15 ms·

Open-source RGB lighting control for keyboards, fans, etc

316 points by apatap 6y ago

Thaxll 6y ago
I built a new PC this year and after a break of 10 years I was shocked to find out that RGB trend, I just don't understand it.
- cptnapalm 6y ago
  I'd personally get a kick out of using the RGBs on a keyboard to give me htop type information. My wife sometimes thinks I'm strange.
- BuildTheRobots 6y ago
  It's pretty. Even 10-15 years ago cold cathodes and windowed cases were starting to be a thing and with the current addressable LED obsession that's been doing the rounds in the maker community over the last decade, from a technical POV it's actually nice to see that now rolled into desktop PCs. People also seem to treat their IT equipment far more as fashion accessories these days - or at least expect technology to fit into their ideas of aesthetics. If you think multi-coloured, cleverly fading LEDs look pretty then you're well in. If you don't then at least it's all pretty easy to switch off.
- 1996 6y ago
  > I just don't understand it. Because we don't know how to use the feature yet. But you can connect something like a CPU trigger to a led, so use 3 keys with 3 colors for CPU%, RAM%, SWAP%, then one blinking for disk IO, network IO and you get something very useful!! For a full keyboard, you could have predictive input for the other as a typing assistant (ex: after pressing t,y put r in a strong green, e in a lighter green, p in a strong red, i,n,g in a lighter red : so typing and tyre are shown as 2 completions, with tyre less likely unless you work in mediterranean history and care about ancient cities)
  - powersnail 6y ago
    I also find CPU/RAM monitoring not very useful to me. I used to put conky widgets all over the place, but concluded that it did very little. Most of the time I fire up htop, I'm looking to kill a process anyway. I programmed one of my keyboard to be modal, and use the lighting as an indicator of which mode I'm in. Sort of like vim's status bar. It's pretty handy.
    - 1996 6y ago
      > It's pretty handy. Exactly this! I don't want to waste screen space or CPU time to fancy widgets, but having a few leds that blink too much when my system does too many things is very handy. It's like in the old days of HDD leds: it didn't intrude, but I quickly knew what was going on if I looked at it. And blinking things have a tendency to catch your attention, so it removes the "monitoring" problem too (because, when do you know it's time to check htop?) Linux LED triggers are very handy to do just than.
  - NikolaeVarius 6y ago
    None of that stuff is particularly useful, if I wanted that, I have my screen that shows me metrics.. My desktop is a black box. I dont know why anyone would spend a second of their time looking at a tower, when the only moving part is a fan
- jaywalk 6y ago
  When I built a new PC recently, I got RGB everything. I just keep it all set to a dark blue. I think it looks nice, that's really all there is to it.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
    Ok... so why not just buy some dark blue LEDs and put them anywhere you want without the complexity of interfacing them with your computer?
    - jaywalk 6y ago
      Huh? All of the components of my computer, both internal and external, have RGB built-in. It would be practically impossible to replicate that by just buying some dark blue LEDs, and there's barely any additional complexity involved with RGB components. There are literally only two additional connections in my machine due to the RGB, and those are for the LEDs in the case and the water cooler. Every other component uses the data lines it's already connected to.
    - SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
      Because then you have to wire it all up manually which is a lot of work and likely won't look good. No one sells fans, gpus and mobos in the exact color you want so its easier to buy RGB everything and configure it to be the color you want. Installing openrgb is infinitely easier than wiring up LEDs inside fans imo.
- robotmay 6y ago
  Honestly I kinda prefer it to the case designs 10 years ago. There's still a strange hankering by case makers to try to make them "edgy" and a solid percentage are still competing to be the xtremiest PC equivalent of go-faster stripes on cars. However there is at least a new aesthetic where people are taking simpler and tidier case designs and then making them garish with LEDs, and I quite enjoy seeing some of their creations. Personally I don't bother, I go after sound-proofing in my builds instead, but my partner, who isn't particularly into computers, is actually quite a fan of the RGB stuff so her computer will be notably more lary.
  - draugadrotten 6y ago
    > PC equivalent of go-faster stripes on cars. Yes.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button
- josalhor 6y ago
  I don't get it either. If I was to buy LEDs, I would buy them and use them around the house. I have seen what some hotels do and it is amazing. I have seen LED strips behind the mirror, so when you wake up at night you can get your way around but don't get blinded by the light. However, here we are, with people buying RGB fans and having their desktops on the desk taking up space and making more noise (because they are closer)... I don't get it either.
  - jhap 6y ago
    Do you have any other ideas you recommend? I thought this mirror idea was brilliant!
    - fuzxi 6y ago
      I've read that putting an LED strip (or other light source, I guess) behind a monitor reduces eye strain. Can't speak to its veracity, but it would at least reduce glare!
      - whatusername 6y ago
        Bias Lighting is the term for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_lighting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_lighting
        fuzxi 6y ago
        Cheers!
    - viraptor 6y ago
      If that use case was interesting, check out also colour led light bulbs. Turning on a very dim red/brown light lets you see the way to the bathroom, but it's not enough to wake other up. Also when you turn red lights off, it doesn't kill your low-light vision.
    - josalhor 6y ago
