iCUE Profile Management

Hey guys, still struggling with iCUE.

 

I upgraded the software to version 3.23.66 and allowed it to update the firmware in my K70 RGB MK 2 to the latest version, 3.24.

 

I currently have two issues. First, it is very counter-intuitive that importing a profile you exported creates a NEW profile, rather than importing the settings into the one you have selected. This means there is no way (that I can figure out) to save something from the hardware and copy it to the default profile, other than switching back and forth and laboriously setting it all up by hand.

 

This wouldn't matter, except when you exit the iCUE program, it always (ALWAYS) switches to the "Default" profile, regardless of which one was active before.

 

Problem #2 is that in the iCUE software, I have 4 profiles for the keyboard. The Default (software) profile, and 3 distinct hardware profiles. The hardware itself has 3 profile slots. I have made sure I saved each of the hardware profiles, labeled K70P HW1, K70P HW2, and K70P HW3 to their corresponding hardware slots on the keyboard, and that each has been written to the actual hardware memory (according to the software anyways).

 

The problem is, the switch profile key on the keyboard no longer cycles through all 3 profiles, but merely switches back and forth between the software Default and Hardware slot 1. I know this, because I gave each of the 4 profiles a distinct color for the profile key light itself (yellow, red, green, blue).

 

How can I restore the original functionality of the key so I can freely cycle between my 3 hardware profile slots?

 

It seems silly that I'd have to totally uninstall the software to be able to use all 3 hardware slots, and re-install it to be able to edit them. There has to be a better solution.

 

I'm trying to get this sorted out before tackling the issue of the wireless Ironclaw mouse that I failed to get profiles to stick to entirely, but that's another story for another day. :)

 

EDIT: I think I see what's going on with the profile switching. Watching the iCUE software window, it appears that when you have a hardware profile selected, hitting the hardware profile select key flips between the hardware profiles (in my case, 3 choices). If you have a SOFTWARE profile selected (Default), it flips back and forth between the two software profiles (which are the default for the KEYBOARD, and the default for the MOUSE).

 

I find this confusing, because hardware profiles are distinct to a single hardware device, but software profiles appear to be shared. It gets extra confusing because, as I mentioned above, when you exit the iCUE software window, it instantly switches to the default SOFTWARE profile, and then flips back and forth between those software profiles, ignoring the hardware ones entirely. I would rather it not change profiles when I close the software and stay in whichever state I was in.

Edited December 12, 2019 by quixadhal
Clarification of Issue 2

I think part of the issue is we are still struggling with the difference between the HW and software profiles. Software profiles are in effect any time iCUE is running. The HW profiles are only in effect when the software is not running. When you go into iCUE and open the K70P HW1-HW3 slots (or any other HW entry), that is not a profile. It is a tool for saving those settings to the hardware. The HW profiles are not designed to be used while the software is running and what you see is just a preview of what it will look like for editing purposes -- after its saved to the device. You can't use the HW profile save template like a software profile.

 

The 'default' profile is whatever software profile is highest on that left side list. It does not matter what you name the profile and the created default profile has no special properties. If you drop it down to 20th, it will no longer be the default. In your position, you only have 1 software profile, so iCUE is always trying to go back to it. As soon as you click outside the iCUE window, the program assumes you have finished editing your HW template and want to go back to normal business -- your 1 software profile.

 

Profile switch on the keyboard -> When iCUE is running, switches between software profiles. When software is not running, it will switch between the three hardware profiles. Remember, those HW slots are not real profiles. Just a save tool. The device will retain the last HW profile in use until you change it.

 

You quit the iCUE app and it then you are back on the three HW profiles all the time, but that may not be the place to start. It makes learning functionality too hard.

 

The easiest resolution to this is to create your 3 preferred HW profiles as software profiles too (or however many). Then the profile button freely cycles between them. Then you have the functionality with or without iCUE. It's not as horrific as it sounds. You can copy more complex lighting elements to the library from existing HW profiles, although you still must apply it yourself. Same thing for macros/actions. You also have the ability to set specific key triggers to go to directly a specific profile (Home key -> Blue 1).

Edited December 12, 2019 by c-attack

I would note that I have two "Default" profiles (software), presumably the second one was created when I added the mouse and simply has the same name.

 

And I just realized that another part of my confusion here is that the iCUE application doesn't follow the normal UI rules of Windows applications. Namely, the close button doesn't close the application (quit), but closes the windows (minimizes).

 

It would be nice if an option were added to allow us to select the behavior (close window vs exit software), since there's already a minimize button.

 

Thanks for the help, I'll get there eventually.

Heh, one interesting difference between the software and hardware versions of the "gradient" lighting effect....

 

I set up a static effect to put the keyboard lights on blue with a 50% opacity, then I added a gradient effect that ramps from 0 to 10% red at 2 seconds, and then back to 0 at 8 seconds, and had it set to begin on any keypress and end after 1 animation loop.

 

When the software is running, this creates an interesting effect as each keystroke starts a new copy of the animation loop, resulting in a rather nice effect where if you type just a few keys, you get a dim purple for a few seconds. If you type more text, the keys eventually become almost fully red and slowly fade back to the static blue color.

 

When using the hardware alone, I'm sure it's only single-threaded and simply runs the animation once, ignoring other keystrokes until it's finished.

 

Not a complaint, but it's a subtle difference that makes a huge visual difference, and probably will catch people by surprise. I actually like the additive effect, and wish the hardware version could do it too. :)

Yeah, the close vs full quit thing is a common gripe for a lot of different software applications these days. I really don't appreciate game launchers (that exist for the software publisher's benefit, not mine) that silently drop to the tray or default to launch with windows so it they can tag what I like to do. However, in this case I think it is because iCUE is more of a service rather than a program to launch and quit when needed. Most people will want it running all the time to retain maximum utility. You can click the task bar carrot > to pull up the mini-icon, then right click to Quit from there. You also can do the full task manager kill of app and services if you are trying to resolve issues or working with other monitoring programs for a bit. I need to do this if I want to run AIDA testing or use HWiNFO to grab data iCUE cannot.

