[SOLVED] Cam and usb 2.0 hub

[bensid]

Hi Forum,

I am new here and new to PC building for my son, so please bear with me if I am not too clear or unnecessarily too detaild in my query.
We build up this pc and all was working great untill my son asked me to get him 3 rgb fans to replace the three stock fans (2 on the front and 1 rear). Three stock fans were connected to stock fan controller that came with be quite silent base 802.

We had Z73 rgb 120mm cooler already installed and it was all working fine. Fans running, rgb controlled through CAM, doing what it was supposed to do,

We removed the three stock non rgb fans and disconnected it from the stock fan controller and left the controller as is for whatever other connections it had running.
For the fans, we ordered NZXT Aer RGB 2 Series Starter Triple Fan Pack - 120mm to stay in the same eco system thinking it will be an easy option.
Problem 1: there was only one usb 2.0 header on our asus rog strix b450 f gaming 2 motherboard and we needed one more to connect the tripple fans.
After speaking to NZXT support, we ordered NZXT Internal USB Hub .

Setup: 2 of the tripple fans went to front and 1 at rear. We wanted to daisychain all 3 fans but fan to fan connection cable from the front was not long enough to reach out to the rear fan.
This is what we did:
Front 2 fans daisy chained and connected to nzxt fan controller for power and rgb, and then controller itself was connected to usb hub splitter and to sata.
Rear fan daisy chained with the three fans of Z73 but powered through the nzxt fan controller because the 3 fan power connections on the cooler breakout cable were already used by coller's own fan.
Z73 pump usb 2.0 header which was connected to the motherboard was then connected to usb 2.0 hub splitter, rest of the connections for z73 were already there.
Now we had everything connected through the splitter to the motherboard and all fans daisychain as 4 + 2 , all powered through satas ....

Problem 2:
Systerm turned on, led lights on the fan controller and usb hub splitter also turned on. All fans are running and lit up in white colour ring.
Went to Cam software to try out the rgb BUT

1. in the lighting section we saw RGB & Fan controller Device loading and it kept loading
2. in there we also saw AER2 fan channel 1: AER2 fan (4) - the 3 fans from the cooler and one rear fan daisychained with them. However, to our surprise, the rgb controls stopped working and fans stayed white lit ring no matter whatever light effect we tried. It used to work in the first setup with the stock fans before adding the 3 addiotional fans.

we went to have alook in the device manager thinking, we may need to get the splitter hub recognise but did not what to do apart from right clicking on the universal serial bus and clicking on scan for changes but it did not make any difference. we could see the krakan device entry in the there though, dont know if this is the cooler or the fan controller ?

anyways we then tried to find something in the bios to see if we can play with the usb options incase we have to awaken the additional usb headers on the splitter but did not find anything so left it there.

we then put everything back how it was, by connecting the coller directly with the motherboard usb 2.0 header , by passing the usb hub splitter, the rgb on the cooler worked like a charm with all 4 fans.
we then did the same thing with the fornt 2 fans , connecting it directly to the motherboard by passing the usb hub splitter and again it worked like a charm, the cam recognised the rgb fan and controller and rgb worked on both fans.

making sure that everything works when connected to the motherboard directly, we re introduce the usb hub splitter and we are still stuck with device loading and rgb on cooler fans not working.

Next solution we are going to try is ditch the idea of usb hub splitter and fan controller that came with the three fans altogether and daisy chain 5 fans , 3 from the cooler and 2 from the front with the Z73 because we have been told by nzxt support builtin pump fan controller can support upto 5 fans. Do not know yet understand how we will power those 2 fans? directly from the motherboard fan headers? hope it has 4 pins , have not checked that yet? The rear 6th fan will also be connected to the mother board to power up? however we have been told that rgb on nzxt fans is not supported through motherboard rgb headers which we can live with. but before trying this solution, can anyone please help us out to find a solution with our current setup.

Thanks in advance

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i would allow the be quiet! hub to control the three case fans' RPMs just as it had with the previous.
connecting this hub to a PWM motherboard header will allow custom fan curve profile to be created for all connected fans.

rgb on nzxt fans is not supported through motherboard rgb headers

what type of aRGB cable do the fans use,
not a standard 3pin aRGB connection?

since this NZXT LED hub needs a USB 2.0 header to communicate with the control software it may not be possible to use it with this setup.

a better option may be to return the fan set,
get standard aRGB fans,
and also get a SATA powered standard 3pin aRGB hub that will connect to a motherboard aRGB header.

this way you will be able to sync any aRGB devices along with any motherboard lighting through motherboard control software.

we ordered NZXT Internal USB Hub

is this an actual powered hub or just a 1 > 2 splitter like you describe it?
if just a splitter i would return it.

 

[bensid]

i would allow the be quiet! hub to control the three case fans' RPMs just as it had with the previous.
connecting this hub to a PWM motherboard header will allow custom fan curve profile to be created for all connected fans.


what type of aRGB cable do the fans use,
not a standard 3pin aRGB connection?

since this NZXT LED hub needs a USB 2.0 header to communicate with the control software it may not be possible to use it with this setup.

a better option may be to return the fan set,
get standard aRGB fans,
and also get a SATA powered standard 3pin aRGB hub that will connect to a motherboard aRGB header.

this way you will be able to sync any aRGB devices along with any motherboard lighting through motherboard control software.

is this an actual powered hub or just a 1 > 2 splitter like you describe it?
if

The stock fan controller takes 3 pins but nzxt fans are four pins.

