[SOLVED] Can I use two Cooler Master Sickleflow 120 ARGB fans without a controller box?

[BusterBeam]

Hi,

I'm trying to connect two Cooler Master Sickleflow 120 ARGB fans (Reverse Edition) into my Cooler Master NR200P case just to bling up the top a little bit.

The fans are connected to the PWM header and the 5v LED 3-pin header on the motherboard, and daisy-chained together. The fan spin correctly but unfortunately there's no RGB lighting at all.

I'm not bothered about having loads of lighting control (or loads of fans) so that's why I opted for the daisy-chaining route instead of adding the additional control box into my already-cramped ITX case. I've seen a couple of YouTube videos that suggested this was possible? Essentially, I just wanted the motherboard to replicate what it was doing (it has some RGB lighting built-in) for the fans. Was I mistaken and do I need a Cooler Master controller box after all?

My motherboard is an Aorus X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI. I know the fans are not certified compatible with Gigabyte but if I was only looking for basic lighting options would connecting to the motherboard LED header not provide this anyway?

Apologies if there is a really obvious answer. I did search around quite a bit but almost all the detailed information always involves the additional controller box.

Any help much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Your board does have an ARGB and an RGB header. Question is, did you wire the polarity for the connector in the right order(as stated in page 15 of your motherboard's manual)? As for your motherboard, can you check and see what BIOS version you're on at the time of writing? Might I ask where you sourced the splitter for the fans from? Did it come bundled with the fans? Coolermaster also have an ARGB app, Masterplus+, see if using that grants you access to the lighting.

 

[BusterBeam]

Hi Lutfij, thanks for the quick reply!

Er, I don't see any way to wire the connector? I connected my fans into the "D_LED" (Addressable LED Strip Header), which has three pins (the one sized for four pins, but with one missing), and can only be oriented in one way, I think?

Regarding my motherboard, my BIOS version is "American Megatrends Inc. F20, 07/07/2020".

The splitter from the PWM header is from Amazon, and the daisy-chain connectors for the RGB is built into the fans themselves. The fans are spinning so I suppose the PWM power is being supplied correctly?

Just one other thing: how secure should the connector fit into the 5v, 3-pin D_LED header? It kind of slides in but it's quite loose and can wobble a bit. Whereas on the daisy-chained LED connectors they have quite a positive snap action. I've secured it as well as I can manage, taking out my RAM and M2 fan so I can get my fingers in there, but if it's supposed to really snap in then I'll probably have to take the graphics card and a whole bunch of other things out too.

I also installed the MasterPlus software too (thanks for the info) but it didn't recognise the fans (probably because I don't have the controller box and the fans aren't explicitly Gigabyte RBG Fusion compatible, right?).

Thanks for your time

 

[BusterBeam]

I've just updated my bios to the latest available (F34). No effect on the fan lighting, unfortunately.

 

[BusterBeam]

Do I need something like this?:

Cooler Master ARGB 1 to 3 Splitter Cable

 

[Paperdoc]

The web page for those fans does not even show the daisy-chain feature of the fans' lighting connectors. But assuming those are there, you should not need a separate ARGB Splitter to do this. And you are correct, there really is only one way to connect those things together and to the mobo D_LED header. I note the web page DOES show that the fans come with little clips to snap around connectors between the fans so that the link is held firmly. Nothing like that, though, for the mobo header, of course.

The connection to the mobo header ought to be snug, but there is no "snap" to it - it just relies on a tight fit between the holes on the cable end and the header pins.

Your mobo has lights on it that are working. However, to get lights connected to the HEADER working, you also need to install and run the utility called RGB Fusion that came with your mobo. I believe that is NOT required for lights built into the mobo, so you may not have installed that previously.

 

[BusterBeam]

Thanks for the input, Paperdoc.

Yes, as you're suggesting, I think it's coming down to needing the RGB Fusion software to control the fan lighting. I had thought (hoped!) that the motherboard lighting scheme was basically just identically piped out of the D_LED header as well, so you could attach any old ARGB fan in there (without extra control box) and it would pick it up. But it does appear (as you indicate) that the software is needed for any D_LED-connected fans to light at all and, as such, I need fans that are compatible with the software.

Those fans (the Sickleflow 120 ARGB) aren't listed as compatible with Gigabyte RGB Fusion (and indeed they don't show up in the software), but the Cooler Master ARGB 1-to-3 Splitter cable that I linked before, is listed as compatible. So I've ordered the splitter cable in and I'm hoping that it's the missing link, literally. From what I can work out it should replace the physical Cooler Master controller and resolve the fans' incompatibility. And it was only £5 from Amazon too, so happy days. 😀

Thanks again for all the input. I'll update this thread after that splitter cable arrives, in case anyone else has this rather vague question in future.

 

[Paperdoc]

Wait, if you can!

The SPLITTER you are planning to order has NO ability to control or power the lights in any lighting unit, including those in your fan frames. The only thing it does is "convert" a single three-pin ARGB standard mobo header into three of the SAME thing so you can connect up to three lighting devices in parallel to the header signals. As far as I can tell, the fans each have standard ARGB female input connectors PLUS a standard ARGB 3-pin output connector to daisy-chain to the next fan. You do NOT need the Splitter if you can plug the input (female with holes) connector from the first fan of the chain to your mobo header. In doing this, you do not need to use the little manual control box that came with the fans.

Your fans with lights do not need to specify that they are compatible with Gigabyte hardware. That hardware generates the SAME types of signals that any other standard ARGB Controller system / mobo does, and your fans are designed to accept those signals. Your problem so far, it appears, is that you are not using the RGB Fusion utility, so the mobo header is NOT sending out any signals to control lights. You have not had an incompatible signal set - you have had NO signal set so far.