      Absolutely! I have been dreaming about the mirror since I first saw it! I have found this brilliant website [0] that has many of the ideas I know of. Mainly the LEDs behind the mirror [1], on the stairs [2], on the kitchen [3], and the ceiling [4]. The ceiling ones are pretty cool because they can lit up the room more homogeneously and it makes it way more relaxing and comfy. Some of these ideas help to better simulate sunlight which I find pretty stimulating. I know of a few more that are not on the website tho! I have seen led strips on closets (ala fridge style) that light up when you open them (With something like [5]). I have also seen the opposite of the LEDs on the ceiling, on the floor. Something like [6] but in the hall is pretty cool. When you finish watching that movie/tv show and go to sleep you no longer have to choose between finding your way in the dark and getting light at your eyes. When I get my own place, I will certainly try out all of these ideas. I find them light (hehe) years better than LEDs on computers. [0]: https://www.lightstec.com/led-strip-light-ideas/ https://www.lightstec.com/led-strip-light-ideas/ [1]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/led-strip-light-for-mirror.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/led-str... [2]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-strip-light-use-in-stair.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-str... [3]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-strip-light-use-in-kitchen-cabinet.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-str... [4]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/strip-light-ideas-for-room-ceiling.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/strip-l... [5]: https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Wardrobe-Switches-Drawers-Applicable/dp/B07YTC8VYH https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Wardrobe-Switches-Drawers-App... [6]: https://www.instyleled.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pure-white-LED-plinth-lights-1.jpg https://www.instyleled.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pure...
- CivBase 6y ago
  The idea behind the trend is quite simple. It was already common to find colored lights on PC cases, peripherals, and components. With RGB, you can match colors across those parts more easily. At least... that's the idea. In practice, it's actually quite cumbersome to configure everything thanks to a lack of hardware/software control standards. As a result, I usually don't bother with RGB. Hopefully this app helps to resolve that issue.
- csomar 6y ago
  The gaming industry drove this. Most gamers build their boxes, and they do like RGB (for whatever reason).
- outworlder 6y ago
  At least for keyboards, it can be useful. Take Factorio as an example(scroll to the very bottom): https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-218 https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-218
- bregma 6y ago
  Yes. Also, why do people insist in wearing any clothing except baggy brown overalls, and any hairstyle other than shaved bald? Don't get me started on music that has melody, rhythm, and harmony to interfere with it. Aesthetics are such a waste of time and materials and there needs to be some formal accounting for taste.
tyingq 6y ago
The supported devices list[1] looks pretty good. The support for individually addressable LEDs (WS2812 and friends) also means you could do pretty much any custom setup you wanted. Though I have to admit I don't fully get the "bling" thing for PCs. I'd rather, for example, drive a little OLED matrix screen to display temperatures, etc. [1] https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/wikis/Supported-Devices https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/wikis/Supported...
- capableweb 6y ago
  > have to admit I don't fully get the "bling" thing for PCs Me neither. Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs and similar thing is happening in the PC builders ecosystem. Built a new desktop computer recently, and had to spend more time searching for things that don't have RGB things in them, seems most components nowadays have some sort of RGB lights in them, even when it's completely not needed. Back in my day, people used to buy strips of RGB lights to add to their setup, so us normal, non-RGB people could still buy the same components. Today, it's a lot harder to find stock CPU fans that don't ship with RGB lights...
  - airstrike 6y ago
    > Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs Why would you prefer non-smart TVs?
    - capableweb 6y ago
      Their UIs are faster and slimmer than their smart TV counter-part. Since I only use my TV to connect to either a laptop, my mini-desktop that sits under it or a gaming console, I have around 0 use cases that gets solved by having "smart" functionalities which ends up bloating the rest of the experience.
    - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
      Because the "smart" component in TVs is usually a potential minefield of spyware, ads and security vulnerabilities. As a rule of thumb, don't trust any software developed by white goods manufacturers and connect it to the internet since it has most likely been developed in a rush and on a tight budget (HW margins are razor thin and good devs with security know-how are expensive) and is most likely a house of cards of outdated kernels, libs and services that are full of CVEs which might never get updated.
kodachi 6y ago
Finally! I'm eager to try this. I always wanted to control my keyboard lights to have 'analog' notifications and stuff[1]. Never bothered to check the windows apps with wine. [1] I was thrilled when some dev showed on twitter that he reserved some key lights to CI build status.
robotmay 6y ago
I found this last week and was really happy to come across it. I ditched Windows for my main desktop/gaming machine in 2020 partially because there are some fantastic open source projects that replace many of the Windows vendor-specific utilities that look like they were designed by teenagers in the 90s. https://github.com/libratbag/piper https://github.com/libratbag/piper is another great example that handles mouse configuration.
- OJFord 6y ago
  Nice! If only that supported Corsair hardware (issue exists, not yet implemented) it'd solve an actual problem I have - years ago I configured my mouse buttons with some game-specific keycodes using the Windows software so I could throw fragmentation grenades and knife people more easily; years later on Linux I keep inadvertently typing 'f' like a seasoned Redditor.
powersnail 6y ago
I use this software, to disable all RGB lighting. Very handy.
chuckdries 6y ago
If you're in this thread "I built a PC, all my stuff has RGB, it's fine but I don't get it", try setting them all to the same color - you might be surprised how nice it looks. I set everything to white, but my roommate has a nice shade of purple he uses for everything. My real golden rule is absolutely no motion. Can't stand cycling rainbows or whatever.
- Shared404 6y ago
  This is the trick. If you get all of the lights set to the same color, plus maybe one that changes based on CPU temperature or something, and you make sure none of the colors clash, you can get a very nice/clean look.
  - netizen-9748 6y ago
    For an added bonus, on keyboards such as the logitechs you may be able to have different colors for different key types for quick and easy reference
    - rozab 6y ago
      Some games like Factorio have nice contextual cues for certain key bindings. I'm sure there's extensions available for most editors to do the same thing.
- sneak 6y ago
