[HN Gopher] OpenRGB: Open-source RGB lighting control ___________________________________________________________________ OpenRGB: Open-source RGB lighting control Author : pabs3 Score : 200 points Date : 2021-06-10 06:57 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (openrgb.org) (TXT) w3m dump (openrgb.org) | einpoklum wrote: | The only control I need for RGB lighting is "off", thank you very | much. | | And I'm not being facetious - I made the mistake of buying a | board with a bunch of useless red LED lights on board (an ASUS | Z170 Pro Gaming). I should have known better I guess... | | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeF8GcjtiCQ | | (facepalm) | josteink wrote: | Same with me. | | This program allows me to turn the LEDs off, so if you like me | have lots of shiny LEDs you wish never were there, this is | probably exactly what you're looking for ;) | ComodoHacker wrote: | For those wondering what this is: it is software for controlling | fancy LED lighting on various gaming hardware and peripherals: | graphics cards, fans, RAM modules etc. | | Fun fact: there are mouse mats with lighting. | app4soft wrote: | > _For those wondering what this is:_ | | And here is a list of alternatives.[0] | | [0] https://alternativeto.net/software/openrgb/ | creatonez wrote: | A few of the open source ones actually use OpenRGB under the | hood | otter-in-a-suit wrote: | The state of RGB is such a nightmare, and I am very glad OpenRGB | exists. | | If I wanted to control all LEDs on my relatively new "Gaming" PC | (Windows 10), I'd normally need software from Gigabyte for the | GPU (which straight up doesn't work [0]), Ducky for the keyboard, | a no-name Corsair knockoff software where the name escapes me for | the mouse, actual Corsair software for the fans, and NZXT for the | AIO. | | All of them are not only proprietary, they also use a ton of | resources and often times cannot be run in parallel, presumably | because they try to talk to the same devices (but never all of | them!) - analog to an I2C device that only allows one process to | access it at a time. Difference being, there is nothing stopping | me from trying - everything will just freeze. | | It's fascinating - for something as simple as a bunch of LEDs, | these companies must have spent millions of developer hours to | produce such heaping piles of garbage - and OpenRGB proves all of | them wrong. | | [0] If anyone knows of a way to control at least the LED | backlight on a Gigabyte Auorus XTREME 3080 (ideally the little | LCD as well) - please let me know - OpenRGB can't do it. The | Gigabyte software is so unbelievably broken that it doesn't even | recognize the GPU, and I feel like I've tried every workaround | under the sun. I am unfortunately not very well versed in the | Windows world. | slimginz wrote: | For [0] try downloading RGBFusion from the APP center [1] | instead of their site maybe. It's really annoying and Gigabyte | should be ashamed for the quality of their software but I seem | to remember that working for me at least once in the past with | my Gigabyte Mobo. Not sure if that would work with the screen | though. | | [1] | https://www.gigabyte.com/FileUpload/global/Microsite/369/ima... | ddoolin wrote: | RGBFusion is probably the worst offender of all proprietary | lighting software. Absolutely hot garbage. That said, it does | work for me with my Aorus Master. | philjohn wrote: | Last time I tried with anything Gigabyte RGB related I had to | disable secure boot as the drivers weren't properly signed ... | no thank you. | | That's why for my custom watercooled loop I run an Aquaero by | Aquacomputer - as it has its own SoC once you've used Aquasuite | to setup your fan curves you can remove the USB connection from | the device and it will just keep on doing its thing. | sounds wrote: | I think by 2021 most people will understand this simple | reality: | | Other than Apple, every other hardware company is _not_ a | software company. | | Yes, they write software. It is universally garbage. If there | is anything well-done about the software, it will be because | the hardware company licensed (or more likely, just ripped off) | someone else's software. | | Google (a software company) cannot make any of the hardware | companies in the Android ecosystem produce anything but | garbage. Samsung Bixby anybody? | | And this should not surprise anyone, as the leadership at a | hardware company does not care, at all, about the software. | Once you plunked down your coins and bought the hardware, the | leadership at the company only sees software as an endless cost | center. They want you gone as fast as possible. | | It's a classic race to the bottom, and this is the result. | | It's also one of the most potent forces driving people to use | OpenRGB and every other free/libre open source tool. | AceJohnny2 wrote: | > _Other than Apple, every other hardware company is _not_ a | software company._ | | And even Apple is a pretty mediocre software company, | compared to the others of their class. | dan_quixote wrote: | Care to share an example of someone better? | madeofpalk wrote: | Apple definitely is lacking in comparison to their (former) | reputation, but it's saying something that they're leagues | better than everyone else when it comes to creating an | integrated hardware-software ecosystem. | Aardwolf wrote: | They don't need to be software companies, but instead use a | simple open protocol for this so that anyone can write | software for it. | sounds wrote: | I have spent my entire career working to produce this kind | of outcome. | | Here's why hardware companies refuse to participate: | | 1. CEO says, "You're eroding our business's moat. Let's | just rip off linux, shove our garbage driver out the door, | and refuse to provide the source code." | | 2. CFO says, "You're trying to set yourself up as the | expert on the standard, creating a career for yourself in | the standards body. Sorry, we're not paying for you to fly | to conferences. Denied." | | (This one is particularly ironic because a company with | enough clout to define the standard for the whole industry, | and employ the experts on it, would quickly become the | industry leader with a modicum of effort.) | | 3. CTO says, "We use outsourced labor to implement our | drivers. Shareholders demand it. As a result we don't own | the license to the driver source code. Denied." | | I see crowdfunded hardware as the next step in this | evolution. It's the innovator's dilemma all over again. | GuB-42 wrote: | Nvidia has always been known for the quality of its drivers. | In fact, early Radeon GPUs were often better on paper but | poor drivers dragged it down. It is also no wonder that | Nvidia is protective while its competitors tend to play | better with the open source community. Intel is also decent | and AMD upped their game. | | But when it comes to user experience, yes, hardware | manufacturers tend to be terrible. | matheusmoreira wrote: | Yeah, everything in this space is so horrible. I have a laptop | with an RGB keyboard. Its default settings are bright blue LEDs | for every key. The only way to turn it off is to boot Windows | 10 and start an incredibly shitty manufacturer program that | takes over one minute to display a window on the screen and | even longer to become interactive. | | It was so bad I reverse engineered it in order to make a Linux | version. Couldn't figure out how to intercept the I2C/ACPI/EC | stuff but it turned out the LEDs were implemented via USB. | Wireshark gave me all the data I needed to write a free | software replacement. | | There's a feature on the keyboard that lights up keys when | they're pressed. I thought it was implemented in hardware... I | was wrong. They made a driver for this. It runs in kernel mode, | intercepts keystrokes and sends commands to the keyboard | telling it to blink the specific LEDs. It's such an insane | design, I have no idea why they'd do such a thing. | bloopernova wrote: | Ugh, I feel your pain. The software is often SO bad that I | almost always immediately uninstall it after using it. | | What's doubly annoying is that the new mouse I bought, a | Steelseries Rival 5, doesn't seem to store any settings on the | mouse. Instead it relies completely on you running their | software. All the other mice I've tried have stored keyboard | macros and other settings on the mouse, and because of that I'm | able to switch easily between PC and work Macbook and still | have have my pageup/pagedown side buttons work. | | Open source cross platform RGB, fan control, and input settings | would be fantastic. | genmud wrote: | This is awesome, I really hope more folks adopt this. | rblatz wrote: | So I found this about a year ago because I hated that I had 4 | different programs running constantly managing led lights. | | I read through some of the docs and saw how the devs bricked | their devices multiple times sending incorrect lighting commands, | while reverse engineering the communication protocols. I decided | that it was not worth the risk to consolidate down to one program | if it meant I might brick my system. | zozbot234 wrote: | If a device can be bricked by sending a _RGB-lighting_ command, | you should return it to the OEM as not fit for purpose and | demand a refund. | daveidol wrote: | True, but probably not worth the hassle (especially with | current GPU and other component shortages) | _Microft wrote: | Does anyone know how LEDs built into RAM modules are controlled | from a hardware point of view? Can you just send control | information over the channels that data to be stored in memory | also uses to get into the module? Does it mean that you need to | install drivers for them? What happens if you do not? | | Update: DDR4 modules seem to have pins for a built-in SMB/I2C | bus. Maybe this is used for controlling the LEDs. // It looks | like it: | | https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/aiwrt2/how_does_r... | | https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/KeyboardVisualizer/-/issu... | larusso wrote: | It's i2c and seems to be different depending on the ram. It is | worth reading the OpenRGB source since the device checks are | actually easy to read. My ram sadly is one of the problematic | ones. OpenRGB only sees 2 of the 4 and I tried multiple things | and patched OpenRGB around to poke a round a bit. | cptskippy wrote: | I don't know but it could be something as simple as a reserved | memory space that you write to. | | They have a ROM that can be read to retrieve the the JEDEC and | XMP Profiles, so perhaps there's some I/O there? | jpsalm wrote: | Yea its i2c. | ziml77 wrote: | This tool is great. I found it after noticing an entire CPU core | being constantly fully utilized by ASUS's lighting control | service. It's great being able to stop the unicorn vomit without | bloated utilities and drivers from multiple vendors. | iamevn wrote: | Is there any protocol information for someone making a project | with lights they want to be able to control with this tool? I was | looking around a bit but could only find resources on getting it | working with specific premade things. | scoopertrooper wrote: | Not to detract from this project, but what's the deal with RGB | lighting? | | It just seems garish to