[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)