[SOLVED] Is there a way to make a 3 pin 5v connector go to a usb?

[calumbeats]

I have bought an rgb strip that has a 3 pin 5v connector, but I only have a 4 pin 12v port on my mobo.

Is there any kind of adapter that will take the 3 pin female connection and send it to a usb?

I found lots of ones for 4 pin, but nothing for 3.

 

[Paperdoc]

No, there's no such thing. As you appreciate, there is a substantial difference in power supply voltage, so if you plug a Addressable RGB (the 5 Vdc 3-pin type) into a plain RGB )the 12 Vdc 4-pin type), you can burn out your RGB lights right away. But just as importantly, the METHOD of changing the lights is very different.

In the 4-pin plain RGB system, there is a shared +12 VDC line. Along the light strip there are LED's of three colours - Red, Green, Blue - and all have their + connections to that supply line. Then all the Red LED's have their - connection to one Ref Ground line; likewise the Greens have their own Ground, and Blue similarly. Thus there are three different Ground lines on the other three pins. The mobo header changes the connections to these Ground lines to turn on and off the three colours, but ALL of the LED's of one colour do the same thing along the entire length.

In the Addressable RGB system, the same three colours of LED are used, but they are all grouped into Nodes. Each Node has one LED of each colour, plus a controller chip. The three lines from the header are the +5 VDC and Ground power supply lines and the Control Line. All the controller chips in the strip are connected to those lines. The signals sent down the Control Line from the mobo header are data packets with addresses in them, and each controller chip along the strip has its own address. So it only does whatever comes in on the Control Line with its unique address, and it controls only its three LED's in its Node.

No adapter is going to convert from one system to another. The Controller in the mobo that sends out signals from the header for the entire light strip has to be the correct type.

If your mobo does not have the header type to match your RGB devices, then you can buy a separate Addressable RGB Controller, usually from the same maker as your lighting device, and use that to power AND control the lights. There are several kinds with different features. Some are boxes with cables that lead out to a manual box with buttons you use to change the light display. Some use a small radio signal wireless connection for a similar purpose. And some connect by cable to a USB2 header on the mobo, and then you download and run a proprietary software utility that communicates instructions to the controller box using the USB connection. This latter arrangement gives you software control of the lights, rather than simple manual settings.

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for Best Answer.