[SOLVED] Addressable RGB components

[randall_messing]

I’ve been searching high and low for an answer for 2 questions about ARGB.

1) My first question I have is about controllers. I may end up with multiple controllers in my build. I have a H500M Cooler Master case, which has a controller for the 2 200mm fans that come with it. I want to put in an AIO cooler for the CPU and those usually come with a controller, from the ones I’ve looked at. So the question is, how can you connect multiple controllers, possibly from different vendors, to a single header on the motherboard? I guessing a splitter cable, or USB. As far as I’ve dug in forums, no one has asked or answered that question sufficiently for me.

2) Looking at the connectors of the fans in the case they look to be the standard 5v 3 pin RGB but use a splitter to the CM controller. If this is standard couldn’t I simply, using a splitter from say TT, to connect up to a TT sync 9 port controller?

 

[randall_messing]

Bump

 

[Paperdoc]

As you say, that Cooler Master case comes with its own ARGB Controller board you mount inside the case. To that you connect a power supply from a PSU SATA power output, a communication cable from a Controller socket to a mobo USB2 header, a cable from the board to the case's control button mounted at top front, and a signal cable from a board connector to one of your mobo's 3-pin ARGB headers. Apparently you can have control of the lights by this board done either by using the USB2 communication cable and Cooler Master software you download and install, OR by the mobo's software using the connection to the mobo ARGB header. What is NOT clear in the manual is how you make this choice. MAYBE you can connect both signal sources and use some setting in the Cooler Master software to set which control signal is actually used. MAYBE such a choice depends on using the case top front switch. Or MAYBE you only get to use ONE signal source, and you must connect only one of those signal cables to the board. You really ought to ask Cooler Master how that is supposed to be done.

Regarding the Thermaltake TT Sync controller box, my reading is that this unit can be connected to any standard 3-pin ARGB signal source. What it does is use its own power supply from a PSU SATA output so it does not actually draw power for lights from the mobo header (or whichever source) - it only uses those signals as information to direct its own outputs. NOTE that it specifies that, since the SATA power source is limited to 5 A max, that is the limit for the total load on ALL of the output ports of this Controller box. So IF you wish to have the mobo's software tools do control of all your ARGB lighting devices, you can connect a cable from its 3-pin ARGB header to the input of the TT Sync box and plug all your devices into that box. Now that brings up another question. The TT Sync box has several 9-pin output sockets, each able to supply up to three ARGB devices. For this they supply cables from the TT Sync unit to ARGB devices. But the connectors to those ARGB devices use 4 pins, so I am not sure whether these are completely compatible with other makers' common 3-pin ARGB lighting devices. You need to ask Thermaltake for that detail.

IF you were to consider using both the Cooler Master case's Controller board for its case fan ARGB components and the TT Sync box for other ARGB lighting units, BOTH controlled by the output signals from the mobo 3-pin ARGB header, then yes, the simplest way is to use a RGB Splitter cable to feed that same mobo signal to both Controller boxes. Now, the common RGB splitter cables are designed for 4-pin plain RGB systems, but they also fit 3-pin ARGB systems I believe because the pin size and spacing is the same. You just end up not using one of the connections in such a cable. BUT two things re VITAL. First, you must never make the mistake of plugging such a cable into a mobo 4-pin plain RGB header because that would be possible but damaging. And secondly, when you use it, you MUST make sure you turn the connectors the right way so you get the connections at every junction correct so that the +5 VDC line is always matched up, etc.

Regarding your question #2, you are right. The ARGB Splitter cable supplied with the Cooler Master case and Controller board is simply a way to connect two ARGB devices (in the front fans) to a single standard ARGB port. That does not have to be a port on that Controller card, although the connector on the Controller end of that Splittter cable may not match up with some other maker's connector. But if your intention is to have all of your ARGB devices controlled by the same signals from the mobo ARGB header, you do not have to change that. The fact that the same mobo signals are being fed to two different Controller boards means that both boards will do the same thing.

 

[randall_messing]

XSPC 8-Way 5V 3-pin RGB Fan Splitter, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CDV2XKL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_KCMwCbNPPEX62

Found this as a alternative to the controllers. Might even be able to hook up a controller to the outputs. I don’t know if that’s possible but would be interesting to find out. I know the description in the title says fan controller buts it’s a 5v RGB splitter. I even confirmed on XSPCs website.