  Doing this in Linux seems like a lot more time/trouble than just putting the side of the case on (and not getting one of those silly cases with a window in it).
  - JeremyNT 6y ago
    When I went to build a PC recently, I was disappointed to find out that the most cost effective cases that otherwise met my requirements all had those silly windows, and that some RGB components were actually cheaper than non-RGB. So I ended up with a window and RGB, despite having no desire for either! I had to hunt around for the correct software to disable the stuff. Little did I know that this project existed at the time :)
mhh__ 6y ago
The vendor tools are so bad. I don't want to download a 500Meg program just to change my mouse DPI or make the keyboard light up
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago
  Logitech is probably the worst offender with their windows app being buggy as hell and sometimes pegging one CPU core to 100%. Wtf?
  - murderfs 6y ago
    Corsair is worse, they install a driver that frequently blue screens.
  - gempir 6y ago
    At least with Logitech you have the option to use the software once to flash your desired DPI to your mouse and be done with it and remove the software.
- AHTERIX5000 6y ago
  Indeed. I accidentally installed some kind of an utility suite for my motherboard and it instantly started 13 processes. I guess they had different teams working on different parts of the app and everyone just wrote another process? There were even multiple updaters for stuff made by one company. The worst part was the new drivers being loaded. Searching driver names led me to multiple exploit POCs allowing all kinds of nastiness. Some of them were patched but overall I got the feeling that RGB etc driver quality is awful. I wish HW manufactures would at least use static colours as a default choice.
patrickk 6y ago
rgbsync.com is another alternative. Not affiliated, just have it as one to look into in future also.
cbanek 6y ago
I use this and it's amazing. There's also another visualizer program by the same person to do custom visualizers that works on the RGB stuff in your case, connecting to RGB over a network port. https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/KeyboardVisualizer https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/KeyboardVisualizer I had a great time pointing my camera at my computer for a meeting, and letting everyone realize their voice was controlling the RGB (with a slight delay for zoom of course). I'm even thinking about making my own visualizer to do things like show me my kubernetes cluster health on my RGB :) One thing to note, the corsair RGB fans and strips can be tricky - you have to tell it how many LEDs are on each strip manually, and otherwise it will just look all black and won't warn you. That was a couple hours of debugging there!
Andrex 6y ago
This hardware trend is stupid and I hate it. I accept all downvotes.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  I agree wholeheartedly. This trend might have made sense back in the 90s when LAN parties were still enough of a thing that you could want to show off how fabulous you are with RGB RAM and whatnot, but today I feel like it is just needless complexity added to things for the sake of having something to putz with. Seriously, what value do people see in this stuff?
  - dhagz 6y ago
    Looks cool when you're livestreaming? Like if you're just showing your face cam and it's in the background.
  - TheCapn 6y ago
    Its aesthetic. There's nothing more than that to worry about. If its not your jam, then don't get twisted knickers when someone else does. I'm actually a little appalled at people who carry your & OP's sentiment. Is it really that hard to see that people like visually pleasing things in their lives? Have you ever painted or reorganized a room and spent time picking out the colours & details? Is your wardrobe 20 copies of the same shirt? Did you ever toss up the choice between different vehicles/bikes based on the looks? I get the part how flashy in your face components aren't appealing, but you sort of have to be intentionally daft not not see why others might like it too.
    - nitrogen 6y ago
      In the extreme it's the Las Vegas aesthetic. Some people do seem to like it, and to others it screams "cheap fake bling". I think the latter group are frustrated that, just like dumb TVs, it's potentially getting harder to find visually quieter components.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
speeder 6y ago
I have a Corsair RGB keyboard. Not because I wanted RGB... I wanted a good keyboard, this was what was available. I found the RGB useful to see what I am typing at night, problem is... I can't get the thing to behave as I want, and it requires the 'iCUE' program to be running at all times and that programs eats RAM like there is no tomorrow. If this software lets me ditch iCUE and still have lights... I will certainly use it! My plan is set my keys to have some darker glow (if possible... never tried) so I can see them on a pitch black room, and use the RGB part for information (like if I am running out of RAM or not...)
- simias 6y ago
  My keyboard uses the open source QMK firmware, which means that it's entirely open source and you can hack it to you heart's contents. At this point I'd never consider getting an expensive keyboard with a closed source firmware for the reasons you point out. I don't care for backlighting much myself, but I often switch between dvorak and йцукен layouts and I use the backlight color to let me know what more I'm currently in. This saves a lot of time when I don't understand why I can't get past a password prompt...
Animats 6y ago
You can get DRAM modules with blinky lights at retail, but not with the 9th chip for ECC.
- account42 6y ago
  Hey at least when you manage to find ECC ram you don't need to worry about it having LEDs that are hard to turn off.
haunter 6y ago
How do I know if an actual product supports RGB or just using colored diodes? I use a throwaway chinese mechanical keyboard in my workshop and each row has different colors, idm that much but I wonder if I can change the whole keyboard to one color cuase otherwise that's not possible https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32812344569.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32812344569.html
blargmaster42_8 6y ago
std::vector<RGBController *> Dude! C++ 11 has been out for 10 years, get rid of your raw pointers!
nom 6y ago
