Question Re-purpose my motherboard's addressable ARGB LED headers ?

[Maxonone]

I do not case one bit for LED lighting but do have a bunch of headers for the purpose, so does anybody know if it is possible to use these for other purposes - bypassing the bios.
I'm especially interested to find out if the headers are just i2c busses connected to some controller/cpu.

 

[Ralston18]

Make and model motherboard?

Any controllers? Do you want to program the controller?

What is the intent or requirement regarding "bypassing the bios"?

Overall I think that any such efforts could end up with a bricked system.

More information needed.

 

[Maxonone]

Yes I would like to reprogram "the controller" but I first need to find out if there is such a thing and where it is located. If it is a controller, is it in the PCH? Is it a specialized chip accessed through it? If not a controller, perhaps just PCH lines out to amplifiers? Since this LED lighting stuff works without OS I suppose the BIOS is used to initialize it but I might be wrong on that with UEFI.
With bypassing the BIOS I only mean to say releasing the LED driver from the BIOS-assigned one. Btw the TPM header also seems like a good candidate for repurposing. I am looking to interface spi /i2c devices.
I probably need a crash course in the x86 boot process.

 

[CountMike]

Yes I would like to reprogram "the controller" but I first need to find out if there is such a thing and where it is located. If it is a controller, is it in the PCH? Is it a specialized chip accessed through it? If not a controller, perhaps just PCH lines out to amplifiers? Since this LED lighting stuff works without OS I suppose the BIOS is used to initialize it but I might be wrong on that with UEFI.
With bypassing the BIOS I only mean to say releasing the LED driver from the BIOS-assigned one. Btw the TPM header also seems like a good candidate for repurposing. I am looking to interface spi /i2c devices.
I probably need a crash course in the x86 boot process.

Most modern MBs have RGB and/or ARGB built into motherboard, it's whole bunch of circuits and you can't just take them out and use them. Lights are controlled thru BIOS and/or SW.
There are also separate RGB/ARGB controllers of which some come with case, some with coolers or fans. Can have own controls or with USB connector to MB so that they can be controlled with SW.

 

[Maxonone]

Most modern MBs have RGB and/or ARGB built into motherboard, it's whole bunch of circuits and you can't just take them out and use them. Lights are controlled thru BIOS and/or SW.
<...>

Interesting info, but hard to believe for a simplistic function that any 50 cent 20-year old 8-bit microcontroller could perform. Where did you get this info? I certainly don't see a whole bunch of circuits on my mb for its 2xRGB and 2xARGB headers.

 

[CountMike]

Interesting info, but hard to believe for a simplistic function that any 50 cent 20-year old 8-bit microcontroller could perform. Where did you get this info? I certainly don't see a whole bunch of circuits on my mb for its 2xRGB and 2xARGB headers.

It's not on light's side, RGB and ARGB controllers are embedded on MB and spread all over it.
RGB is simpler as it has one LED for each color and one common lead with 3 12v leads, one for each colored LED. If you connect common and one of leads they light up all LEDs of that color, others stay off. To change intensity you need to use switching frequency of DC signal.
ARGB LED diodes have a micro controller in each one to which you have to provide digital signal to change color and intensity. That's why they useonly3 wires, 2 are for + and -, 5vDC and third one for digital signal.
As I said before you cant just carve out or un-solder one chip from MB as circuits are spread all over the MB.

 

[Satan-IR]

The funcitons CountMike mentioned are embedded and integrated into the whole large circuit (comprised of many smaller circuits) namely the motherboard. You can't just isolate and 'repurpose' one piece of that which maybe part of the functions of a chip on the board and modify it at home.

Those kind of projects might work on the 20 years old microchips you mentioned, not on a PC motherboard.

 

[Maxonone]

It's not on light's side, RGB and ARGB controllers are embedded on MB and spread all over it.
RGB is simpler as it has one LED for each color and one common lead with 3 12v leads, one for each colored LED. If you connect common and one of leads they light up all LEDs of that color, others stay off. To change intensity you need to use switching frequency of DC signal.
ARGB LED diodes have a micro controller in each one to which you have to provide digital signal to change color and intensity. That's why they useonly3 wires, 2 are for + and -, 5vDC and third one for digital signal.
As I said before you cant just carve out or un-solder one chip from MB as circuits are spread all over the MB.

