SP120 RGB Pro + SP140 RGB Elite lighting problem

[T-ZeroN]

I have searched the internet for a way to troubleshoot this, but I have not found anything effective.

So, I have 3 x SP120 RGB Pro and 2 x SP140 RGB Elite hooked up to the lighting node that comes with the SP140, and the result is that the 3 x SP120 work fine but without any lighting.

I know the SP120's aren't dead, because when I earlier used the lightning node that came with the SP120's, they lit up but the SP140's stayed dark. When I hooked them to the lighting node from the SP140's box, thinking a newer one would work, only the SP140's lit up and the other 3 stayed dark.

I went into iCue and set up the lightning configuration to be "SP RGB Pro/Elite" with the correct number of fans (5), but the 3 x SP120's still refuse to light up.

Does anyone have a fix? Thank you very much.

[c-attack]

1) Are you sure your 120mm fans are "SP PRO" and not the older SP-RGB fans?  The SP-RGB were the original 5v fan and different from everything else that followed.  They can't be combined with anything else.  When you combine one with the other, you either get crazy flashing LEDs or the other fan set won't light at all.  

 

2) If they are SP-Pro (8 LEDs) they should work with the newer SP-Elite since both are 8 LED fans and CUE can't tell one from the other.  The Lighting Node Core that comes with either Pro or Elite fans is serial, so a bad LED on Fan #2 may knock out all the LEDs after.  If you change the fan order around, do the number of lit fans change?  You'll need to mix and match to find the bad fan.  

[T-ZeroN]

2 hours ago, c-attack said:

1) Are you sure your 120mm fans are "SP PRO" and not the older SP-RGB fans?  The SP-RGB were the original 5v fan and different from everything else that followed.  They can't be combined with anything else.  When you combine one with the other, you either get crazy flashing LEDs or the other fan set won't light at all.  

I ran to grab the box for my SP120 and confirmed that they were a pack of 3 x SP120 RGB PRO.

The 3 x 120's were actually doing fine just before I switched to a new case (at that point the 2 x 140's refused to be recognized by iCue).

[c-attack]

The Commander Core and XT controllers have individually controllable RGB headers, but all other Corsair RGB controllers are serial. So you have 40 LEDs in one long strip, then CUE divides that up based on the fan type you choose or rather produces a specific number of LEDs based on the lighting configuration selected. It doesn’t know a SP-Elite from a SP-Pro from a QL. If you select “8 LED fan series” x 5, it will produce lighting for 40 LEDs but doesn’t know one fan from another. That’s also why it’s hard to mix fans with different LED counts. 
 

The only thing that will stop this is a break in the circuit. So if the SP-Pro are 1-2-3 and lit, while the SP-Elite are 4-5 and dark, swap fans 1 & 4 on the Lightning node Core and see what’s happens. If no change, swap 1 & 3. You are trying to determine if the problem is at the end of fan #3 or the start of fan #4. 

[T-ZeroN]

3 hours ago, c-attack said:

The only thing that will stop this is a break in the circuit. So if the SP-Pro are 1-2-3 and lit, while the SP-Elite are 4-5 and dark, swap fans 1 & 4 on the Lightning node Core and see what’s happens. If no change, swap 1 & 3. You are trying to determine if the problem is at the end of fan #3 or the start of fan #4. 

I opened up the case and almost cried at my own stupidity. I plugged the fans into 1-2-4-5-6 and missed Port 3...

They're working fine now, thank you so much for replying!

[c-attack]

OK, great.  Much better than a bad a fan.