New Corsair Link Commander Mini

[LeRoy3rd]

I was just leaving as it arrived, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow, but, I'll post some thoughts when I'm finished with set up and cable routing. At first glance, the one thing I wish it had is mounting holes for a drive bay. :shrug: I'll mount it behind the mobo instead and throw another optical drive in the case instead.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[wytnyt]

considering all of Corsairs cases has a cable management area,id say thats how its intended to be mounted

the first commander taking up a bay spot was my biggest gripe actually as we always need bays.

considering this is an all in one unit im surprised the price is rather low and kudos to Corsair for keeping its pricing down...

[MojoVersion8]

I figured it was fairly small from the official images

http://www.corsair.com/~/media/Corsair/Product%20Photos/link/commander-mini/large/corsairlink_commander_mini_05.png

[wytnyt]

I figured it was fairly small from the official images

[

 

still much smaller than the first LC...

[MojoVersion8]

still much smaller than the first LC...

aye, avoided the original cause of the size, from the other pictures it looks like it's even thinner than the NZXT Grid and Grid+

[wytnyt]

aye, avoided the original cause of the size, from the other pictures it looks like it's even thinner than the NZXT Grid and Grid+

 

the NZXT Grid you posted is merely a fan distribution block whereas the corsair mini is much more as it controls fans interdependently via voltage or pwm and has led features but to name a couple..

spend a minute and check it out

 

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/corsair-commander-mini

[KageSendo]

I created an account because 1 I have a question and 2 I had and idea that i could not

get out of my mind.

 

1. If I where to have led fans, can the link mini turn off the leds on the fans, or is this is even possible at all?

 

2. So i have this idea that is kicking around in my mind and i can not get rid of it (and maybe off topic).

 

So it goes someting like this, Corsair has recently started to focus on RGB lighting with the K70/95 keyboards,

M65 RGB mouse (which I have hear nothing about lately?), Kink mini RGB LED Strip and the Dominator Airflow Platinum Led Fan ,

but why stop there? Why not have RGB case and radiator fans (AF & SP please!) and hear is where this gets good.

 

I have not heard any thing lately about the Corsair 780T (I do not know if it got delayed or somthing but I really really want it)

and I got to thinking I had seen a few vids about it at computex and theres 3 colors Yellow with White leds (its meh for me),

White with Blue leds ( its ok), and Black with Red leds ( Oh My So Sexy), now think about this for a second a White 780t RGB Edition and a Black 780T RGB Edition!

 

Now as something to get the juices flowing here is an example build

 

Case: Corsair 780T-B (B for Black, W for White), with Corsair AF120 RGB case fans

MotherBoard: Asus Rampage IV Black Edition or the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK

CPU: Intel Core i7-4820K or the Intel Core i7-4790K

Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x4GB or 4x8GB, with the Dominator Airflow Platinum LED Fan

GPU: Asus GTX 780Ti Direct CU II ( with out the color accents) or any GIGABYTE windforce Card

Power Supply: Corsair Axi 860

SDD & HDD: Samsung EVO 840 500GB boot drive, WD Black 1TB HDD

Optical Drive: any Old dvd or blu-ray will do or none at all, lol

Input Devices: K70 RGB and the M65 RGB

 

And you know what, none of this is out of the realm of possibility, even a White & RGB themed Build is not out of the realm of possibility if Asus gets enough suppot for the white motherboard and Gpu design.

 

P.S i would really really love it if this could happen :!:, hey for all I know some of this could all ready be in the works :!:

[Specter]

I created an account because 1 I have a question and 2 I had and idea that i could not

get out of my mind.

 

1. If I where to have led fans, can the link mini turn off the leds on the fans, or is this is even possible at all?

 

2. So i have this idea that is kicking around in my mind and i can not get rid of it (and maybe off topic).

 

So it goes someting like this, Corsair has recently started to focus on RGB lighting with the K70/95 keyboards,

M65 RGB mouse (which I have hear nothing about lately?), Kink mini RGB LED Strip and the Dominator Airflow Platinum Led Fan ,

but why stop there? Why not have RGB case and radiator fans (AF & SP please!) and hear is where this gets good.

