgur.com/BDYba5V.png

If this really does fix it, I hope Corsair can provide a fix then - seeing posts on other threads that say it's a hardware fault I knew it wasn't true. Corsair should hire you ;):

You are correct in that we did implement a new USB protocol to apply 16.8m colors AND fix the malfunction issue. However, the flicker is unrelated to what you're suggesting.

I'm very sorry to hear that. At this moment I only can play the guessing game to fix some things.

What i can say is that the flickering in my software is not always there anymore and it is definitely not scrambling colors during an simple animation like the people showing on youtube.

But the flickering is not completely gone, thats for sure.

I really need more information and I know that is very difficult to give. Maybe I need to dig more into the hardware but its all about the implementation of the hardware and the software combined so the software needs to be checked too (something I do not know how yet).

Anyways, It's an awesome keyboard and the 512 colors is ok for me, altough it would be nice to have smoother animations ;): Keep up the good work!

Almost forgot: The flickering only occurs when sending data to the keyboard. setting the colors once and no animations will prevent it from flickering?

You are correct in that we did implement a new USB protocol to apply 16.8m colors AND fix the malfunction issue. However, the flicker is unrelated to what you're suggesting.

Couldn't you just tell us what is causing the flickering seeing as your team isn't doing anything to fix it, so your customers have to?

So it seems that the choice of LED driver chips could have been better.

Apparently, another RGB keyboard is capable of smooth 16.8 million colour animation. I suspect, or would hope, that Corsair engineers are dismantling one right now for a close look at how they managed it.

So it seems that the choice of LED driver chips could have been better.

 

Apparently, another RGB keyboard is capable of smooth 16.8 million colour animation. I suspect, or would hope, that Corsair engineers are dismantling one right now for a close look at how they managed it.

None of them have 16.8 mill colors. They have more then 512 for sure but not 16.8 mill.

None of them have 16.8 mill colors. They have more then 512 for sure but not 16.8 mill.

One of them does mention 16.8 million colours. They're not "bending the truth" as well, are they ?

None of them have 16.8 mill colors. They have more then 512 for sure but not 16.8 mill.

Do you have any evidence to support the claim that none of Corsair's competitors have a mechanical keyboard with 16.8m color backlighting?

Do you have any evidence to support the claim that none of Corsair's competitors have a mechanical keyboard with 16.8m color backlighting?

No and Yes; I used to have the competitor product (I think the one he is thinking of) and let's just say the animations were smooth as hell - I returned it due to bad quality key switches (they started squeaking).

Although they may not have had 16.8 million colors, they definately had a bloody lot more colors than the corsair rgb series have..

Corsair aren't even trying to add more colors to the keyboard now.. They have just given up?

One of them does mention 16.8 million colours. They're not "bending the truth" as well, are they ?

With Logitechs software youll never find out because they sont let you set the speed of lighting so its hard to detect.

http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Logitech-G-Keyboards/Disappointed-in-the-G910/td-p/1365340

Users mention of lack of colors. But not many people got a G910 and even less care about 16.8 mill colors.

And of LOOK Razer didnt put a 16.8 mill badge on it.

http://www.razerzone.com/chroma

I wonder why not.... DAmn this is a real puzzle.

No and Yes; I used to have the competitor product (I think the one he is thinking of) and let's just say the animations were smooth as hell - I returned it due to bad quality key switches (they started squeaking).

 

Although they may not have had 16.8 million colors, they definately had a bloody lot more colors than the corsair rgb series have..

 

Corsair aren't even trying to add more colors to the keyboard now.. They have just given up?

Yup they had a hell lot more then 512.

Oh and look at this

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-keyboards-keypads/razer-blackwidow-chroma

First slide 16.8 mill static

Fourth slide look at that wording.

Lastly anyone heard anything from Razer or Logitech bashing Corsair?? NO? I wonder why maybe its because they know their products dont have 16.8 mill either or the three companies are best of friends.

Yup they had a hell lot more then 512.

Wait so your saying corsair have completely given up with adding more colors?

Wait so your saying corsair have completely given up with adding more colors?

Im saying nuthing about future Software/Firmware/Hardware, im already in trouble for yapping.

Im saying nuthing about future Software/Firmware/Hardware, im already in trouble for yapping.

Yeah, where do you think that nice technical explanation about the limitations of the LED controller came from? :roll:

Wait so your saying corsair have completely given up with adding more colors?

The colors are technically there: You can set static lighting to 16.8m colors (reasonably, I'm not actually able/willing to test it). The problem is that the implementation is visually unappealing (flicker) when using lighting effects due to the limitations of the LED controller in the keyboard.