[SOLVED] Connecting ARGB controller to 12V connector on my MBO, will it work?

[Mr.Fabulous]

Sorry for a longer thread!
Hello guys I do have a more specific question than those on this topic that I have managed to find on here.
Recently I bought a single cooler master RGB fan after which I realized I need a controller so bought that (similar to those above, but a bit bulkier) which supports 4 ARG and 1 RGB this is the link to its manual.

I already have 2 ARGB fans and my AIO pump connected to another controller (diff than this one as it is silverstone) and that one is connected to my JRAINBOW connector on my MBO (pro carbon ac z390) which is 5V and is the only 5V connector on my MBO (excluding JCORSAIR since I don't have anything of their brand).

I would like to get another 2 cooler master fans, ARGB this time, which I would like to connect to the ARGB controller from the link provided, but I have not more 5V slots available.

Is it safe to connect the controller to the JRGB connector which is 12V (I am guessing that the hub will control the power that goes to fans so they will not burn), also if it is safe will new ARGB fans be able to be adapted as actual ARGB fans or will they become a single color RGB ones due to connector type on the MBO.

My pump and its 2 ARGB fans are connected just to my MBO and work just fine, if I do the same with the linked controller and its fans do I need to connect them to the SATA cable on my PSU as well or will they successfully pull the power from the MBO (somewhere I read it was not the most brilliant thing to do)

 

[Paperdoc]

Do NOT do what you proposed. Trying to mix RGB and ARGB devices on a circuit can produce permanent damage to things. But there's an easy way to get this to work.

Basically, that Cooler Master ARGB Hub you just got is intended to be for ARGB lighting systems, which is what you are doing. It has one plain RGB input connector on it JUST so you can use a plain RGB mobo header (if that's the only header it has) to run ARGB lights via a conversion function in the Hub. But you do NOT need to do it that way.

Your real issue, if I understand correctly, is that you now have two ARGB Hubs to run two groups of ARGB lighting devices, but only one JRAINBOW mobo header to feed the right signals from. The solution is to use an ARGB Splitter to connect both of your Hubs' ARGB Input ports to the single mobo JRAINBOW header. Since the power for the several lights all will come from the PSU via those Hubs, this will not overload the mobo header.
But all your lighting devices will be sharing the same control signals, so they all will be synchronized and do the same thing - many want it that way, anyway.

Where to get an ARGB Splitter? Luckily, one came with that Hub! In the manual it chows a Splitter that converts one Hub output port into three outputs. Take the female end (with holes) and plug that into your JRAINBOW mobo header. Put tape over ONE of the three male (with pins) output ends of the Splitter to prevent their touching something. Connect the other two male outputs of the Splitter to the ARGB Input ports of each of your Hubs. Voilá.

 

[Mr.Fabulous]

Okay good to know, I just have a few follow ups if you don't mind.
Firstly you talked about the conversion function inside a hub, does that mean ARG hub connected to RGB connector on MBO will control the power to the ARG ultimately making them RGB or burn the leds or not light up at all? Also there is a switch on the cooler master hub where I cant use both ARG and RGB (the single one) at the same time, so I guess connecting hub to RGB trying to do ARG wont even work?

There is 1 more thing that I failed to mention and that is that the AIO system is directly connected and drawing power from the MBO. This is its documentation and you can see that I can either connect it directly to the MBO or to the PSU, no way to do a combo with the provided hub unfortunatelly.
This leads me to the question which is does this change your solution on the ARGB splitter and to connect both of the devices to the JRAINBOW connector?
How can I be sure that it wont overload my MBO header if only one of them is connected to the actual PSU, basically how does it know where to pull power from?
Thanks a bunch!

 

[Paperdoc]

Apparently that Cooler Master ARGB Hub you have can accept control signals in either of the two common forms - true ARGB, or the simpler plain RGB. The OUTPUTS of the Hub for your ARGB lighting devices all will send out only the correct ARGB signals to them. IF you have an ARGB header on your mobo (and you DO have the JRAINBOW header for this), you should use that connection to the ARGB Input socket on the Hub. Do not try to use the plain RGB socket. Basically, if you did NOT have the JRAINBOW header, you could use a plain RGB header to feed its signals to the Hub. An ARGB controller that is specially designed to read the control signal system from a plain RGB header (as your Cooler Master Hub can) is able to generate any lighting pattern a plain RGB controller can call for, so that would give you working lights, but the complexity of the patterns available would be less. When you feed the signals from the JRAINBOW header to your Hub, the lighting effects will be significantly fancier. That pushbutton switch on the Hub allows you to choose which input port (plain RGB or ARGB) the Hub uses for its incoming signals.

With your AIO system the fans each will have two cables to them, exactly the same as your new fans. For each fan one cable ends in a smaller 4-hole female fan connector that you plug into your mobo fan headers to power and control their speeds. Then each also has a 3-hole wider connector for the ARGB lights in the fan frame. The AIO system came with two options for getting power to their lights and controlling their displays. One is to use a small manual box with three buttons as your controller. To use it, you connect it to the fans' ARGB cables and also to a PSU SATA power output for power to the manual control box. BUT if you do have a mobo ARGB header you can skip that entirely and connect the fans' ARGB cables all to that mobo header. To make this easy, the fans of the AIO system all have cables with TWO connectors on them - a male and a female - so you can daisy-chain all the fans' ARGB cables from a single control source. Your description says you have done this last option and connected all the AIO fans' ARGB cables to the single mobo JRAINBOW header. HOWEVER, I am confused about why you say you have used a Silverstone Hub to make that connection. Since the fans' ARGB cables have that daisy-chain feature on them, why is a Hub required? AND, if you are NOT using the little manual ARGB control box, there is NO reason to have any of those fans connected to the PSU in any way.