 

I have not heard any thing lately about the Corsair 780T (I do not know if it got delayed or somthing but I really really want it)

and I got to thinking I had seen a few vids about it at computex and theres 3 colors Yellow with White leds (its meh for me),

White with Blue leds ( its ok), and Black with Red leds ( Oh My So Sexy), now think about this for a second a White 780t RGB Edition and a Black 780T RGB Edition!

 

Now as something to get the juices flowing here is an example build

 

Case: Corsair 780T-B (B for Black, W for White), with Corsair AF120 RGB case fans

MotherBoard: Asus Rampage IV Black Edition or the GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK

CPU: Intel Core i7-4820K or the Intel Core i7-4790K

Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x4GB or 4x8GB, with the Dominator Airflow Platinum LED Fan

GPU: Asus GTX 780Ti Direct CU II ( with out the color accents) or any GIGABYTE windforce Card

Power Supply: Corsair Axi 860

SDD & HDD: Samsung EVO 840 500GB boot drive, WD Black 1TB HDD

Optical Drive: any Old dvd or blu-ray will do or none at all, lol

Input Devices: K70 RGB and the M65 RGB

 

And you know what, none of this is out of the realm of possibility, even a White & RGB themed Build is not out of the realm of possibility if Asus gets enough suppot for the white motherboard and Gpu design.

 

P.S i would really really love it if this could happen :!:, hey for all I know some of this could all ready be in the works :!:

 

1. No. It cannot turn off the LEDs inside the fans. Fans that have the ability to turn off the LEDs are proprietary per company and have a proprietary switch built into the case that supports the feature..

 

2. Think of it from a money making standpoint. Why sell RGB fans where you can change the colour scheme on the fly when you can make the same fan and just swap the LED to blue, red, white, and green; If anyone wants to change their colour scheme they have to buy the same fans in a different colour all over again which means more profit or risk modding them.

[LeRoy3rd]

I'm no great genius at cable routing, my skill is somewhere between curious chimp and manic 5-year-old. At any rate, I finally "finished" the routing now that the mini arrived. Case for those curious is the Corsair Carbide Air 540.

 

Before touching the cables:

 

 

After some clean up:

 

 

With a bit of white light:

 

 

And red light:

 

 

For the truly bored, here's a screenshot of Corsair Link:

 

 

-LeRoy3rd

[WizzyThing]

So, I have a question/suggestion to make.

 

I've always seen it as a bummer when you have a case that comes with a basic fan control button that becomes utterly useless when you install another fan controller(in my case a 760t with the commander), so what I'd LOVE to see is the commander having some sort of "override" which allows the button to still function.

 

My idea was to add a 3pin fan input which the commander would listen to, and whenever the voltage changes it adjusts the fan speed.

 

Obviously software and hardware should not interfere, therefore only the last action(either software or hardware) should determine the state of the fans.

[wytnyt]

I'm no great genius at cable routing, my skill is somewhere between curious chimp and manic 5-year-old. At any rate, I finally "finished" the routing now that the mini arrived. Case for those curious is the Corsair Carbide Air 540.

 

 

 

 

After some clean up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

cable routing looks much better,,your fortunate tho as my res sit below the 5.25 bays so my wiring had to go elsewhere

 

so,is the new mini doing ok?,,screen shot looks good...

[LeRoy3rd]

so,is the new mini doing ok?,,screen shot looks good...

 

Seems to be working like a champ, but there are still some quirks with the Link Commander software. Also, it would have been nice to have a couple more extensions for the non-standard cables (the link and LED cables). I had to put the mini at top since the link cable wasn't long enough to reach the h80i from the bottom, and I had to put 2 LED strips on one channel (instead of each on a separate channe) because there were only 3 extensions for the LED strips. Hardware-wise, the last disappointment was the lighting node... It uses a molex connector for power... I haven't used molex for anything in years, so I don't have a molex/sata adapter... I had to add a cable with molex connectors to my power supply (increasing the huge mess if wires) just for the light node. Would be nice if they included an adapter, or changed the connector...

