Razer Huntsman Elite local profiles not saving to keyboard

I got a huntsman yesterday and am very disappointed that the packaging basically promoted a load of lies and that there's literally no way I can just make the thing white when I'm programming on a mac.

I feel utterly ripped off and almost feel like going around Razer and their poor support and contacting the relevant trading standards authority for false advertising.

I am literally so angry that if they gave me the API for it, i'd write a mac version for them, or at least something that can control the colour, because I get the feeling we've all been robbed and that's the end of it.

Shan't be buying another Razer product, which is a shame because I fancied a laptop next year.

Just bought this keyboard today and having same problem. Updated firmware and using Synapse3

Dragged profile to all the onboard slots and doesn’t save the lighting nor key mapping. I remapped the default Mute button to Open Calculator and this doesn’t map when i chose the onboard profile.

Very disappointed but I have 15 days to decide whether to keep it.

M

Literally the same exact expectations, problem, and disappointment. Really need to keep this going. I can't believe you can't save the lighting to the local on board memory, which is really the first thing you'd expect you'd be able to do. :mad_:

I returned my keyboard. The place where I bought from has 15 days satisfaction guarantee and I was not satisfied

Same issue with my new BlackWidow Elite. I am programming keyboard with Synapse 3.3.1216.12212.

I have a workaround of programming with a VMware VM (Win 7). After setting lighting if I disconnect keyboard from VM (BEFORE quitting Synapse), the lighting stays. That is until real machine goes to sleep or I disconnect the keyboard from the real machine. So this is a temporary work around and is not a solution.

Will there be a fix so that lighting settings are saved to keyboard onboard memory?

W

Userlevel 1

I have this same issue. I am returning 2 keyboards today (purchased 3 days ago), before I lose my money. I will stay with the deathstalker chroma, until I decide which other company to go with (with a keyboard, mouse, and mousepad that WILL save their lighting).

For now, I am using an older Razer keyboard, Firefly, and Lancehead, all of which are supported in Synapse 2, so I can at least not have to see Spectrum Cycle, when the Windows Lock screen kicks in.

Has anyone heard from Razer about this keyboard onboard profile issue? Anyone contact support directly? Does not seem like they hanging around here.

I am keeping my Black Widow, but am holding off on supplying the rest of office until I can get this light thing under control. The default color scheme is ok, but we like it steady.

my blackwidow elite just wont sync up or anything with synapse 3. I plug it in and it turns on, but the num-lock, and the caps-lock lights wont turn on or off when synapse 3 installs. The lightning effects also don't sync over to the keyboard. any advice or is this just synapse 3 right now? Keyboard can still be used and typed on but I want to use the effects.

I've had the Blackwidow Elite for a month or so, and everything is great except one glaring fault and that is the rainbow show every time I wake my computer from sleep or turn my computer on. Come on Razer, for people like me, and as mentioned by others on this same thread, it's outright embarrassing to have this keyboard in a professional environment. Please fix this issue!!, then I could maybe recommend your products again, but until then I'm telling others to look at alternative manufactures for a great "professional" mechanical keyboard.

W

Userlevel 1

I have started replacing the Razer gear with ROG gear, which syncs with my motherboard. I will let you all know my findings.

Ran into the same issue, but liked the keyboard as such and want to keep it, so I did some research whether there might be any hope. It seems some guys are working on a Linux driver for some time now. (open razer) and the discussions over there are very eye opening as to what's going on here.

It seems Razer dumbed down the keyboard controller compared to older keyboards. The guys at open razer call it "software based lighting". The keyboard can do exactly one lighting on its own - the dreaded chroma cycle. This animation is active unless the keyboard is being driven by Synapse.

When driven by Synapse, the keyboard essentially acts like a dumb screen. It just displays a picture (imagine each key being a pixel) which is sent to it by the PC. Synapse calculates the animation on your PC and updates the keyboard at a high enough frame rate.

Lighting not working without Synapse was not an accident or oversight. Someone wanted it to be like this - probably to save development effort / cost. (The dumb picture mode was needed anyway for more advanced lighting setups, so why not use it for everything?)

Its ironic though that this cost saving measure hits the people who spent $200 to buy a flagship keyboard. :)

And yes, I agree the claims they make about the profiles being stored on the keyboard are very misleading.
The profiles might even be technically stored on the keyboard. But the dumbed down keyboard does not have the means to do anything with them. They could only be downloaded and used by Synapse running on another computer.

Of course all of this is just my opinion and not a fact.

gdpr.yeah
Of course all of this is just my opinion and not a fact. :)

And it seems my opinion might have been wrong. I downloaded some code from one of the open razer guys and hacked away to see if anything could be done (at least static color should work even with a dumb keyboard, right?) and I got lucky and managed to not only get static display to work, but was also able to trigger breathing mode without Synapse. This was a surprise and does not match with what I read before.

But before I jump to any more conclusions I will do some more research as the matter seems to be more complicated than originally expected.

