[SOLVED] Deepcool RF120 LED Connection

Sep 26, 2020
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Hi All,

I bought a set of 5 Deepcool RF120 RBG fans and I am struggling to get the RGB working. The fans each have two cables, one is a 4pin fan connector for powering the fan and the other has two connections, both male and female 4pin for controlling the LED.

I have the fans running fine, they each plug in to one of the two supplied hubs, the hubs connect toghether and this then plugs in to the 4 pin system fan header on my motherboard.

My motherboard does not have an RGB header on it (Gigabyte Z370M DS3H) so I knew when I bought the fans that I would need to power the LEDs direct from the power supply. This is part of the reason I chose these fans because they had separate leads rather than having RGB and fan on a single lead that woud just run full blast all the time.

However, I was under the impression that there was a SATA adapter available that would allow you to power the LEDs from your PSU but for the life of me I cannot find one anywhere.

I have attached a few images of the connectors that are available. If someone know what cable I need and where to get one that would be great.

LED 1
LED 2

Thanks
 
Solution
You cannot simply use some adapter to connect the plain RGB lighting units in the fan frames to a PSU output. You need an RGB controller, which both provides power to the lights AND controls all their colour patterns and changes. Deepcool has two of these. The simple one is that linked above, and it is a 3-button manual item connected by a cable to your fans' RGB connectors. Those connectors ar a non-standard design and this controller box uses that same one, so they all will fit together. As you say, the lighting cables have male and female connectors so you can" daisy-chain" them from one to another starting from a single controller output.

Deepcool has a different unit called their RGB 360 system...
From the pictures, I guess they are either the regular 4pin fan or RGB 4pin connector.

And because your MB does not have any rgb header, also you don't have any rgb fan controller. So you will need to buy one.
  1. Like the one from Deepcool, "Easy RGB Control " https://www.deepcool.com/product/dcoolingaccessory/2017-07/12_6836.shtml
  2. Or return that fans, buy this set + a 5-fans Y splitter. I know you did try to plug the 5 fans into the system fan_header on the MB, I check the MB manual, it doesn't show what power the fan_header can provide, usually for new MB, the fan_header can provide 2Amp output, because you want to make sure the 5 fans will not over draw the power from that fan_header, if they will do, they will kill the MB.
  3. Or keep these fans, buy other brand rgb fan controller ( if you want to keep these deepcool fans, make sure the rgb fan controller is not the aRGB type, because aRGB is not compatible with regular RGB)
 
Sep 26, 2020
2
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Thanks for the reply Cin19. I have been running these fans for about 18 months with no issues using the fan header so I think there is enough power there.

I cant find a listing for just the controller anywhere so I think I will have to just get a fan with the RGB control and use it. I can find a use for the spare in another machine anyway.

Thanks Again
 

Paperdoc

Polypheme
Ambassador
You cannot simply use some adapter to connect the plain RGB lighting units in the fan frames to a PSU output. You need an RGB controller, which both provides power to the lights AND controls all their colour patterns and changes. Deepcool has two of these. The simple one is that linked above, and it is a 3-button manual item connected by a cable to your fans' RGB connectors. Those connectors ar a non-standard design and this controller box uses that same one, so they all will fit together. As you say, the lighting cables have male and female connectors so you can" daisy-chain" them from one to another starting from a single controller output.

Deepcool has a different unit called their RGB 360 system

https://www.deepcool.com/product/dcoolingaccessory/2016-03/12_4803.shtml

It uses a wireless manual control and an inside-the-case controller box so there's no cable running out of your case, BUT it is designed using standard 4-pin RGB connectors that would not fit onto the one from your fans. Unless Deepcool can supply the adapter for that connection from this control box to you fans, this can't work without some custom wiring adjustments.
 
Solution