 

-LeRoy3rd

[wytnyt]

glad to see your happy with it,,i cant get one so im content basking in others success;):,,actually all mine are working well and do have 2 aquaeros just sitting here

i too agree i hate molex connections,why must they be so freaking big?

i have like 9+ molex connections in my 540 and the aquearo will be another...:roll:

ive said since day one to always expect some kind of bug here and there,its just the nature of the software.

good to see ur happy...;):

[Specter]

Seems to be working like a champ, but there are still some quirks with the Link Commander software. Also, it would have been nice to have a couple more extensions for the non-standard cables (the link and LED cables). I had to put the mini at top since the link cable wasn't long enough to reach the h80i from the bottom, and I had to put 2 LED strips on one channel (instead of each on a separate channe) because there were only 3 extensions for the LED strips. Hardware-wise, the last disappointment was the lighting node... It uses a molex connector for power... I haven't used molex for anything in years, so I don't have a molex/sata adapter... I had to add a cable with molex connectors to my power supply (increasing the huge mess if wires) just for the light node. Would be nice if they included an adapter, or changed the connector...

 

-LeRoy3rd

 

It was my understanding that the Corsair Link cable was ~2" long (800mm), how was it not long enough?:bigeyes:

 

The Lighting Node is technology from years ago, anything with a Molex power should die in a fire! NZXT is the biggest culprit here!

 

I am hoping Corsair will also sell the LED strip extension cables along with the LED strips because it would be unwise to just sell strips and not extensions.

[LeRoy3rd]

:brick::brick::brick:

 

I didn't have much time to thoroughly test this until today... While it APPEARED to be working, it's actually doing NOTHING. Calling tech support tomorrow, probably returning and getting my money back for the Mini and Light Node. My MOTHERBOARD controls the fans better than this. Here's what happened:

 

I finally had time to install the Mini and Light Node, and do some simple cable cleanup. Once Windows loaded, I opened Link Commander, and everything seemed to be working GREAT. Didn't have much time, but I labelled everything and saved some lighting configurations. I was a happy guy, things in LeRoy3rd-ville were looking up.

 

Cut to today. I decided that it was time to set some custom fan profiles. Upon starting, I noticed that NOTHING I did in Link Commander changed any fan settings. Weird. So the next thing I did was look at the "Devices" tab and see if there were firmware updates. What do you know, there were! I had one for the Lighting node, Commander Mini, and H80i. "Great", I thought, "this firmware update will probably solve all of my problems!"

 

That couldn't be further from the truth. I finished the firmware updates, then restarted. When I re-opened Link Commander, suddenly, it couldn't see ANY devices except those being reported by the mother board. H80i? Zero RPM on the pump, 0c on the sensor... All fans on the Commander Mini? 0 RPM.

 

Odd. I uninstalled/rebooted/reinstalled. When that was done, it ONLY saw the H80i, but it still said 0 RPM, 0c. The lighting node, temp probes, and fans on the Mini were all GONE.

 

-Sigh-

 

Next I uninstalled the Link Commander and USB dongle driver. Then I went to the registry and deleted ALL traces relating to anything Corsair. Reboot/Reinstall. No change. Next I tried the same, but with a different internal USB header. Same.

 

Finally, I'd had enough, so I unplugged everything Corsair and did a complete uninstall/reg cleanup. Reboot. Next I plugged the H80i into the USB header directly (not using ANYTHING related to the Link Mini). Works perfectly. I can adjust the light, see the temps, and adjust the fans connected to the H80i.

 

"OK.", I thought, "Now we're getting somewhere." Next I shut down and unplugged everything EXCEPT the mini (with the connected fans, but the H80i, light node and temp probes were disconnected). When Windows loaded back up, Link Commander did NOT see the Commander Mini or connected fans (but the fans ARE getting power from the mini)... Fresh install/reg clean. No change. Fresh Install/reg clean, different internal USB header: No Change.

 

Next I hooked up the light node: No Change. Then the temp probes: No Change. Finally, I hooked the H80i to the Commander Mini: A CHANGE!!! It saw the H80i, unfortunately the fans read 0RPM, temp 0C, and the color on the pump would NOT change. Maybe unplugging USB header while compy is on will force it to rescan hardware? Removed USB header, Windows' "disconnect" sound played. Reconnected, Windows' "reconnect" sound played. No other change.

 

I am now PISSED. I've wasted HOURS trying to troubleshoot this hardware, and now I'm worse off than I was before. I'm hoping when I call in on Monday that they have some whiz-bang super-simple fix, but I'm not very hopeful. I expect they'll be unable to do anything to make this work, and I'll probably be returning the Commander Mini AND Lighting Nodes, AND DEMANDING they pay return shipping... I've now wasted money and time, and will be wasting plenty more time re-wrangling my cables after this fiasco.