Anyone here who was into case modding back in the 2000s? I ran a semi-popular German case-modding website and forum 19 years ago. We put windows in our boring grey computer cases and bought blue LEDs for 2 EUR a piece to light up the internals. As LEDs were so expensive we often opted to use CCFL tubes. We put electroluminescent wire everywhere, even into keyboards. We built our own fan controllers from scratch to fit into a 3.5" slot. People payed 200 EUR for PC cases from LIAN LI and Cooler Master just to mod the shit out of them. Watercooling just became a thing and it was hugely expensive, the PC cases didn't have a place for the radiators so you had to get creative with your power tools. We went to LAN parties with our awesome machines, we organized collective orders in our case modding forums to buy cheap LEDs from china. We were amazed by the latest products, like LED fans that flashed the light in synchronization with the fan RPM like a zoetrope, so it appeared to stand still. We couldn't even dream of a keyboard with individually RGB keys back then and now you get RGB in everything without even wanting it. Mass production has taken over and all the magic is gone. You just buy it and yeah it looks cool, but whats the fun in that if every PC looks the same - thats exactly what we didn't want, we wanted to be different. Fun times though!
- drewzero1 6y ago
  I was too young to really get into case modding at the time, but I went to a Linux users group event at our local college around 2006. Up until that point I had only used Linux as a live CD on my dad's computer, so when I saw the rigs people were showing off my jaw dropped. They'd ditched the beige and black I was used to for silver, blue, purple etc. with lights glowing inside case windows. The one that left the biggest impression on me had backlit tubes on either side of the case front with bubbles flowing up, and the owner was demonstrating the Compiz cube and wobbly windows. I was smitten! Incidentally, I also got my first experience with Linux elitism when somebody asked me what my favorite editor was and I told him Abiword. He told me "Real men use emacs." Still a little embarrassed about that, but as a middle school kid I didn't have much need to know the difference between a word processor and an editor. In hindsight I'm sure they thought it was pretty cute/funny for a kid to visit a college event.
- eulers_secret 6y ago
  I was (and still am)! I even currently run one of these: https://koolance.com/pc2-601bw-liquid-cooling-system-black https://koolance.com/pc2-601bw-liquid-cooling-system-black - I've had to replace the pump this last week. It didn't die, but the plastic got brittle and cracked. I ran it, without flushes, adding tap water when low, for about 18 years. No corrosion, all liquid looked great! I modified the old Swiftech WB to mount to my 3930K, overclocked to 4.5GHz and am typing on that system right now! If you're curious, it tops out at about 75*C at ~150W CPU power usage. I still have a CCFL (and my $5 blue LED to replace the power light), and have been thinking of incorporating it into my next build. I plan to build a sleeper system using a case from the 90's, but fully watercooled and upgraded (along with an ESP32-powered fan control/thermal monitoring system I'm coding up now - this is where the magic still is in 2021 IMO) I also did cut a window into a PC with a dremel. Those cases are quite thick and hard to cut! I totally don't miss hauling that big PC case and a 17 (or 19?) inch CRT to a friends place to LAN. Was really fun, though.
bahorn 6y ago
Been using the project for a year now and submitted a few patches. It's a fun project to hack on, so would recommend getting involved if this sort of thing interests you. Regarding the value of RGB, honestly one of the cooler uses which the projects been enabling is showing things like system status on your devices. And beyond that, getting a cool pattern or mode implemented is just a fun weekend project.
savingGrace 6y ago
- My takeaway was the fact that I got to see someone using git lab instead of github. Maybe I tend to look at the completely wrong articles on HN... - I don't care for the RGB craze. However, I love the documentation on this project's README. Look at those finely tuned bullets and lists! It makes me want to dive into the code! Nice and tidy!
fuzxi 6y ago
I recently built a new desktop after my motherboard died. I was surprised that the cheapest cases, which were little more than steel boxes with cutouts for ports and fans, were more than twice the price of cases with side windows and half a dozen RGB fans. I also followed posts for component sales and saw a lot of people complaining when a sale didn't apply to RGB RAM or some such. I ended up buying a case with a side window and incredibly bright fans. I couldn't disable just the fan lights without an additional motherboard adapter, so I cut the LED leads on the fans and called it a day. All this to say, am I alone in wanting my computer to be a plain box? All those extra lights are just distracting to me. Edit: after a cursory glance at the comments, it's obvious I am not alone. Maybe I'm just curious why there's such a large market for light-up components.
rxbudian 6y ago
there's another similar project here: https://www.project-aurora.com/ https://www.project-aurora.com/ Maybe they can work together
kazinator 6y ago
This looks like another C++ project that doesn't think about FFI from other languages, unfortunately. Not so much as an extern "C" to be found in any header file.
chem83 6y ago
What's a good equivalent for fan control that is universal, lightweight and open? Do people use https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases ?
audiometry 6y ago
Last night I had a conversation with a guy who destroyed his motherboard and cpu (!?) with OpenRGB. Apparently a few motherboards, if you probe certain addresses, will destroy the PC. He said it was total -- rebooting the pc wouldn't even get bios. Suprised that is even possible. I think OpenRGB mentions some of these edge cases on their page now and takes some effort to block those options. I thought it was interesting that such a failure can happen.
larusso 6y ago
I build my first PC in 10 years this summer. My work machine is a 16inch MacBook Pro and since I had a laptop and I was not satisfied with the performance of my Mac I decided to build a PC. I have nothing against RGB as it gives me the possibility to change the mood at my desk at will. So I thought. I made the grave mistake to buy RGB RAM and by the love of god the manufacture thought that it’s a cool Idea That the default pattern is the rainbow color animation. My motherboard can control RGB for most devices from Bios but not all! So I can configure that everything is dark at boot except the RAM. My grafixcard is also sometimes acting up and shows a single static color on some LEDs. That is all not so bad as long as I boot into windows. The tools on windows start up and set it to my preferred setting (some static color or off). But Linux is a different beast. I hoped OpenLED could help but it won‘t work with my hardware. I managed to get my RAM to show up (at that point my goal was to shut all down when in Linux) but it only finds 2 of my RAM slots. I have 4 modules and still room free for 4 more. Means I can only disable or set colors for 3 modules the rest rainbow circles still. I thought about replacing the RAM but at the moment I lived with the Lightshow.