 

 

 

I set up a static effect to put the keyboard lights on blue with a 50% opacity, then I added a gradient effect that ramps from 0 to 10% red at 2 seconds, and then back to 0 at 8 seconds, and had it set to begin on any keypress and end after 1 animation loop.

 

When the software is running, this creates an interesting effect as each keystroke starts a new copy of the animation loop, resulting in a rather nice effect where if you type just a few keys, you get a dim purple for a few seconds. If you type more text, the keys eventually become almost fully red and slowly fade back to the static blue color.

 

That is interesting. I don't usually set things to start on key press (except per key lighting). I did not realize it would keep compounding the lighting layer and build it up. I need to find a way to use that in a software profile. There are definitely some inconsistencies between what is "previewed" in the HW profile versus what actually happens when in the no software state. For the most part, I notice this with fan lighting. Color wave in particular is another one where the software version is 1 fan=1 wave, while the HW version is one wave completes the loops before wave 2 begins. It looks like you have discovered another. I agree, it is likely a limitation of the processing the device controller can handle, although I have never received an answer to that question.

 

Technically, those HW profile templates in do cover the entire array of iCUE devices. You can set a mouse, fan, RAM lighting in the HW template. Of course, only the actual device effect will save to the device. This goes back to what we were talking about last time. You could set the keyboard to all white/red/blue/green whatever in the ICW HW profiles so that you can see what you are doing when setting it up. It won't save to the mouse or override your K70 saved settings.

Hmmm, trying to work with the mouse profiles now. Ironclaw Wireless RGB.

 

I REALLY dislike that some buttons are 100% not available in hardware profiles. Why did that happen? Surely it's not hard to allow any button to be mapped to a simple keystroke, mouse button, or nothing at all.

 

The profile up and down buttons are idea for use in voice chat or other things, but they are not available for ANY actions?

 

The option button is one my fat finger is likely to press by accident, but disable isn't an option for hardware profiles? How can making a button send nothing be impossible in hardware, if it can be remapped at all?

 

I accept not allowing the left mouse button to be remapped, even though I think it's a bad decision since left-handed people might want to swap the left and right buttons. For this particular mouse, it's not designed for left-handed people, but I assume the restriction is there for all mice.

 

I don't actually use that many mouse buttons, but I like to have the two DPI buttons as keystrokes to do game stuff, as they're a very convenient location. I usually use a button behind the scroll wheel (profile switch) for voice chat push-to-talk, as it's not likely to get hit accidentally. Beyond that, just the usual left/right/middle and forward/back. I'd just as soon disable the option button so I don't accidentally mash it while grabbing the mouse. That IS how I have the software profile configured.

Heh, OK this is a bizzaro bug that I'll tack on here just because it's part of the same adventure...

 

So, I got the mouse semi-configured and unplugged it. Then I'm in the file manager and hit ESC and somehow, that got translated by iCUE into "create new folder"!

 

I kid you not. The software didn't show any keybinds (actions) for the keyboard at all, but somehow because the mouse got unplugged, it started creating new folders whenever I hit ESC with a fille manager window focused.

 

Close (quit) iCUE, and it goes back to normal.

 

Ummmmm... I have no idea how that happened. In fact, I don't even know how to make it happen if I wanted to, since I don't know a single keystroke to just create a new folder and take the default name.

There is a bug in iCUE 3.22 & 3.23 that causes weird “re-assignments” of various keys. The ESC Function key row is the prime area affected. Most of the forum discussions relate to keyboards and there are a million different threads with various names. However, the trigger is usually Actions, specifically anything in the Actions Library. If you remove it from the Library (but keep it in the profile), hopefully that resolves the issue. I say hopefully because while this works for me on three keyboards and three different mice, there still are some stumbling blocks. Any launch application macro or command seems to be an issue even in the regular profile. This all needs to get fixed. You could roll back to 3.21 and wait it out, however I STRONGLY recommend you do not at this point. Profiles are not backwards compatible and you have to redo all software profiles. Edited December 13, 2019 by c-attack

Yes, it seems you cannot "disable" the key in HW mode. I hadn't noticed before. I am not sure if that is an OS obstacle or something else. However, since the sniper/option keys do not have a default value like a side mouse button or left click, it shouldn't do anything in HW mode. There are others who would like to see the profile buttons be re-assignable in HW mode. I think the ultimate answer is going to be "You can. Use software mode".

 

What's you end goal? Are you trying to divorce yourself from the software? Or just trying to make the HW profiles match the software ones? Are there any other devices or peripherals in your iCUE library to consider?

Being that it's a mouse (and keyboard), I would prefer to have it functionally the same regardless of any software being installed (or not) on the computer they are connected to. To me, that means all the keys or buttons function identically for simple operations, such as remapping buttons to act as keystrokes.

 

As far as I can tell, this is perfectly doable with the keyboard. I don't use complicated macros very often, but I can unplug it from my windows desktop and plug it into my linux server and know that if I remapped a key it will still be mapped the same.

 

I can't do that with the mouse, unless I simply never use several of the buttons. I believe there are even more limitations if you use bluetooth wireless mode, which I would be using on any other machine if I didn't have the cable handy.

 

I appreciate all the help figuring this out. The hardware seems to be pretty high quality, and it's one of only two mice I've used to date that I can say is actually comfortable for my hand size and grip (the other being the Logitech G502).

https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041190571-Pair-a-wireless-mouse-in-iCUE