[Guide] How to sync Asus Aura with ICue

[crashniels]

As the title states I will be showing you how to sync Aura devices with ICUE.

Some things before we start

Since ASUS recently updated and released their new SDK i will divide this guide into two sections:
The first section being the old ASUS Aura version which has very limited device support and stability but has the ability to get and set the colors of select Aura devices. You could use this to use the music mode in Aura and send the colors to corsair devices or you could use ICUE effects on Aura devices.
The second section being the new ASUS Aura version which supports all Aura devices at the cost of only setting the colors. With all Aura devices I mean all Aura compatible gear should work. If you don't mind only being able to set ICUE effects on your Aura devices then the second section is the preferred method.

Section 1: Old ASUS Aura version

Note 1: This might won't work on X370 or B350 but will work on X470 and B450.
Note 2: This does not work with Asus Strix 20xx cards as they do not show up in the older aura version.
Note 3: This only works with Asus Motherboards / GPUs for now. Gigabyte and MSI support is expected somewhere in the near future.
Note 4: Your device must be supported by the SDK.

If you need any further assistance on setting this up feel free to ask us over at discord. https://discordapp.com/invite/Gr6f9XZ

Ok so lets begin.
First of all, you will need Asus Aura 1.06.17. Using this with the newer versions might crash Aura. But that is not as bad as it sounds as you will be uninstalling it anyway :). You will need to use a program called CCleaner to do the job. Most of the times a normal windows uninstall will not work as Asus doesn't uninstall everything for some reason. Just note that when uninstalling to both uninstall Asus Aura and Aura Service. You can easily check the Asus Aura version in Windows 10 when going into Settings and then Apps and then going on Asus Aura.

This is how it would look.
After you have installed Asus Aura and it starts up you should make sure it works by selecting the rainbow effect (or any of the ones below that). Next you should head over to https://fanman03.ml/?page=dwn and download the latest Jacknet Sync program. It is an installer and will go through like any regular program installer. When that is done you should have a new desktop icon. Double click it like a regular program and it should open. You should start with clicking on New LED Group. It should look similar to this after that.

Depending on which way you want to sync your LEDs (Asus aura -> ICUE devices or ICUE -> Asus Aura devices; does not work on all boards like for example x470 or z390) you want to select the host LED device in MasterLED.
For Asus -> ICUE select "Motherboard X".
For ICUE -> Asus select a Corsair device.
And for the synchronized LEDs you should drag over the LEDs you want do sync to the MasterLED. (use shift select for easier dragging)
Make sure to not add devices that are synced internally already. Example you have Corsair in the Master LED tab and add a or the same device to the synchronized tab. It will cause lag since it is getting and setting the color at the same time. Avoid that.

I went for the Asus -> ICUE route here so this is how it looks for me.

If you are going for the ICUE -> Asus route it should look like this.

Section 2: New ASUS Aura version

Note: Only bugs we found so far are the "Desktop" which shows up. It has no documented function so for now it is "just there". Ignore it for now. Another bug is that the Strix x299e board is bugging out a bit. It works fine except for anything connected to either of the 12v RGB headers. 5v are unaffected by this.
Note 2: When launching Jacknet sync it may take longer since Aura takes long to add the devices in.


Following this section will only require on of the newer ASUS Aura versions. Latest is recommended by ASUS but if your Aura works and is older then 1.06.17 it should still work. 1.07.xx is still recommended though.

After making sure you have a working Aura install you can start by installing Jacknet sync. After you open it it may take a while but it should pop up eventually. Head over to the settings tab first and make sure your Aura devices are listed.

Now head over to the LED Groups tab and create a new LED Group. As Master LED you want to select a Corsair LED. As for the Aura devices you want to drag them over. A big help can be SHIFT-Selection.
Once everything is dragged over it should start syncing the LEDs right a way. You can now select an effect in ICUE and it will mirror the colour of the LED you selected to the Aura devices.

Ignore the other groups for now.
Side Note: Using too many Asus Addressable LEDs can cause the mirrored effects to lag a lot and use lots of CPU time.

Small info for the end

I hope this small guide has made your RGB experience more immersive. Thank you for your patience and thank you for reading.

I also made a little "tutorial" to this on YouTube. This was using RGBSync+ which is from one of the developers. It is a proof of concept.

YouTube

If you need any help or if you have any questions feel free to ask. As i am not always online and only check the forum once in a while feel free to join the discord server. Lots of people can help you there if you are stuck and you can message the developers of this as well (please no unnecessary pinging).

The discord invite link: https://discordapp.com/invite/Gr6f9XZ

Downloads:

Aura 1.06.17: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/m...06.17_1114.zip
Latest Aura: https://www.asus.com/campaign/aura/de/download.html
Jacknet Sync: https://fanman03.com/

[LeSnakk]

Man, this is awesome!!!

It's very cool to control my STRIX card via iCUE. There are just a few issues concerning the color. I tried the instant lighting tab and the colors didn't always match. Here's my list (1st color = instant lighting (corsair products) | 2nd color = Strix card):

red - red
orande - purple
yellow - lighter purple
green - blue
dark green - darker blue
turquoise - dark turquoise
light blue - light blue
dark blue - green
pink - yellow
white - white
black - black
off - off

It seems like the RGB-values don't really match and that the Green and Blue are reversed. Is there a possibility to fix it myself within RGBSync + or am I the only one with this issue?

Maybe it's because I don't have an ASUS board, you can see my PC config underneith my username.

[Zotty]

AWESOME post.. good to see people are out there trying to do this sort of thing.....

subbed and rated,,,

[solarity]

Awesome work! I don't have any Asus products other than my monitors, so I can't test this out. Looks like you are using RGB.NET. Are you sync'ing the LEDs based off the LED color of a specific item like the letter "A" on the keyboard to LED2 on motherboard? That is a very creative approach. It also helps automate a lot of the setting of colors.