316 points by apatap 6y ago

I built a new PC this year and after a break of 10 years I was shocked to find out that RGB trend, I just don't understand it.

cptnapalm 6y ago
I'd personally get a kick out of using the RGBs on a keyboard to give me htop type information. My wife sometimes thinks I'm strange.
BuildTheRobots 6y ago
It's pretty. Even 10-15 years ago cold cathodes and windowed cases were starting to be a thing and with the current addressable LED obsession that's been doing the rounds in the maker community over the last decade, from a technical POV it's actually nice to see that now rolled into desktop PCs. People also seem to treat their IT equipment far more as fashion accessories these days - or at least expect technology to fit into their ideas of aesthetics. If you think multi-coloured, cleverly fading LEDs look pretty then you're well in. If you don't then at least it's all pretty easy to switch off.
1996 6y ago
> I just don't understand it. Because we don't know how to use the feature yet. But you can connect something like a CPU trigger to a led, so use 3 keys with 3 colors for CPU%, RAM%, SWAP%, then one blinking for disk IO, network IO and you get something very useful!! For a full keyboard, you could have predictive input for the other as a typing assistant (ex: after pressing t,y put r in a strong green, e in a lighter green, p in a strong red, i,n,g in a lighter red : so typing and tyre are shown as 2 completions, with tyre less likely unless you work in mediterranean history and care about ancient cities)
- powersnail 6y ago
  I also find CPU/RAM monitoring not very useful to me. I used to put conky widgets all over the place, but concluded that it did very little. Most of the time I fire up htop, I'm looking to kill a process anyway. I programmed one of my keyboard to be modal, and use the lighting as an indicator of which mode I'm in. Sort of like vim's status bar. It's pretty handy.
  - 1996 6y ago
    > It's pretty handy. Exactly this! I don't want to waste screen space or CPU time to fancy widgets, but having a few leds that blink too much when my system does too many things is very handy. It's like in the old days of HDD leds: it didn't intrude, but I quickly knew what was going on if I looked at it. And blinking things have a tendency to catch your attention, so it removes the "monitoring" problem too (because, when do you know it's time to check htop?) Linux LED triggers are very handy to do just than.
- NikolaeVarius 6y ago
  None of that stuff is particularly useful, if I wanted that, I have my screen that shows me metrics.. My desktop is a black box. I dont know why anyone would spend a second of their time looking at a tower, when the only moving part is a fan
jaywalk 6y ago
When I built a new PC recently, I got RGB everything. I just keep it all set to a dark blue. I think it looks nice, that's really all there is to it.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
  Ok... so why not just buy some dark blue LEDs and put them anywhere you want without the complexity of interfacing them with your computer?
  - jaywalk 6y ago
    Huh? All of the components of my computer, both internal and external, have RGB built-in. It would be practically impossible to replicate that by just buying some dark blue LEDs, and there's barely any additional complexity involved with RGB components. There are literally only two additional connections in my machine due to the RGB, and those are for the LEDs in the case and the water cooler. Every other component uses the data lines it's already connected to.
  - SulfurHexaFluri 6y ago
    Because then you have to wire it all up manually which is a lot of work and likely won't look good. No one sells fans, gpus and mobos in the exact color you want so its easier to buy RGB everything and configure it to be the color you want. Installing openrgb is infinitely easier than wiring up LEDs inside fans imo.
robotmay 6y ago
Honestly I kinda prefer it to the case designs 10 years ago. There's still a strange hankering by case makers to try to make them "edgy" and a solid percentage are still competing to be the xtremiest PC equivalent of go-faster stripes on cars. However there is at least a new aesthetic where people are taking simpler and tidier case designs and then making them garish with LEDs, and I quite enjoy seeing some of their creations. Personally I don't bother, I go after sound-proofing in my builds instead, but my partner, who isn't particularly into computers, is actually quite a fan of the RGB stuff so her computer will be notably more lary.
- draugadrotten 6y ago
  > PC equivalent of go-faster stripes on cars. Yes.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button
josalhor 6y ago
I don't get it either. If I was to buy LEDs, I would buy them and use them around the house. I have seen what some hotels do and it is amazing. I have seen LED strips behind the mirror, so when you wake up at night you can get your way around but don't get blinded by the light. However, here we are, with people buying RGB fans and having their desktops on the desk taking up space and making more noise (because they are closer)... I don't get it either.
- jhap 6y ago
  Do you have any other ideas you recommend? I thought this mirror idea was brilliant!
  - fuzxi 6y ago
    I've read that putting an LED strip (or other light source, I guess) behind a monitor reduces eye strain. Can't speak to its veracity, but it would at least reduce glare!
    - whatusername 6y ago
      Bias Lighting is the term for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_lighting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bias_lighting
      - fuzxi 6y ago
        Cheers!
  - viraptor 6y ago
    If that use case was interesting, check out also colour led light bulbs. Turning on a very dim red/brown light lets you see the way to the bathroom, but it's not enough to wake other up. Also when you turn red lights off, it doesn't kill your low-light vision.
  - josalhor 6y ago
    Absolutely! I have been dreaming about the mirror since I first saw it! I have found this brilliant website [0] that has many of the ideas I know of. Mainly the LEDs behind the mirror [1], on the stairs [2], on the kitchen [3], and the ceiling [4]. The ceiling ones are pretty cool because they can lit up the room more homogeneously and it makes it way more relaxing and comfy. Some of these ideas help to better simulate sunlight which I find pretty stimulating. I know of a few more that are not on the website tho! I have seen led strips on closets (ala fridge style) that light up when you open them (With something like [5]). I have also seen the opposite of the LEDs on the ceiling, on the floor. Something like [6] but in the hall is pretty cool. When you finish watching that movie/tv show and go to sleep you no longer have to choose between finding your way in the dark and getting light at your eyes. When I get my own place, I will certainly try out all of these ideas. I find them light (hehe) years better than LEDs on computers. [0]: https://www.lightstec.com/led-strip-light-ideas/ https://www.lightstec.com/led-strip-light-ideas/ [1]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/led-strip-light-for-mirror.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/led-str... [2]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-strip-light-use-in-stair.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-str... [3]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-strip-light-use-in-kitchen-cabinet.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Led-str... [4]: https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/strip-light-ideas-for-room-ceiling.jpg https://www.lightstec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/strip-l... [5]: https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Wardrobe-Switches-Drawers-Applicable/dp/B07YTC8VYH https://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Wardrobe-Switches-Drawers-App... [6]: https://www.instyleled.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pure-white-LED-plinth-lights-1.jpg https://www.instyleled.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/pure...
CivBase 6y ago
The idea behind the trend is quite simple. It was already common to find colored lights on PC cases, peripherals, and components. With RGB, you can match colors across those parts more easily. At least... that's the idea. In practice, it's actually quite cumbersome to configure everything thanks to a lack of hardware/software control standards. As a result, I usually don't bother with RGB. Hopefully this app helps to resolve that issue.
csomar 6y ago
The gaming industry drove this. Most gamers build their boxes, and they do like RGB (for whatever reason).
outworlder 6y ago
At least for keyboards, it can be useful. Take Factorio as an example(scroll to the very bottom): https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-218 https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-218
bregma 6y ago
Yes. Also, why do people insist in wearing any clothing except baggy brown overalls, and any hairstyle other than shaved bald? Don't get me started on music that has melody, rhythm, and harmony to interfere with it. Aesthetics are such a waste of time and materials and there needs to be some formal accounting for taste.