MAYBE there is a bit of confusion here. You say the Silverstone Hub you had already is connected to the JRAINBOW header and feeds the AIO system's LIGHTING cables. Now, Silverstone also makes a different Hub for use with FAN MOTORS to connect several fans to a mobo FAN header. I just want to be sure the Silverstone Hub you talk about IS for the ARGB LIGHTS.

When you connect lighting devices to the mobo header directly,, the lights get both power and control signals from that header. BUT when you insert a Hub such as you have between the mobo header and the lights, the functions are separated. The HUB gets all power for the lights from its connection to the PSU, and distributes that to all its connected lighting devices. The Hub also get the control signals from the mobo header and distributes copies of them to all its lighting devices. But the actual power for all those lights does NOT come from the mobo header at all - the Hub is the only source of power to the lights. I proposed that you use both of your ARGB Hubs, and each of those would have a direct connection to a PSU power output. If you use the ARGB Splitter as I suggested, each Hub also will get the control signals from the mobo JRAINBOW header. But neither Hub will use any POWER from that header, and merely sharing the control signals will not overload anything.

 

[Mr.Fabulous]

To clear it out I am NOT using the small hub controller for my Silverstone devices and they are connected in the chain and connected to the JRAINBOW header. This means they are both controller AND powered from the MBO. Silverstone small box controller is out of the picture specifically because I want to control my AIO system via my software and it has no capability to be powered by the SATA cable (the hub that is) and be connected to my MBO to allow control via software, but is rather either or.

Also that small box is simply an ARGB controller you are right, but unlike my cooler master on the Silverstone box is not able to connect both to PSU for power and my MBO for control, but just the PSU as you can see in the docs. Fan control is completely disconnected to the Silverstone controller just to be clear.

Your final explanation makes sense and is what I gathered from your previous replies, as well as some offsite browsing. My problem is in between of what you described and that is that I have cooler master hub and that is all good an well since it has the SATA for power and ARGB connector to get the control signals from my MBO and I could connect it to the splitter that you described. Issue is that I do not have the same controller for my Silverstone AIO, but rather a small box that can get power from PSU via SATA cable, but then I cannot control the lights via software since the box doesn't support me connecting it to the JRAINBOW header(nor any other header on my MBO).

This leads me to the question is it okay to connect the splitter and connect my daisy chain Silverstone AIO which will have to pull both power and control signals from the MBO and cooler master hub which will pull only control signals from the MBO? So a splitter where 1 header is duck taped, 1 gives control signals to the cooler master hub and 1 more that gives power AND control signals to my daisy-chained AIO system.

Ultimately I have no ability to power my Silverstone AIO via SATA cable, unless I use the box and lose the ability to control the ARGB via any software. I could simply buy a Silverstone HUB that will do the same thing as a cooler master hub does which will be powered by the PSU and get the control signals form the MBO header. I don't want to spend any money if I don't need to though.

 

[Paperdoc]

OK, I think I've got it. I was trying to figure out why there is a Silverstone Controller involved. What I believe now is that the "controller" you speak of really is the unit mounted on top of your CPU chip. It is actually the pump of the AIO system. It has three electrical connections: a 3-hole standard fan connector that goes to a mobo header for the pump function, and a two-header ARGB connector. Of that last, one end is fed by a cable from the mobo JRAINBOW header, and the other is an output to the first fan's ARGB connectors. Right?

That is not really a Hub, but it certainly is an electrical junction box in some ways. And you are right, that system gets all power AND control for its lighting systems from the JRAINBOW header. So, yes, you can make the connections as I suggested originally. Unplug the cable from the JRAINBOW header to the Pump unit. Plug in the ARGB Splitter to the header, tape off one output arm, and connect the cable from the pump back to a Splitter output. Connect another cable from the last Splitter output to your Cooler Master ARGB Input port. The Silverstone AIO system will continue to get both power and control from the JRAINBOW header. The Cooler Master Hub and its attached new fans will get control signals ONLY from that same header (does not overload that signal line) and get the power for its fans' light from the PSU via its SATA power connector. All the lighting units will receive the same control signals and be synchronized.

 

[Mr.Fabulous]

Yeah forget about the silverstone controller as it is not used in my build and basically yeah just like you explained in a previous post my AIO ARGB system is daisy-chained together by their 3-pin male to 3-pin female and the final female (in my case coming from one of the fans, but it dont matter anyway) is connected to the JRAINBOW header.

Of that last, one end is fed by a cable from the mobo JRAINBOW header, and the other is an output to the first fan's ARGB connectors.

This above is correct just with a simple change which is that it is coming from the one of the fans to the JRAINBOW rather than my pump like you assumed. As I said, it is not important as long as they are connected.

Got it, thank you a bunch, now everything makes much more sense. You are a gentleman my friend!
Have a good one!

 

[Paperdoc]

You are welcome, and thanks for Best Answer. Enjoy!