I created a powershell script for Gigabyte's RGB Fusion. I used a SDK CLI tool that someone else made. I synced based off running process/game to match iCUE that way. Then had RGB Profiles created in RGB Fusion and parsed in the XML to set the lighting via the CLI tool. I don't know if your way could work with Gigabyte Fusion SDK. It seems that frequent changes to lighting effects cause a race condition.

I do find MB manufacture's SDKs very limiting. Not all Gigabyte motherboards support the SDK, that support RGB Fusion. Engaging Gigabyte has been a little bit frustrating. I got my script working for me, though kind of gave up on it as I think only a few other people have used it.

Good work, I love seeing things like this!

[crashniels]

Originally Posted by LeSnakk

Man, this is awesome!!!

It's very cool to control my STRIX card via iCUE. There are just a few issues concerning the color. I tried the instant lighting tab and the colors didn't always match. Here's my list (1st color = instant lighting (corsair products) | 2nd color = Strix card):

red - red
orande - purple
yellow - lighter purple
green - blue
dark green - darker blue
turquoise - dark turquoise
light blue - light blue
dark blue - green
pink - yellow
white - white
black - black
off - off

It seems like the RGB-values don't really match and that the Green and Blue are reversed. Is there a possibility to fix it myself within RGBSync + or am I the only one with this issue?

Maybe it's because I don't have an ASUS board, you can see my PC config underneith my username.

Yes i also read that the SDK swaps the colors or something. Sadly i am no programmer so i can't really talk much about how to fix this.

[solarity]

Originally Posted by crashniels

Yes i also read that the SDK swaps the colors or something. Sadly i am no programmer so i can't really talk much about how to fix this.

A good question is what color is blue? If green is blue and blue is green, then those need to be swapped. LEDs can vary and different materials can refract light. I know on my LEDs in my XSPC CPU block and res I had to use a 100ohm resistor on the red cathode as red was to bright. I was then able to match colors really well. Also when scuba diving, you lose different colors from the spectrum the deeper you go, I think diffusing light through different materials can effect it similarly and be a filter. I notice on some parts of my MB the huge is slightly off on the chip set, compared to other LEDs on the MB.



Here is a good video on RGB 101:

YouTube

[LeSnakk]

Originally Posted by solarity

A good question is what color is blue? If green is blue and blue is green, then those need to be swapped. LEDs can vary and different materials can refract light. I know on my LEDs in my XSPC CPU block and res I had to use a 100ohm resistor on the red cathode as red was to bright. I was then able to match colors really well. Also when scuba diving, you lose different colors from the spectrum the deeper you go, I think diffusing light through different materials can effect it similarly and be a filter. I notice on some parts of my MB the huge is slightly off on the chip set, compared to other LEDs on the MB.



Here is a good video on RGB 101:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5paaWs_Gz8

I get your point but I believe this doesn't depend on how the manufacturers "built" their RGB.

I am not into the code of RGBSync+ but I guess that accidently somewhere it says RBG instead of RGB or sth...

If I get the time I may have a detailled look into the code to maybe solve the issue but I am not a programing expert...

[solarity]

Originally Posted by LeSnakk

I get your point but I believe this doesn't depend on how the manufacturers "built" their RGB.

I am not into the code of RGBSync+ but I guess that accidently somewhere it says RBG instead of RGB or sth...

If I get the time I may have a detailled look into the code to maybe solve the issue but I am not a programing expert...

What color does blue show up as?

[PJH]

Hey, hey!

Neato but bummer it doesn't detect my z270-e motherboard running AuraSync 1.05.25.

Also, here's the link to AuraSync 1.06.17 - http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...ol_1.06.17.zip

After updating to 1.06.17 detection has happened!

Still, I'd rather see a day come when Corsair will release their SDK, so motherboard and graphic cards can be controlled in iCUE.

[LeSnakk]

Originally Posted by PJH

Hey, hey!

Neato but bummer it doesn't detect my z270-e motherboard running AuraSync 1.05.25.

Also, here's the link to AuraSync 1.06.17 - http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...ol_1.06.17.zip

After updating to 1.06.17 detection has happened!

Still, I'd rather see a day come when Corsair will release their SDK, so motherboard and graphic cards can be controlled in iCUE.

You can control your graphics gard via iCUE with this^^

[LeSnakk]

Originally Posted by crashniels

It is as the title says. I will be showing you how to sync Asus Aura with Corsair devices.

Oh, maybe you should add that this is not only for controlling your Corsair devices with Aura, it also works the other way around 👍

[crashniels]

Originally Posted by LeSnakk

Oh, maybe you should add that this is not only for controlling your Corsair devices with Aura, it also works the other way around ��

This was a proof of concept program that can be used as a template. It was kind of used to show off what you could do with the RGB.NET library. while yes you could add syncback, I dont know how since i sadly am no programmer.

[fanskap]

This is epic. Very nice guide. Now my fans are synced to the motherboard, strix gpu and my G.Skilll ram. Only the aio isnt synced because as you said it is not added yet and im looking forward to that.

[LeSnakk]

Originally Posted by solarity

What color does blue show up as?

Blue shows up as green and green shows up as blue. Red shows as red. So somehow green and blue are switched.

[solarity]

Originally Posted by LeSnakk

Blue shows up as green and green shows up as blue. Red shows as red. So somehow green and blue are switched.

Is that true for every item? When set by Asus Aura, does it still have the same issue? This would at least rule out a HW/misswire. The tool would have to be modified and recompiled most likely, unless there is an easier way to control it.