tyingq 6y ago

The supported devices list[1] looks pretty good. The support for individually addressable LEDs (WS2812 and friends) also means you could do pretty much any custom setup you wanted. Though I have to admit I don't fully get the "bling" thing for PCs. I'd rather, for example, drive a little OLED matrix screen to display temperatures, etc. [1] https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/wikis/Supported-Devices https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/wikis/Supported...

capableweb 6y ago
> have to admit I don't fully get the "bling" thing for PCs Me neither. Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs and similar thing is happening in the PC builders ecosystem. Built a new desktop computer recently, and had to spend more time searching for things that don't have RGB things in them, seems most components nowadays have some sort of RGB lights in them, even when it's completely not needed. Back in my day, people used to buy strips of RGB lights to add to their setup, so us normal, non-RGB people could still buy the same components. Today, it's a lot harder to find stock CPU fans that don't ship with RGB lights...
- airstrike 6y ago
  > Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs Why would you prefer non-smart TVs?
  - capableweb 6y ago
    Their UIs are faster and slimmer than their smart TV counter-part. Since I only use my TV to connect to either a laptop, my mini-desktop that sits under it or a gaming console, I have around 0 use cases that gets solved by having "smart" functionalities which ends up bloating the rest of the experience.
  - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
    Because the "smart" component in TVs is usually a potential minefield of spyware, ads and security vulnerabilities. As a rule of thumb, don't trust any software developed by white goods manufacturers and connect it to the internet since it has most likely been developed in a rush and on a tight budget (HW margins are razor thin and good devs with security know-how are expensive) and is most likely a house of cards of outdated kernels, libs and services that are full of CVEs which might never get updated.

kodachi 6y ago

Finally! I'm eager to try this. I always wanted to control my keyboard lights to have 'analog' notifications and stuff[1]. Never bothered to check the windows apps with wine. [1] I was thrilled when some dev showed on twitter that he reserved some key lights to CI build status.

robotmay 6y ago

I found this last week and was really happy to come across it. I ditched Windows for my main desktop/gaming machine in 2020 partially because there are some fantastic open source projects that replace many of the Windows vendor-specific utilities that look like they were designed by teenagers in the 90s. https://github.com/libratbag/piper https://github.com/libratbag/piper is another great example that handles mouse configuration.

OJFord 6y ago
Nice! If only that supported Corsair hardware (issue exists, not yet implemented) it'd solve an actual problem I have - years ago I configured my mouse buttons with some game-specific keycodes using the Windows software so I could throw fragmentation grenades and knife people more easily; years later on Linux I keep inadvertently typing 'f' like a seasoned Redditor.

powersnail 6y ago

I use this software, to disable all RGB lighting. Very handy.

chuckdries 6y ago

If you're in this thread "I built a PC, all my stuff has RGB, it's fine but I don't get it", try setting them all to the same color - you might be surprised how nice it looks. I set everything to white, but my roommate has a nice shade of purple he uses for everything. My real golden rule is absolutely no motion. Can't stand cycling rainbows or whatever.

