Problem with IQ Fans + iCUE Software

Heyo ;)

I am not sure what forum to post this in since it concerns cooling, the iCUE software and the Corsair Link, i hope if it is wrong here a moderator can move it - thanks a lot! :)

My Problem, I have the following setup:

A Corsair Commander Pro (absolutely love it) for controlling the 2 fans on my water cooling radiator + the pump + one rear case fan - this works brilliantly as I said I love it.

Today I replaced the fans of the water cooling radiator with 2 QL 120mm fans because I wanted to be able to control the RGB of the whole system with iCUE. Since i was at it I bought 4 LED stripes set from Corsair as well.

I ran the LED stripes in series and hooked them up to the second LED port in the Corsair Commander - turns out one stripe is broken, that's a bummer :/ (if I put it in series, the following stripes won't work and if I put it in last position only it's very first LED lights up and is always white, the rest stays dark no matter what) but it's not my main concern:

The 3 fans I connected to a CORSAIR RGB Fan LED Hub that is hooked into the first LED channel of the Commander Pro. Now here are my 2 problems with that:

One of the QL fans acts .. well weird I'm not sure if it's broken or not. Let's call it Frank. If i put Frank into slot 1 of the RGB hub, iCUE says it should have a red indicator light identifying it as #1. It doesn't, Frank has a blue indicator light and one white one. If I put the second fan - let's say Sally - in as well like this, Sally won't work at all. If I switch the order of the fans, Sally #1 and Frank #2, Sally works perfectly well and Frank has his 1 blue LED and 1 white LED (not next to each other) and that's all he will ever do.

I find it kinda hard to believe that 2 out of my 3 Corsair products (2 fans and 1 set of LED stripes) are faulty right out of the box .. am I doing anything wrong here? Do QL fans not work with the "old" RGB hub or something? I have iCUE configured with the correct number of fans and LED stripes.

My second problem - totally on me: As it turns out, you can't run QL fans on the same RGB hub as LL fans - my third fan, the one on the back of the case is an older LL one. Is my only solution to run the same type of fans if i want to run LED stripes as well - since the Commander Pro only has 2 LED outputs and I don't see a method to "split" those into more? I would be fine with switching the rear fan out for a QL one if I weren't so concerned that 2 of my 3 packages might have contained faulty hardware.

I'm grateful for any kind of advice :D

It sounds like "Frank" has a bad spot in his chain somewhere. The lighting is serial, so if there is a break on fan #2, #1 usually works and 2 to the end will not. If seems like Sally works in #1.

I assume you are referring to the Lighting Set-up Tab with the Red, Yellow, Green, dot stuff. It should match the iCUE sequence, but I would be careful about using it for troubleshooting. You can use instant lighting to override any current settings and it is also useful for testing LED color components (Red, Green, Blue, and White). It is also possible there is an issue on the Core device if none of the configurations work. You can try putting the LL in #2 (leave Frank out). Use a static color. The LL should fully light up in #2. If it does not, it would seem to be the hub #2 port.

You can tack that old LL onto the same RGB Lighting Hub or Core as the QL. You would want it last because at 16 LEDs it will throw off the 35/fan count on the QL, shifting most of your effects the wrong way by half a fan. In the last position, it will light up, it will do solid or non-moving patterns, but it won't be able to do any of the unique QL patterns (Rotary, Infinity, Gate, Ping) any moving patterns like visor or color wave may appear off on that end. Kind of hard to justify running a separate RGB channel for it, so you'll have to decide if you are OK with limited utility or want another QL. I would leave the LL off the controller while you are troubleshooting the QL/Hub lighting issue.

hey c-attack!

thanks a lot for the in depth explanation, that helped me understand the - now that i think about it very obvious - difference between the LL and the QL fans. You were right, if i remove Frank and put the "old" LL fan in instead, Sally and the old one run perfectly fine. I thought i tried that before but obviously I haven't so this solves pretty much all of my problems since i know i need to send Frank in for repair / exchange and can still use the LL fan with the same RGB hub :)

Thanks again !