using iCue to control non-corsair argb components

[Parmenedes]

I'll put the TLDR version up front this time: have any of you guys used an adapter to control non-Corsair argb stuff with iCue? If so, what was your experience like?

 

Now for the long version:

 

As a Corsair superfan, damn near everything in my pc that can be corsair is corsair. I am also an rgb fanatic (utterly to a fault - my pc looks like a chucky cheese). I like being able to coordinate my rgb with iCue, but there are a couple of rgb components I have that aren't corsair, namely a couple of Lian Li Strimer Plus cables and a gpu brace. I also have four corsair lighting strip pro's. I keep waiting for Corsair to release something like the LS100 for internal components instead of external strips that require weird cabling and whatnot since they look WAY WAY better than the lighting strip pro's, but that hasn't happened yet, so I've been thinking of getting some other rgb strips, such as the lian li ones, that look more like the LS100's and ditching the regular Corsair LED lighting pro strips.

 

I'm wondering if you guys have any experience controlling non-corsair argb stuff with icue. There are adapters available for purchase that let you plug in industry standard argb stuff into corsair's proprietary connectors so you can control them with icue, but it sounds like some things work better than others when you do this. Is it worth trying? Is there any danger to doing so? Which components work well, and which ones don't?

[Corsair Notepad]

It is not officially supported and the use of the adapter cables means you are 100% on your own since the iCUE software bases all the patterns and effects on the number of LEDs per fan and are only programmed with Corsair products in mind.

[BlaiseP]

TLDR; I'm 2 from 2 with successfully using 3rd party ARGB components with a Commander Pro and ICUE. Others might want to chime in with their experiences but I've done this with a Commander Pro.

 

 

I've used PirateDog Tech (adapter) cables to control a Phanteks D140 distro plate and am currently using one to control the ARGB on my EK 3090 waterblock. In both cases I've connected the component as a single entity to the RGB port of a Commander Pro. The fun part is deciding what what to choose in the Lighting setup (within ICUE) that closely matches the number of LEDs the component has. eg. My waterblock has 9 LEDs so I chose a Corsair LED strip which has 10 LEDs (I could have chosen a Hydro X XD5 pump/res which also contains 10 LEDs). Not truly ideal but near enough for my purposes.

 

Assuming you have compatible LEDs and a correctly wired cable, there's not much that can go wrong unless you manage to overload the Corsair ARGB controller (too many LEDs may exceed the maximum power draw). The FAQ states that a Commander Pro's RGB port can handle 6 RGB strips - 60 LEDs in ICUE (only 4 strips, 40 LEDs are supported in LINK). My guess is by way of only being able to choose pre-defined Corsair components (and a maximum number components) within ICUE, Corsair has some built in margins to ensure you have to try quite hard to overload a port on the Commander Pro.

[Zotty]

I can also back Pirate Dog Tech Cables.. they do what they say in the tin.. well made and he is thorough with his information and comms. used them my self.

[Mussels]

I made my own cables, based on some images posted here on the forum.

 

I'm terrible at soldering and made a mistake killing the ARGB in one fan, but that's the risk of DIY modding, regardless.

 

The main problem is that icue won't let you set an LED amount, so you have to set it to something like an LED strip, and then count the LED's and manually select all the ones you want minus the leftovers at the end for smooth animations and effects.

 

I also did the reverse and connected my corsair RGB fan hub to a razer ARGB controller, and have razer software control of corsair fans.

 

I look forward to all these brands working together - and corsair would make a huge amount of bank if they simply sold a corsair ARGB controller with native 3 pin ARGB headers, and the ability to set X amount of LED's per port

[Parmenedes]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I'll probably give it a shot. Still hoping that Corsair releases something that looks as good as the LS100's that are designed to work inside the pc, but for now I'll probably try the lian li version.

[Zotty]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! I'll probably give it a shot. Still hoping that Corsair releases something that looks as good as the LS100's that are designed to work inside the pc, but for now I'll probably try the Lian Li version.

