Non-Corsair Product Integration

[TheITguyfromNY]

There is NO reason why this software could not [imminently] include an, "Add Non-Corsair ARGB Hardware" feature to this software. ARGB lighting works by sending simple PCM traffic (electric signals that a "controller" then parses for a subordinate hardwareID# and, in ARGB's case, an integer that changes voltage resulting in the applicable LED light changing its' color.) Long story short, the "traffic" through the wiring is an established industry standard.

In-fact, I wonder...if I were to buy their light strip, cut the cable between the controller jack and the first light and then run my own wire to, let's say a set of nanoleaf panels on the wall, as long as the # of lights is the same, everything before the lights would send the "PCM pulses" as if there was no difference. (I'm hypothesizing here that there is literally zero cross talk/confirmation back to their controller/the software/etc. that anything actually happened or didn't happen; it's a one-way communication like a person yelling into the mountains, "If you can hear me wiggle your toes"). 

So...from the software/API side, this feature would simply ask, "How many lights does your device have?", and [optionally], "Click here to use your own graphic of the device for you to see in iCue". The hardware would then simply be added to your group of various other devices that can be controlled...exactly the same way...using the exact same already-well-established ARGB PCM industry standard. 

The only question I am asking myself (and I don't even work for Corsair, let along the iCue development team and therefore don't have the info I would have otherwise) is: Would the software need to know the PCM controller card type in order to communicate with it? (There are only a handful of PCM controller boards out there, anyway and this could easily be "simplified" into a drop-down list associated with other non-Corsair devices that in the end would make software development even easier and could in-and-of-itself present as a great partnering/money-making opportunity for Corsair/this development team.

This needs to happen. long-term, people won't continue to allow proprietary control over such a non-proprietary industry standard. IT would be like a phone begin advertised as, "Our USB phone requires our USB cable". It's just a matter of time before people start putting the pieces together.

[LeDoyen]

Well, non corsair ARGB hardware does work already. but iCUE only has lists of corsair hardware in drop down lists when setting the RGB channels.

But once you know that a corsair strip is 10 LEDs, that a LL fan is 16 LEDs etc... you can plug whatever you want and set it in iCUE as the closest LED count.

THe only thing is you need to adapt the connexion as you said.

There's 3rd party adapters for sale here and there, like https://www.ebay.com/str/piratedogtech, and many use them to control their non corsair devices through iCUE.

It's still a DIY workaround but.. it works since it's all the same RGB protocol.

Edited September 12, 2021 by LeDoyen

[TheITguyfromNY]

Very interesting! I did not know these existed. That proves part of my theory...the most-important part, too, which is exciting. It means that this IS in-fact a one-way communication AND the PCM signals are the same. Very exciting.

Other than silly (but important, too) GUI stuff, the next step/problem (and required, really) is that iCue is only going to communicate with the 3rd party hardware based on what it thinks it is (like...not sure how many exact lights they have in their largest strip/product, but that number would be the max number of individual lights that it would control (without them further working on this issue).

[DevBiker]

PirateDog does include a sheet that lists out the number of LEDs with each device. The most you can have is 204 LEDs (6x QL-RGB fans). But the QL and LL fans tend to look really, really weird on other devices. Strips tend to work best across the board. The most you can have configured as strips is 126 (6x external 350mm strips) but you may be able to configure more total LEDs by mixing external strips.

The larger problem, however, is the available current. Some of the Corsair devices have fuses that you can blow. Regardless, you do have a limit of 4.5A on the 5V rail with a SATA connector. Some of the controllers out there will also convert 12V to 5V to provide more amperage for 5V devices but I don't think that any of the Corsair devices do this. If you use an old-school Molex style connector (ick!!), then you can actually get up to 5.5A on the 5V rail. But it's still limited.