Hi,
I'd like to suggest a different approach to the onboard memory problem. Instead
of putting storage into every individual device, it would make more sense if the
whole setup shared one central store - so that everything I own lights up
correctly the moment I power on, without waiting for Windows or Synapse.
My setup: BlackWidow V4 Pro, Basilisk V3 Pro, Mouse Dock Pro, Base Station
Chroma, Hanbo AIO 240mm, PWM PC Fan Controller, Chroma Addressable RGB
Controller, Tomahawk ATX, Leviathan V2, Goliathus Extended Chroma, Monitor Stand
Chroma and Raptor 27.
The BlackWidow V4 Pro does have onboard memory - but only 4 slots, and only for
key mappings, DPI and polling rate. The lighting still comes from the PC.
Everything else has no storage at all. So on a cold boot I get a visibly
half-working state: one keyboard in its stored colour, and twelve other devices
either dark or showing the default rainbow effect, until Synapse boots and pushes
the real profile.
That half-working state is the reason for this request.
The idea:
A central component - either the Thunderbolt 5 Dock Chroma, the PWM PC Fan
Controller, or a dedicated Chroma hub - stores the lighting profiles for the
whole setup. Synapse hands it the profile once while the PC is running. On the
next power-up, that component pushes the stored lighting out to everything
connected, and the setup comes up correctly on its own.
A few points I already considered:
- I don't need Chroma Studio for this. One stored colour, or one basic Quick
Effect per device, would be completely sufficient.
- The dock already contains a computer, storage and firmware, and it already
talks to the PC over Thunderbolt. It has far more headroom than this needs.
- It would also close a genuine expectation gap on the Thunderbolt 5 Dock
Chroma: it's advertised with Chroma RGB, but without Synapse running it just
sits there in the default rainbow effect.
Why this is technically non-trivial
-----------------------------------
I looked into this before posting and want to name the constraint myself,
because I think it explains why this doesn't exist yet.
My devices talk to the PC in two quite different ways:
- USB-registered devices: Chroma Addressable RGB Controller, PWM PC Fan
Controller, Hanbo AIO. These enumerate on the PC, get their own device ID, and
report their serial number and zone count - Synapse already knows exactly what
each one is and what it can do.
- Cable-driven devices only: the ARGB fans themselves, and the ARGB output on
the Hanbo. That is the 3-pin 5V standard, and it is one-way. The controller
sends colour data out, the LEDs send nothing back.
That one-way link is exactly where a central hub breaks down: it cannot detect
what is attached to it, let alone address individual devices or hand them a
stored colour later.
From that, I see two possible paths that I'd like to put up for discussion:
Variant 1 - complete, with added hardware on the devices:
Each Hanbo and each ARGB fan gets a small receiver module with its own firmware
that caches the received colour and replays it on power-up. The hub asks at
startup who has which colour stored, and everything comes up matching. In
principle this is the same onboard approach Razer already uses in its keyboards,
just applied to fans and liquid coolers. For Razer the effort here would
primarily be firmware, not storage capacity.
Variant 2 - no hardware changes on the devices at all:
The hub remembers the colours and, when it detects power, re-sends the last
known pattern into the ARGB chain. That would work with the cables I already
have and require no component changes, but it only covers static colours - no
waves, no reactive effects, no Chroma Studio effects. For the boot phase and a
single-colour look, though, it might well be enough.
I also noticed that the PWM PC Fan Controller lists "ARGB Control: No" in its
specifications, so fans can't currently be attached to it for lighting at all. I
assume that's intentional.
My questions:
1. Is a setup-wide approach like this technically feasible for a future dock or
hub revision?
2. Would it fit the direction of Razer Chroma, or is the accessory ecosystem
intentionally kept software-only by design?
3. If Razer-proprietary connectors aren't realistic, would Variant 2 be
conceivable - a hub re-sending the last known pattern into the chain when it
detects power?
4. Would onboard lighting slots on more accessories be the preferred route over
a central solution, or is that a deliberate design decision?
5. Could the Hanbo and future ARGB fans include a small USB receiver module that
caches the colour? That would give a central hub a direct path to every
device instead of a one-way street.
6. If this isn't something Razer wants to build, could it be addressed through
the Chroma SDK or an open standard like OpenRGB instead?
Thanks for any feedback.