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

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

#51

Post by TheCapn »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #44
Andrex wrote: post #41

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

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?

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.

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

#52

Post by simias »

speeder wrote: post #50

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 certainl…

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...

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

#53

Post by simias »

chuckdries wrote: post #20

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.

My problem with that is that while it looks nice, I find it visually very frustrating if it's in your field of view. Those points of light that go in and out as your hands move over them are an annoyance for me.

If you don't touchtype and need to see your keyboard to type effectively then being able to configure the color and intensity is nice, but for me all the intensity I need is 0. At night I'll just have some gentle ambient light in my room.

I use an expensive Moonlander keyboard that comes with RGB lighting and I tried to give it a fair chance but I always end up finding it distracting and useless.

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

#54

Post by MrGilbert »

chuckdries wrote: post #20

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.

What I love about RGB is the flexibility: I have a white case (Lian Li 011-D) with a custom waterloop. I run 9 cheap chinese RGB fans (EZDIY-FAB) and two custom rgb strips at top and bottom, which emit light against two white radiators. [1] The white allows the light to reflect from basically every surface in the case. They come with a custom rf remote, and I setup everything so I can control the strips and the fans separately. Currently, the fans are all white, with the strips being red at top and bottom.

But if I want to, I can go all unicorn... - or turn everything off.

[1]: https://imgur.com/7PqDhKo

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

#55

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

jaywalk wrote: post #11
Thaxll wrote: post #2

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.

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.

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?

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

#56

Post by murderfs »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #38
mhh__ wrote: post #26

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

Logitech is probably the worst offender with their windows app being buggy as hell and sometimes pegging one CPU core to 100%. Wtf?

Corsair is worse, they install a driver that frequently blue screens.

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

#57

Post by nitrogen »

TheCapn wrote: post #51
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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 copie…

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.

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

#58

Post by Alupis »

airstrike wrote: post #13
capableweb wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 n…

> Today it's hard to find TVs that are just TVs and not smart TVs Why would you prefer non-smart TVs?

I've had my TV for nearly 10 years... and in that time I've "upgraded" my Roku 3 times to get more features, and then to get more performance.

Having the "smart" features decoupled from the screen itself has allowed me to keep my perfectly fine (to me) 1080p screen for all these years while still enjoying the latest-and-greatest "smart" features.

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

#59

Post by devwastaken »

simias wrote: post #53
chuckdries wrote: post #20

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.

My problem with that is that while it looks nice, I find it visually very frustrating if it's in your field of view. Those points of light that go in and out as your hands move over them are an annoyance for me. If you don't touchtype and need to see your keyboard to type effectively then being able to configure the color and intensity is nice, but for me all the intensity I need is 0. At night I'll just have some ge…

When I was younger lights didn't fill my vision like they do now. Blue LED's in the dark become impossible to ignore. If the RGB LED's are really low then it's not bad, but it is still distracting on something like a mouse.

I have a red led mechanical keyboard and that one doesn't bug me at all. But the white ones do.

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

#60

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

TheCapn wrote: post #51
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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 copie…

A lot of posters here say they just set it to a single color and leave it. Why the hell do they chose components with RGB LEDs integrated and software to control them [0] instead of just buying some stand alone LED lights in the color they want?

> Have you ever painted or reorganized a room and spent time picking out the colours & details?

Not really. I spent all of 5 minutes picking out paint colors for my house when I moved in, painted once, and haven't thought about it since.

> Is your wardrobe 20 copies of the same shirt?

Sadly no, but clothing to me is pretty much purely a functional consideration anyway. I pretty much never buy clothing unless I require it for some utilitarian purpose and wear clothes until they become too worn or damaged to wear anymore. If I had to throw out everything I owned and pick a whole new wardrobe, it would have 7 of the same shirt.

> Did you ever toss up the choice between different vehicles/bikes based on the looks?

It's never come up because every vehicle I've ever bought, bikes included, was bought used. If it fits the price range and has what I'm looking for I don't really care what color it is.

I get that other people aren't like that and put what to me is far too much significance on such things, but what I don't get is the added frustration and complexity for such paltry benefit that computer controlled RGB components gets you. It's like people who buy IoT devices and go through all the setup and troubleshooting and just kind of accept that sometimes they don't work because of an issue with the cloud.

[0] Which works so well that these same people are really happy someone made an open source alternative.

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