 

they do... and LS100 Strips are controllable via Node Pros and Commander Pro's

 

I have 2 x 450mm LS strips in my 1000D

 

http://i.imgur.com/4hgoTIXl.jpg

[DevBiker]

<sigh>

Corsair's connectors are not proprietary. Not by any stretch of the imagination. They use Molex SL series (also known as "Latched Dupont") connectors. These have been around for quite some time. For the old timers around here, it's the same connector that CD-ROMs used to use to connect audio to sound cards - back in the days of ISA buses and IDE drives. Hardly proprietary.

 

Why don't they use the same connector that's used on motherboards? Well, when Corsair released their first ARGB devices, motherboards didn't do ARGB. There was no motherboard ARGB connector out there. It didn't exist. So there wasn't one that they could use.

 

Why don't they change everything to use that connector? Well, first that would pretty much screw over their existing customers that had already bought into their RGB system. Second - and this one is even more important - the connector that they use is, IMHO, far superior, more flexible and more fit-for-purpose than the motherboard ARGB connector and, better than any other manufacturer's connector out there (NZXT, ThermalTake, Bykski, Barrows, AlphaCool, Phanteks, etc). And I've seen ALL of them. The Corsair ecosystem is well thought-out, designed, and implemented.

 

As for adapters - they are available and they work. Pretty well. Except with the Commander Core. Corsair designed the Commander Core to not work with adapters. Which, personally, I think is kinda poopy.

[Parmenedes]

Thanks for the info! I guess I used the word "proprietary" incorrectly. All I meant was that you'd need an adapter to get other argb stuff to work with icue. I have two commander cores unfortunately, but because I also have a lighting node pro, I'm guessing I could use the adapter with that.

[Parmenedes]

they do... and LS100 Strips are controllable via Node Pros and Commander Pro's

 

I have 2 x 450mm LS strips in my 1000D

 

http://i.imgur.com/4hgoTIXl.jpg

 

Yeah but don't those strips require cables that you have to run outside of your pc with a power cable and whatnot? I'd much prefer to avoid having to run extra cables.

 

Edit: your rig does look awesome regardless, by the way!

[Zotty]

Yeah but don't those strips require cables that you have to run outside of your pc with a power cable and whatnot? I'd much prefer to avoid having to run extra cables.

 

Edit: your rig does look awesome regardless, by the way!

 

No buddy.. i have them hooked up to a Lighting Node Pro.

 

Both Lighting Node Pro and Commander Pro support LS strips, which can be bought as expansion packs

 

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/search/?text=ls100%20expan&type=product

[Parmenedes]

No buddy.. i have them hooked up to a Lighting Node Pro.

 

Both Lighting Node Pro and Commander Pro support LS strips, which can be bought as expansion packs

 

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/search/?text=ls100%20expan&type=product

 

Oh wow, that's great! I didn't realize that and thought you had to plug them into the little box with an external power connector or whatnot. Thanks for the info!

[Parmenedes]

they do... and LS100 Strips are controllable via Node Pros and Commander Pro's

 

I have 2 x 450mm LS strips in my 1000D

 

http://i.imgur.com/4hgoTIXl.jpg

 

By the way Zotty, the thread you posted clarifying how all those various boxes (copro, coco, led hub, lighting node pro, etc.) work, is one of the most helpful references on the entire forums. I totally missed that you can hook up LS100's to the lighting node pro - didn't bother to look at your thread because the product page for the LS 100's makes it look like you have to plug them into their own external power box. I use that thread a lot already but should have looked there for this first. Thanks for putting that together and keeping it updated!

Edited February 6, 2021 by Parmenedes

[Parmenedes]

LS100 expansion kits ordered. I nabbed four 450mm strips to go in my 5000d airflow and two 250's since it looks like they'd fit will in there as well. Looking forward to setting them up and seeing how they look (assuming I can get my latest icue implosion fixed). My old ST100 RGB headset stand seems to have gone haywire lately too, but since it's a few years old and out of warranty, I'm considering going ahead and getting the LT100 starter kit as well.