me. I also imagine it must be quite | distracting to have a bunch of lights flashing out of your PC. | ddoolin wrote: | It can be for sure. I've built a few PCs with tasteful | (relative to a crowd, I'm sure) RGB lighting. This is my | current one where the doors and other glass surfaces are tinted | to reduce outgoing light, and the lighting is static: | https://imgur.com/gallery/U2KZD07 | fuzzer37 wrote: | gamer girls. | tachyonbeam wrote: | It seems a lot of the marketing for PC cases and hardware is | targeted at young teenage boys 10-16. I wanted to buy a | computer case for my mom, and I couldn't find an affordable one | without a window on the side. | | IMO it can look nice if it's done subtly. I definitely don't | want fast animated LEDs on my computer, I think that would just | make it harder to concentrate. | Hamuko wrote: | I think that my PC case is pretty tasteful and not targeted | towards pizza-faced adolescents. It's not completely enclosed | though, the sides are dark mesh. I luckily have very little | RGB that shows through it. | | Great space-saving design as well. | | https://phanteks.com/Evolv-Shift2-Air.html | cptskippy wrote: | > I wanted to buy a computer case for my mom, and I couldn't | find an affordable one without a window on the side. | | I had the same problem when I went to upgrade my server | chassis. Fortunately the side panels on the chassis I settled | for were interchangeable so I could swap the glass around to | the rear facing side and hide it. | toyyodas82727 wrote: | They're fun! Something about soft pulsing colors is | just...nice. Properly diffused, they go well with art, to | accent rooms, etc. | | I've never seen them used inside of a PC, though, which made | this project page a bit confusing. Is that a thing now? Because | that does sound like a garish and distracting place for them. | rblatz wrote: | Case/component lighting has been a thing for at least 20 | years. 20 years ago it was cold cathode tubes lighting your | case. For about the past 10 years RGB lighting has pretty | hard to avoid if you wanted to build your own PC. | toyyodas82727 wrote: | Wow. Goes to show how long CPUs can stay relevant these | days, because it has been about that long since I've built | a machine from scratch... | | Time makes fools of us all, eh? | amitport wrote: | Yes, that's a thing now. My 12y nephew just asked for an RGB | fan for his birthday... Apparently they're cool | ziml77 wrote: | It's not just kids who like RGB lighting. I know a few | people in their late 30s and early 40s that love the | colorful effects. | | Personally I do like lighting, but I want static colors. | The great thing about RGB lighting is that I can choose | whatever color I want. Much better than when the choices | were basically just red or blue and you had to commit to | one when you bought it. | larusso wrote: | That was also my reasoning to go full RGB. I just didn't | know that the RAM default is Rainbow puke. And these | things are the hardest to control. | ziml77 wrote: | My EKWB AIO is the worst for that. It has standard | addressable RGB to control the lighting, but the default | when that's not plugged in is to do the rainbow cycling. | The default for all disconnected lighting should be no | lights! | larusso wrote: | Or at least some reasonable default. I understand that | the device wants to do a show off. I have a gigabyte GPU | which I can't control from my Gigabyte BIOS. It can only | control the fans. If I turn off the lights from the BIOS | sometimes the GPU also reacts to that. And Sometimes one | of the LEDs turns on red. The RAM is uncontrollable | except when in windows. So at the moment I boot into | windows and then soft reboot into Linux to have all | lights turned off. Obviously not what I initially wanted. | | But what kills me the most is the fact that the RGB | Lightshow from RAM keeps running even when I put the | system to sleep! | bombela wrote: | You could desolder or, if daring enough, cut one of the | trace on the pcb that power the LEDs. They would likely | have a common power trace. | zozbot234 wrote: | It's all about how you use it. With a generic driver like | OpenRGB, it might be easier to make the RGB blinkenlights on | your hardware respond to stuff you might want to monitor in the | background but not distract too much from whatever is being | displayed on your screen. System load, temperatures, | notifications (e.g. incoming mail), whatever you think is best. | enchiridion wrote: | I think there is a disconnect between advertising and what a | nice setup can look like. | | IMO the ads have all the colors cycling etc as a way to | communicate that the device can turn any color you want. | thehermit wrote: | Most appealing setups with RGB lighting only use a single color | unlike how they are usually advertised. Browsing | https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ should give a good | idea of what people are doing with RGB lighting in the wild. | _puk wrote: | You need to be logged in, or have the app to see that sub - | is that a new thing? | | https://old.reddit.com/r/battlestations/ works thankfully. | zbrozek wrote: | I don't like it either. It's a struggle to get components that | don't include that nonsense. Lenovo workstations are a good | alternative maybe. | josteink wrote: | Mother of all that is holy! | | After years of trying to find a way to disable the annoying | bright red LEDs on my MSI Ryzen mobo in Linux, I had to give this | a shot. | | AppImage, sudo, done. Fucking _finally_! | | Thanks for posting this. I owe a you a beer. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-06-11 23:00 UTC)