 

Very upset. The worst part is that there were plenty of nay-sayers here warning of the HORRIBLE experience they had with the first Link Commander. I assumed they'd fixed the previous problems and were going to put out a superior product.

 

I. Was. Wrong.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[PunkisDead]

This is exactly how my previous Link Commander (not mini) blew it's last breath. Firmware update and everything bar mobo related data had vanished. Fans still powered through cooling node, but not visible in software, PSU and 100i also disappeared.

 

I love tinkering with my PC and don't see the teething issues as a problem, more as an ongoing project. In this perspective it is good to see the new commander released. I just wish it was available in my country.

 

In this video (4:41) mention is made of software version 3.0 which would be rebuilt from the ground up. This might get rid of many issues.

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[Fauxbeard]

:brick::brick::brick:

 

Do you, by any chance, have the AI suite (or any parts of it) installed on your system? If so, uninstall it and try it again. I had a similar issue on a Rampage IV but once I uninstalled the AI suite, it worked perfectly. I hope this is the "whiz-bang super-simple fix" you're looking for.:o:

[LeRoy3rd]

Do you, by any chance, have the AI suite (or any parts of it) installed on your system? If so, uninstall it and try it again. I had a similar issue on a Rampage IV but once I uninstalled the AI suite, it worked perfectly. I hope this is the "whiz-bang super-simple fix" you're looking for.:o:

 

I tell ya CBFF5, I really wish it were that simple. I opted to never install AI Suite as I'd seen posts about it causing conflicts. :-/ Calling in now.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[LeRoy3rd]

Was on the phone with Henry for about five minutes (after 15 minutes of hold, not a horrible amount of time to wait), I relayed the problem, he said he'd never heard of anything like this and would have to have a specialist call me back... :-/ Henry seemed friendly enough, hopefully this will get resolved quickly.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[LeRoy3rd]

The "You should get a call back in about 10 minutes" has turned into 30 so far... I've got things to do, can't stay here waiting on a call for much longer...

 

:-((

 

EDIT: I only hope they're taking this time to review my case so I don't have to repeat everything again.

 

EDIT 1:45pm - I can't wait any longer, I'll have to call back tomorrow. So far my experience with Tech Support is a bit frustrating, hopefully tomorrow we can get this resolved.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[LeRoy3rd]

Just got off the phone with tech support (I THINK I was talking to Corsair Bunny Foo Foo 5, but like a dolt, I forgot to ask). Anyway, I've now only got one fan connected to the mini, so I need some time to connect everything back up, but, I'm optimistic. I'll respond back with details in a couple of hours.

 

-LeRoy3rd

[Fauxbeard]

Issue:

Commander Mini no longer detected

 

Solution:

We removed all USB devices (I/O panel, keyboard) and disconnected anything that was connected to the Commander Mini except for one fan. Once Link was up, it was detecting an H80i which suggests that the Commander Mini was flashed to the H80i firmware. Re-flashed to correct firmware via the "Check for update" button under devices and restarted computer. Initially, it wasn't detected but after a cold boot, the Commander Mini was now recognized. Custom Curve was also functional.

 

Does this qualify as a "whiz-bang super-simple fix"?:D: Keep us posted, LeRoy3rd.

[LeRoy3rd]

 

Does this qualify as a "whiz-bang super-simple fix"?:D: Keep us posted, LeRoy3rd.

 

You know it does! Very happy at the moment, almost done figuring out which Mini outputs are where now, but, I'm almost finished, will post update soon.

 

:-D

 

-LeRoy3rd

[wytnyt]

You know it does! Very happy at the moment, almost done figuring out which Mini outputs are where now, but, I'm almost finished, will post update soon.

 

:-D

 

-LeRoy3rd

 

I forgot to mentioned when you placed your order,i put a voodoo curse on you for being the first to purchase :D:

its good to see things are looking up,looking beyond the box always help...

[LeRoy3rd]

I forgot to mentioned when you placed your order,i put a voodoo curse on you for being the first to purchase

 

Hahaha, thanks, thanks a LOT! :eek:

 

-LeRoy3rd