Shared404 6y ago
This is the trick. If you get all of the lights set to the same color, plus maybe one that changes based on CPU temperature or something, and you make sure none of the colors clash, you can get a very nice/clean look.
- netizen-9748 6y ago
  For an added bonus, on keyboards such as the logitechs you may be able to have different colors for different key types for quick and easy reference
  - rozab 6y ago
    Some games like Factorio have nice contextual cues for certain key bindings. I'm sure there's extensions available for most editors to do the same thing.
sneak 6y ago
Doing this in Linux seems like a lot more time/trouble than just putting the side of the case on (and not getting one of those silly cases with a window in it).
- JeremyNT 6y ago
  When I went to build a PC recently, I was disappointed to find out that the most cost effective cases that otherwise met my requirements all had those silly windows, and that some RGB components were actually cheaper than non-RGB. So I ended up with a window and RGB, despite having no desire for either! I had to hunt around for the correct software to disable the stuff. Little did I know that this project existed at the time :)

mhh__ 6y ago

The vendor tools are so bad. I don't want to download a 500Meg program just to change my mouse DPI or make the keyboard light up

ChuckNorris89 6y ago
Logitech is probably the worst offender with their windows app being buggy as hell and sometimes pegging one CPU core to 100%. Wtf?
- murderfs 6y ago
  Corsair is worse, they install a driver that frequently blue screens.
- gempir 6y ago
  At least with Logitech you have the option to use the software once to flash your desired DPI to your mouse and be done with it and remove the software.
AHTERIX5000 6y ago
Indeed. I accidentally installed some kind of an utility suite for my motherboard and it instantly started 13 processes. I guess they had different teams working on different parts of the app and everyone just wrote another process? There were even multiple updaters for stuff made by one company. The worst part was the new drivers being loaded. Searching driver names led me to multiple exploit POCs allowing all kinds of nastiness. Some of them were patched but overall I got the feeling that RGB etc driver quality is awful. I wish HW manufactures would at least use static colours as a default choice.

patrickk 6y ago

rgbsync.com is another alternative. Not affiliated, just have it as one to look into in future also.

cbanek 6y ago

I use this and it's amazing. There's also another visualizer program by the same person to do custom visualizers that works on the RGB stuff in your case, connecting to RGB over a network port. https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/KeyboardVisualizer https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/KeyboardVisualizer I had a great time pointing my camera at my computer for a meeting, and letting everyone realize their voice was controlling the RGB (with a slight delay for zoom of course). I'm even thinking about making my own visualizer to do things like show me my kubernetes cluster health on my RGB :) One thing to note, the corsair RGB fans and strips can be tricky - you have to tell it how many LEDs are on each strip manually, and otherwise it will just look all black and won't warn you. That was a couple hours of debugging there!

Andrex 6y ago

This hardware trend is stupid and I hate it. I accept all downvotes.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago
I agree wholeheartedly. This trend might have made sense back in the 90s when LAN parties were still enough of a thing that you could want to show off how fabulous you are with RGB RAM and whatnot, but today I feel like it is just needless complexity added to things for the sake of having something to putz with. Seriously, what value do people see in this stuff?
- dhagz 6y ago
  Looks cool when you're livestreaming? Like if you're just showing your face cam and it's in the background.
- TheCapn 6y ago
  Its aesthetic. There's nothing more than that to worry about. If its not your jam, then don't get twisted knickers when someone else does. I'm actually a little appalled at people who carry your & OP's sentiment. Is it really that hard to see that people like visually pleasing things in their lives? Have you ever painted or reorganized a room and spent time picking out the colours & details? Is your wardrobe 20 copies of the same shirt? Did you ever toss up the choice between different vehicles/bikes based on the looks? I get the part how flashy in your face components aren't appealing, but you sort of have to be intentionally daft not not see why others might like it too.
  - nitrogen 6y ago
    In the extreme it's the Las Vegas aesthetic. Some people do seem to like it, and to others it screams "cheap fake bling". I think the latter group are frustrated that, just like dumb TVs, it's potentially getting harder to find visually quieter components.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y ago

speeder 6y ago

I have a Corsair RGB keyboard. Not because I wanted RGB... I wanted a good keyboard, this was what was available. I found the RGB useful to see what I am typing at night, problem is... I can't get the thing to behave as I want, and it requires the 'iCUE' program to be running at all times and that programs eats RAM like there is no tomorrow. If this software lets me ditch iCUE and still have lights... I will certainly use it! My plan is set my keys to have some darker glow (if possible... never tried) so I can see them on a pitch black room, and use the RGB part for information (like if I am running out of RAM or not...)

simias 6y ago
My keyboard uses the open source QMK firmware, which means that it's entirely open source and you can hack it to you heart's contents. At this point I'd never consider getting an expensive keyboard with a closed source firmware for the reasons you point out. I don't care for backlighting much myself, but I often switch between dvorak and йцукен layouts and I use the backlight color to let me know what more I'm currently in. This saves a lot of time when I don't understand why I can't get past a password prompt...

Animats 6y ago

You can get DRAM modules with blinky lights at retail, but not with the 9th chip for ECC.

account42 6y ago
Hey at least when you manage to find ECC ram you don't need to worry about it having LEDs that are hard to turn off.

haunter 6y ago

How do I know if an actual product supports RGB or just using colored diodes? I use a throwaway chinese mechanical keyboard in my workshop and each row has different colors, idm that much but I wonder if I can change the whole keyboard to one color cuase otherwise that's not possible https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32812344569.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32812344569.html

blargmaster42_8 6y ago

std::vector<RGBController *> Dude! C++ 11 has been out for 10 years, get rid of your raw pointers!

nom 6y ago

Anyone here who was into case modding back in the 2000s? I ran a semi-popular German case-modding website and forum 19 years ago. We put windows in our boring grey computer cases and bought blue LEDs for 2 EUR a piece to light up the internals. As LEDs were so expensive we often opted to use CCFL tubes. We put electroluminescent wire everywhere, even into keyboards. We built our own fan controllers from scratch to fit into a 3.5" slot. People payed 200 EUR for PC cases from LIAN LI and Cooler Master just to mod the shit out of them. Watercooling just became a thing and it was hugely expensive, the PC cases didn't have a place for the radiators so you had to get creative with your power tools. We went to LAN parties with our awesome machines, we organized collective orders in our case modding forums to buy cheap LEDs from china. We were amazed by the latest products, like LED fans that flashed the light in synchronization with the fan RPM like a zoetrope, so it appeared to stand still. We couldn't even dream of a keyboard with individually RGB keys back then and now you get RGB in everything without even wanting it. Mass production has taken over and all the magic is gone. You just buy it and yeah it looks cool, but whats the fun in that if every PC looks the same - thats exactly what we didn't want, we wanted to be different. Fun times though!