I have also done more digging and found that the TT sync wouldn’t work as it’s mainly a fan controller with rgb pass through for TT Ring fans. As for the CM controller and how it works I’ve posted on CMs forum asking the specifics of that.

I’ve just started in putting together a system build for this year and most all the components I’ve looked at are ARGB in some way. I like the flash of the colors able to be used. I wanted to get an idea of how the controllers and such go together and better understand the connectivity. In the digging around this seems like an enigma as the answers I’m looking for aren’t really out there. I am getting a better understanding of it all but, the interconectivity between motherboards and multiple controllers, from possibly different vendors, is still vague.

 

[Paperdoc]

I agree fully, that item on Amazon is an ARGB Hub. As far as I can tell, it will relay exactly whatever signal it gets from a mobo (or other controller) header to all its connected devices, so they all will do exactly the same thing. This is ideal if you want all your devices co-ordinated. One limitation I note really should not be a problem, but needs to be considered. Many mobo headers and other ARGB output ports can deliver up to 3.0 A max. On this Hub with 8 ports, the max TOTAL for ALL 8 outputs is 6.5 A, definitely NOT 3A per port. It does not really spec the limit of each port, only the Hub total. And I'm betting that is based on the limit of power available to the Hub from a PSU SATA power output.

Some third-party ARGB Controllers I've seen have an interesting feature. With two output ports they say each can be configured separately in their software tools as different "channels". I suspect that means that, although each channel can do different displays at the same time, all of the items connected on one channel will do the same thing. I'm pretty sure, though, that this can be done only because the two channels are handled by a Controller able to create two different output streams simultaneously. I do NOT think a single controller can simply use addresses on ONE output address line to create different displays in different devices all connected to the same output channel. But I could be wrong about that. I realize this is not what you say you are looking for. It just occurred to me as I considered the difference between a Hub that shares one control signal to all its connected devices, versus a Controller with two or more separate channels for separate output ports.

 

[randall_messing]

I am just looking for more information on how it all works together. Not too techy but enough to understand the hookup and all. I’m finding very little in the answering to that question without experimentation. I wish I could afford a few controllers for experimenting, hooking up a controller to others and some ARGB lights. See if the first controller can pass on its signals to the others.

My thoughts are it should work, if the draw from multiple controllers doesn’t exceed the 3amp of the controller. But this would be an expensive oops if it was tried on a motherboard and it fried.

 

[Paperdoc]

The way I understand such third-party controllers to work is that all the power for its output ports comes from its connection to a PSU output. It draws almost no power for its lights from the host mobo header it is plugged into. On an ARGB strip, almost ALL the power is consumed in lighting up the LED's, and very little power is consumed by the little control chips associated with each LED group. It's a lot like the way a fan Hub operates. In a Controller such as the one you linked to, one way it can operate is to provide the Ground and +5 VDC power supply to all the strips plugged into it only from the PSU connection, and draw no power for the LED's from the mobo host header. Then it could take the mobo's Control Line signal and merely send that on out to the Control Lines on each of its output ports. Then all of the strips' controller chips would consume a very small amount of power from that single source, but I expect that would not overload the mobo header's Control Line output. It MIGHT also be done differently, with the Hub using its own repeater amplifier to duplicate the mobo Control Line's digital signals and then send them out of the Hub's ports using power from the PSU for its amplifier. But that latter is a bit more complicated, and would not be needed if the strips' Control Line chips actually consume very little power each. Exactly how that particular ARGB Hub is designed is not specified in any web specs, and I even doubt you could get that question answered by their Tech Support people.

All that said, then the interest is in whether you could connect additional ARGB Controllers like that to the output ports of a first such Controller in a chain. I would expect yes, within reasonable limits. Basically for each Controller in the chain the big power consumption by the LED's is supplied by each Controller's direct connection to a PSU output. Only the Control Line from ALL of the lighting strips would draw power from the host mobo header. Assuming a modest number of lighting strips in total, that should not be a problem.

I do note one small thing about this concept, though. All ARGB system also have a specification for maximum number of devices connected "daisy chain" - that is, end-to-end. I am not exactly sure why. But I suspect it is linked to how far along a long signal line the rapid digital signals can be sent without degrading or losing time synchronization. So you MIGHT have a problem with very long lighting strips or many connected end-to-end.