Custom Corsair Lightning
A custom lighting solution co-works with Corsair iCue.
Background
A desktop full of gaming gears and RGB LEDs is a dream for all geeks and gamers. Using the mouse, keyboard, earphone, and mouse pad from the same manufacturer will definitely enhance the experiment as they are able to sync the RGB effect with each other and even with the games. It will make the user feel more immersed. For example, Corsair or Razer products. Unfortunately, they are not cheap, especially those with fancy RGBs. A simple lighting kit will cost me $45 USD! 😅
As a Corsair user, I want to set up my desk with Corsair iCue RGBs with minimum cost. Why can’t I build one by myself? There’s tons of cheap LED strips on AliExpress.
And there’s a solution!
Then I found this on Github—Corsair Lighting Protocol. It allows the Corsair iCue software to communicate with Arduino and control the LED strips. By doing so, a $10 LED strip from Aliexpress can be used instead of a $45 USD official one.
Notice that the code only works with ATmega32U4, which works for Arduino Micro. For an Arduino Uno, HoodLoader2 bootloader is needed. The Arduino can only provide 500mA current without an external power supply. So I have to use external power for the LED strips.
Circuit design
I use an addressable RGB LED strip powered by a WS2811 chip. Addressable LEDs allow me to control the lighting effect for every individual LED and that’s exactly I want. The WS2811 and Arduino share a common 5V power supply and a common ground. Wiring the circuit is simple and after uploading the code to Arduino under the instruction, the LED strip works as expected.
How it works?
The library simulates Arduino as a USB HID device with a Corsair ID. When plug in the PC iCue recognize it as a Corsair device and send HID command to it. By receiving these commands and sending them to WS2811 using FastLED library, iCue is able to control a LED strip with dedicated lighting effect.