I know how rgb and argb control works, that is not the question and not of interest. If you say that the rgb/argb controllers are 'embedded' and spread 'all over the motherboard' then I should be able to see evidence of that on my own mb, which I do not.
Also, given that, as far as I can see, any PCH supports PWM on quite a few GPIOs, I fail to see why a mb manufacturer would do more than just add some amplifiers (FETs) to their board and route the GPIOs to these to enable a rather pointless feature at very low cost. Note that the TPM header also found on many mbs usually requires an 'expansion card' with the TPM chip since these functions are not integrated into the PCH. Anyway I cannot find any documentation on this rgb/argb stuff so if you can point me to some info I 'd be grateful.

 

[Maxonone]

The funcitons CountMike mentioned are embedded and integrated into the whole large circuit (comprised of many smaller circuits) namely the motherboard. You can't just isolate and 'repurpose' one piece of that which maybe part of the functions of a chip on the board and modify it at home.

Those kind of projects might work on the 20 years old microchips you mentioned, not on a PC motherboard.

Wouldn't you agree that, in fact, 20 years ago it would have been far more difficult to reprogram 'the whole large circuit' given that it consisted of a much more primitive and inflexible north/south bridge design?

 

[Maxonone]

Just for the record, I find that I was at least partially incorrect since I find that a some (many?) motherboards provide RGB/ARGB illumination even on standby power with the chipset switched off. So then there must indeed be a separate controller just for the leds. I guess that ends my hope of doing anything useful with these headers. That leaves me with the TPM header.

 

[CountMike]

Just for the record, I find that I was at least partially incorrect since I find that a some (many?) motherboards provide RGB/ARGB illumination even on standby power with the chipset switched off. So then there must indeed be a separate controller just for the leds. I guess that ends my hope of doing anything useful with these headers. That leaves me with the TPM header.

MB is powered even in stand by mode. only time it's fully unpowered is when PSU is turned off.

 

[Satan-IR]

Wouldn't you agree that, in fact, 20 years ago it would have been far more difficult to reprogram 'the whole large circuit' given that it consisted of a much more primitive and inflexible north/south bridge design?

These are separate topics. Yes smaller boards and SoCs, SBCs and mocrocontroller boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pis and such with GPIOs and such, digial logic controllers and chips avilable have made things easier for users to experiment with circuits.

A motherboard is essentially not designed with the possibility of modifications by users at home. No manufacturer would provide public with detailed blueprints of the inner workings of their circuits so a user can use that information and try to apply modifications to it. User can try but it'd most probably end in bricked hardware.

 

[Maxonone]

MB is powered even in stand by mode. only time it's fully unpowered is when PSU is turned off.

Silly me. I was thinking that the power for the standby ARGB lighting power came from the bios battery.

 

[CountMike]

Silly me. I was thinking that the power for the standby ARGB lighting power came from the bios battery.

That would last all of 3 minutes.

 

[Maxonone]

These are separate topics. Yes smaller boards and SoCs, SBCs and mocrocontroller boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pis and such with GPIOs and such, digial logic controllers and chips avilable have made things easier for users to experiment with circuits.

A motherboard is essentially not designed with the possibility of modifications by users at home. No manufacturer would provide public with detailed blueprints of the inner workings of their circuits so a user can use that information and try to apply modifications to it. User can try but it'd most probably end in bricked hardware.

I agree, but do not understand why you think I want to modify the motherboard. Iam looking for software changes in the drivers to repurpose the motherboard headers.

 

[Maxonone]

That would last all of 3 minutes.

At 3A? Hardly

 

[Satan-IR]

I agree, but do not understand why you think I want to modify the motherboard. Iam looking for software changes in the drivers to repurpose the motherboard headers.

Good luck.