[Zotty]

yay :) . glad you are sorted buddy!.. and thanks :) . always nice to know someone reads the faqs i do lol :)

[Baio]

Thumb up also here for Pirate’s Dog adapters. I’m using 2 in my CoPro led ports, enabling me to control my LianLi 011 XL case strip. The second is used to connect 2 LianLi Streamer cables but unfortunately iCue inbuilt effects are not so good as you have to set the Streamers as 3 led strips, and effects lag when passing from one strip to another.

 

Baio

[Parmenedes]

yay :) . glad you are sorted buddy!.. and thanks :) . always nice to know someone reads the faqs i do lol :)

 

Hey Zotty,

 

I installed the strips today. I took out my old Corsair LED strips and replaced them with two 450mm's and two 250mm's. I put the 450's on one channel on my lighting node pro (which was working perfectly fine before), and the 250's on the other channel. Now one of the 250's appears toe functioning properly, but the second one only has less than half of the LED's lit up.

 

On the other channel, one of the 450's only has about 3/4 of the LED's lit up, and the other one doesn't have any lit up. It's possible there's a loose connection or something with the one that isn't lit up at all, but the fact that only some of the LED's are lighting up at all on the other strips is causing me to think there must be something else going on.

 

Is it possible that there's some limitation to the node pro here that I'm not aware of? Does it require some kind of special configuration to make it work properly? The parts of the strips that are lit up look great, but this just seems weird.

[Corsair Notepad]

Hey Zotty,

 

I installed the strips today. I took out my old Corsair LED strips and replaced them with two 450mm's and two 250mm's. I put the 450's on one channel on my lighting node pro (which was working perfectly fine before), and the 250's on the other channel. Now one of the 250's appears toe functioning properly, but the second one only has less than half of the LED's lit up.

 

On the other channel, one of the 450's only has about 3/4 of the LED's lit up, and the other one doesn't have any lit up. It's possible there's a loose connection or something with the one that isn't lit up at all, but the fact that only some of the LED's are lighting up at all on the other strips is causing me to think there must be something else going on.

 

Is it possible that there's some limitation to the node pro here that I'm not aware of? Does it require some kind of special configuration to make it work properly? The parts of the strips that are lit up look great, but this just seems weird.

 

Just a heads up the LNP has a maximum of being able to control 204 LEDs on a single channel, or 120 LEDs per channel.

[Parmenedes]

Just a heads up the LNP has a maximum of being able to control 204 LEDs on a single channel, or 120 LEDs per channel.

 

That's certainly good to know. Thanks for the info. But the 450mm strips only have 27 LED's each, and my node pro is only lighting up about 3/4 of one of the strips (I have two attached to one channel, and none on the second 450mm. So that's a total of roughly 21 LED's on that channel.

 

The second channel has two 250mm strips attached, which each have 15 LED's. It's lighting up all of them on one of the strips, but only about a third on the other. So that's a total of roughly 20 LED's on that channel.

 

So I'm getting a total of roughly 41 LED's lit up across the entire lighting node pro. Something wonky is going on.

[Parmenedes]

Solved:

 

Part of the problem was one of the RGB extension cables I was using was apparently a bad cable (for the strip that wasn't lighting up at all).

 

And the other part of the problem was...

I'm an idiot. User error. I was trying to set them up as LED strips in iCue rather than External LED strips.

 

Incidentally, they fit *almost* perfectly in the new 5000d cases. It looks like the case was designed with them in mind, but there are a couple of places where there's like a little tab or screw or whatnot that gets in the way of having them fit perfectly. Still, they do look amazing and are WAY cooler than the old LED strips were.

 

Thanks for the help everyone!

[Zotty]

Solved:

 

Part of the problem was one of the RGB extension cables I was using was apparently a bad cable (for the strip that wasn't lighting up at all).

 

And the other part of the problem was...

I'm an idiot. User error. I was trying to set them up as LED strips in iCue rather than External LED strips.

 

Incidentally, they fit *almost* perfectly in the new 5000d cases. It looks like the case was designed with them in mind, but there are a couple of places where there's like a little tab or screw or whatnot that gets in the way of having them fit perfectly. Still, they do look amazing and are WAY cooler than the old LED strips were.

 

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Yay!.. glad you are sorted buddy