Userlevel 6

gdpr.yeah
Lighting not working without Synapse was not an accident or oversight. Someone wanted it to be like this

That someone would be me.

This was a conscious decision after months of deliberation and debate for several reasons :

1. Older devices would never get updates for lighting effects. For example; BW Chroma (first gen) never got Starlight and Fire effects in Synapse 2 because the firmware didn't support it. Only when Synapse 3 was released, we could bring those effects to older devices. We want to keep bringing new Chroma features to our devices for a longer time, which is feasible when using software-driven effects. For reference, all future lighting effects and other lighting related features, will automatically be available on all Synapse 3 devices.

2. On-board micro-controllers don't have the RAM/storage to run complex effects (on multi-layered effects) well. We didn't want to do half-and-half of effects that could be stored on device or that could be run on Synapse. Plus there's only so many effects that can be stored on the limited amount of memory available on-board.

We decided to use that memory for implementing a macro engine, which allows you to execute macros (including even mouse movements) without Synapse.

3. If we want to add or update any lighting effects, we'd have update the firmware for ALL the Chroma devices. This in-turn would require us to test different permutations and combinations of firmware and software versions, which isn't practical.

4. Synapse 3 has Chroma on the forefront with location-aware effects. Those aren't possible using just firmware as it is.

Y

RazerThe_Fiend
That someone would be me.

This was a conscious decision after months of deliberation and debate for several reasons :

1. Older devices would never get updates for lighting effects. For example; BW Chroma (first gen) never got Starlight and Fire effects in Synapse 2 because the firmware didn't support it. Only when Synapse 3 was released, we could bring those effects to older devices. We want to keep bringing new Chroma features to our devices for a longer time, which is feasible when using software-driven effects. For reference, all future lighting effects and other lighting related features, will automatically be available on all Synapse 3 devices.

2. On-board micro-controllers don't have the RAM/storage to run complex effects (on multi-layered effects) well. We didn't want to do half-and-half of effects that could be stored on device or that could be run on Synapse. Plus there's only so many effects that can be stored on the limited amount of memory available on-board.

We decided to use that memory for implementing a macro engine, which allows you to execute macros (including even mouse movements) without Synapse.

3. If we want to add or update any lighting effects, we'd have update the firmware for ALL the Chroma devices. This in-turn would require us to test different permutations and combinations of firmware and software versions, which isn't practical.

4. Synapse 3 has Chroma on the forefront with location-aware effects. Those aren't possible using just firmware as it is.

And that is great approach. BUT, I think that would be OK to put some other lightning effects on baord, just simple one, so we can switch that default wave. Like reactive (pick background color, front color, and speed), ripple effect, and so on. And if user want to put software in front of it - no problem. Take for example CoolerMaster MK750: it has on board complex lighning effect AND software to make them. You can use software or not for controlling effect - best solution. So, PLEASE in name of all Razer users: make possible to store lighning effects (made in Chroma studio) on board so we can close Synapse and save couple of CPU/memory usage. Thanks

RazerThe_Fiend
That someone would be me.

Thanks for not beating around the bush.

I played around with the keyboard some more using alternate ways of driving it (no Synapse) and found out that the hardware still supports a lot of lighting effects. What is even more interesting: I had activated static color (this is what I want to use) and the keyboard seems to persist this setting. It keeps it across boot cycles. I could even unplug the keyboard and when plugged in it would go back to the static color I had set. The setting only gets lost once I start Synapse and upon closing it the keyboard gets reset to chroma cycle.

This made me wondering: Wouldn't it be possible to have at least a very limited way to configure a fallback lighting in Synapse for when Synapse is not running? It seems the hardware is already fully capable of doing this.
I'm thinking about people who use these keyboards outside gaming as well or in the workplace. Essentially there would only need to be two options in the software: chroma cycle or static color (with color selection obviously).

Nonetheless, I'm outa here. I just wanted some nice static color and have figured out I can get that by simply deinstalling Synapse and hacking the keyboard to a color of my liking once and be done with it.

And I am not happy with the level of work required to achieve such a modest goal.

yrilo
And that is great approach. BUT, I think that would be OK to put some other lightning effects on baord, just simple one, so we can switch that default wave. Like reactive (pick background color, front color, and speed), ripple effect, and so on.

The effects are already on the board. What I have seen with my own eyes are wave, chroma cycle, static, starlight, breathing and reactive. Not sure how many more there are.

Its just about adding some way to configure this default/offline mode or whatever you want to call it in Synapse.

Typing on this keyboard is so much fun... I just want to keep writing.

Despite all the hassle, hats off for the great hardware you guys make.

Y

gdpr.yeah
The effects are already on the board. What I have seen with my own eyes are wave, chroma cycle, static, starlight, breathing and reactive. Not sure how many more there are.

Its just about adding some way to configure this default/offline mode or whatever you want to call it in Synapse.

Please can you share solution you found? I think everyone here will be thankful

S

Same issue for me