Returning the fans to replace with argb fans, we might consider but he wants tontry everything in the cam software if we can resolve the current setup. Also too late to return after all packaging thrown away


The hub splitter is nzxt usb 2.0 hub 1 to 4, powered by sata

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

The hub splitter is nzxt usb 2.0 hub 1 to 4, powered by sata

odd that it doesn't function properly then.
make sure you have the latest motherboard BIOS and the latest motherboard USB drivers installed from the motherboard manufacturer's product support downloads page.

Returning the fans to replace with argb fans, we might consider

i always try to avoid proprietary hardware like this fan + hub set because it limits current and future expansion options.

getting a nice powered fan hub & aRGB hub, or a combination hub, would make any future fan & LED expansion easier.

i've never purchased an extra LED hub but have used this Cooler Master PWM fan hub in a couple builds:
https://www.newegg.com/cooler-maste...ccessory/p/1YF-0016-00054?Item=9SIA50MAMP4345

in this situation i would connect intake fans to the hub for synced RPMs
and exhaust to a motherboard header for separate RPM control.

if/when you are looking for new fans;
getting nicer 140mm versions will allow more airflow at lower RPMs for quieter operation.

 

[bensid]

odd that it doesn't function properly then.
make sure you have the latest motherboard BIOS and the latest motherboard USB drivers installed from the motherboard manufacturer's product support downloads page.

i always try to avoid proprietary hardware like this fan + hub set because it limits current and future expansion options.

getting a nice powered fan hub & aRGB hub, or a combination hub, would make any future fan & LED expansion easier.

i've never purchased an extra LED hub but have used this Cooler Master PWM fan hub in a couple builds:
https://www.newegg.com/cooler-maste...ccessory/p/1YF-0016-00054?Item=9SIA50MAMP4345

in this situation i would connect intake fans to the hub for synced RPMs
and exhaust to a motherboard header for separate RPM control.

if/when you are looking for new fans;
getting nicer 140mm versions will allow more airflow at lower RPMs for quieter operation.

Thanks. Yeap we will make a note of that while building other PCs in the future.

For now, we tried this simple thing and bravo, it worked !

We thought why not try to connect the Z73 cooler to an external (at the front panel or at the rear of the tower) USB port instead of internal USB 2.0 of the motherboard. Connected the cooler externally with a USB 2.0 port at the back of the tower. We used our USB cable from our amazon firestick for that because it had one end that went into the pump head and the other male end into the USB port at the rear of the tower. We were lucky that there was a cutout in our tower to run that cable cleanly to the back of the tower. The usb cable that came with the Z73 is stored away now and unused. Out of these 5 fans, all 5 are connected to the Z73 for rgb and front 2 fans are connected to the nzxt fan controller for the power.

The nzxt fan controller is connected directly to the only USB 2.0 port on the mother board and the rear 6th fan is connected to this controller both for power and rgb.

The usb splitter is not needed now and will be returned.

That setup worked!

We also made some changes to fans daisy chaining.
5 fans on one channel (2 at the front daisy chained with 3 fans of Z73, by the way Z73 is mounted at the top of the case.)
1 fan at the rear on its own connected to the fan controller.


All 6 fans can be seen in the Cam as
5 fans on one channel (3 from the Z73 and 2 from the front) under Z73 and 1 fan on another channel under rgb and fan controller.

Next challenge: we can't find a way to apply rgb effect syncing all 6 fans into one effect because Cam treats them as two separate channels. For example if I want to apply marquee effect to all 6 fans, I can't.

Reason, the 6th fan at the rear is on its own because NZXT does not allow more than 5 fans in a single channel else I would have daisy chained all 6 fans on one channel. It is annoying that the 6th solo fan cannot be added to rgb effects to get that uniform effect across all 6 fans instead of on 5 fans and 1 fan independent of each other

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

it would be better to have the radiator fans paired to a single connection,
the front intakes paired to a second single connection,
and the rear fan using a third connection.

the radiator's fans would be controlled by CPU temperature and may need to spin up faster than the intakes or exhaust at times to keep a steady low CPU temp.
the front intakes can run a bit slower and still keep adequate cool air coming in.
and the single rear exhaust can run even a bit slower since you have the radiator also exhausting.

but i would definitely add a third front intake.
you want slight positive air pressure inside the case to keep dust from being sucked in through each and every crevice
and to help force heated air out.
with your current setup(3x exhaust / 2x intake) you have a negative air pressure that will add to dust buildup throughout.

we can't find a way to apply rgb effect syncing all 6 fans into one effect

i haven't worked with CAM in particular but most LED control software allows you to create an RGB effect and then assign it to and sync as many connected devices as you wish.

it really shouldn't matter if they are considered separate channels, anything detected by the software should be able to share the same RGB profile and sync across.
check if there is an option somewhere to arrange connected devices and/or to assign an area of effect that would include all of the fans.
but it could just be a bad design by NZXT that doesn't allow you to make proper use of their aRGB devices.

i wouldn't be surprised if there are a few articles or videos out there of how to set up the CAM software to properly sync all connected devices or at least that would explain that it is not possible.

if this particular configuration you're using is just causing some issue with syncing that can't be corrected hopefully NZXT support would have a better solution.