drewzero1 6y ago
I was too young to really get into case modding at the time, but I went to a Linux users group event at our local college around 2006. Up until that point I had only used Linux as a live CD on my dad's computer, so when I saw the rigs people were showing off my jaw dropped. They'd ditched the beige and black I was used to for silver, blue, purple etc. with lights glowing inside case windows. The one that left the biggest impression on me had backlit tubes on either side of the case front with bubbles flowing up, and the owner was demonstrating the Compiz cube and wobbly windows. I was smitten! Incidentally, I also got my first experience with Linux elitism when somebody asked me what my favorite editor was and I told him Abiword. He told me "Real men use emacs." Still a little embarrassed about that, but as a middle school kid I didn't have much need to know the difference between a word processor and an editor. In hindsight I'm sure they thought it was pretty cute/funny for a kid to visit a college event.
eulers_secret 6y ago
I was (and still am)! I even currently run one of these: https://koolance.com/pc2-601bw-liquid-cooling-system-black https://koolance.com/pc2-601bw-liquid-cooling-system-black - I've had to replace the pump this last week. It didn't die, but the plastic got brittle and cracked. I ran it, without flushes, adding tap water when low, for about 18 years. No corrosion, all liquid looked great! I modified the old Swiftech WB to mount to my 3930K, overclocked to 4.5GHz and am typing on that system right now! If you're curious, it tops out at about 75*C at ~150W CPU power usage. I still have a CCFL (and my $5 blue LED to replace the power light), and have been thinking of incorporating it into my next build. I plan to build a sleeper system using a case from the 90's, but fully watercooled and upgraded (along with an ESP32-powered fan control/thermal monitoring system I'm coding up now - this is where the magic still is in 2021 IMO) I also did cut a window into a PC with a dremel. Those cases are quite thick and hard to cut! I totally don't miss hauling that big PC case and a 17 (or 19?) inch CRT to a friends place to LAN. Was really fun, though.

bahorn 6y ago

Been using the project for a year now and submitted a few patches. It's a fun project to hack on, so would recommend getting involved if this sort of thing interests you. Regarding the value of RGB, honestly one of the cooler uses which the projects been enabling is showing things like system status on your devices. And beyond that, getting a cool pattern or mode implemented is just a fun weekend project.

savingGrace 6y ago

- My takeaway was the fact that I got to see someone using git lab instead of github. Maybe I tend to look at the completely wrong articles on HN... - I don't care for the RGB craze. However, I love the documentation on this project's README. Look at those finely tuned bullets and lists! It makes me want to dive into the code! Nice and tidy!

fuzxi 6y ago

I recently built a new desktop after my motherboard died. I was surprised that the cheapest cases, which were little more than steel boxes with cutouts for ports and fans, were more than twice the price of cases with side windows and half a dozen RGB fans. I also followed posts for component sales and saw a lot of people complaining when a sale didn't apply to RGB RAM or some such. I ended up buying a case with a side window and incredibly bright fans. I couldn't disable just the fan lights without an additional motherboard adapter, so I cut the LED leads on the fans and called it a day. All this to say, am I alone in wanting my computer to be a plain box? All those extra lights are just distracting to me. Edit: after a cursory glance at the comments, it's obvious I am not alone. Maybe I'm just curious why there's such a large market for light-up components.

rxbudian 6y ago

there's another similar project here: https://www.project-aurora.com/ https://www.project-aurora.com/ Maybe they can work together

kazinator 6y ago

This looks like another C++ project that doesn't think about FFI from other languages, unfortunately. Not so much as an extern "C" to be found in any header file.

chem83 6y ago

What's a good equivalent for fan control that is universal, lightweight and open? Do people use https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases ?

audiometry 6y ago

Last night I had a conversation with a guy who destroyed his motherboard and cpu (!?) with OpenRGB. Apparently a few motherboards, if you probe certain addresses, will destroy the PC. He said it was total -- rebooting the pc wouldn't even get bios. Suprised that is even possible. I think OpenRGB mentions some of these edge cases on their page now and takes some effort to block those options. I thought it was interesting that such a failure can happen.

larusso 6y ago

I build my first PC in 10 years this summer. My work machine is a 16inch MacBook Pro and since I had a laptop and I was not satisfied with the performance of my Mac I decided to build a PC. I have nothing against RGB as it gives me the possibility to change the mood at my desk at will. So I thought. I made the grave mistake to buy RGB RAM and by the love of god the manufacture thought that it’s a cool Idea That the default pattern is the rainbow color animation. My motherboard can control RGB for most devices from Bios but not all! So I can configure that everything is dark at boot except the RAM. My grafixcard is also sometimes acting up and shows a single static color on some LEDs. That is all not so bad as long as I boot into windows. The tools on windows start up and set it to my preferred setting (some static color or off). But Linux is a different beast. I hoped OpenLED could help but it won‘t work with my hardware. I managed to get my RAM to show up (at that point my goal was to shut all down when in Linux) but it only finds 2 of my RAM slots. I have 4 modules and still room free for 4 more. Means I can only disable or set colors for 3 modules the rest rainbow circles still. I thought about replacing the RAM but at the moment I lived with the Lightshow.