When I saw that Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus for the first time, I immediately wanted it and was pretty hyped when I saw it "in stock" and ordered it. As much as I was hyped, I was disappointed when I received and installed it using the included 5v 3pin ARGB adapter.

With that adapter the "108 addressable leds" will become 27 addressable leds ONLY as the adapter is acting like a splitter and just clones the signal of the first data line to the other three ones.

Only the Lian Li control box (that comes with the 24pin mobo Strimer Plus) is able to address all of those leds and ONLY with the built-in pre-made effects...well, unless we're creating our own controller!

This is what this quick tutorial is about, make the Lian Li Strimer Plus fully addressable!

  • This is the "hardware" we will need:
    • Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus (obviously without that one this whole tutorial wouldn't make sense! :)
    • Arduino Leonardo (or compatible, I'm using a "Pro Micro" small form factor Leonardo clone, important is that it uses the ATmega32U4 chip for native USB and has the Arduino bootloader flashed already!)
    • 5v power supply (i.e. a Molex-to-Sata adapter to cut off the Sata plug and remove the unneeded 12v and additional GND wires)
    • Internal USB data cable (with a Micro-USB plug and a Dupont plug to connect to the mobo header)
    • JST PH 2.0 6pin socket (so we can just connect the Strimer's plug instead of cutting it off)
    • Stranded wires in three colors (I chose 22awg wires in red for 5v, black for GND and green for the data lines)
    • Wire stripper (make sure that you're using a real one, those plastic ones with razor blades won't work well for thin wires)
    • Soldering equipment (soldering iron, solder wire, helping hand, side cutter, etc.)
    • Heat shrink tubing (to insulate and protect the soldered wires and connector)
    • Crimp contacts (to connect the wires to the 6pin socket)
    • Soldering mat (antistatic and heat resistant)

  • Preparing the wires (we will need 4in (around 10cm) long pieces):
    • Cut 1 piece off the red wire reel.
    • Cut 2 pieces off the black wire reel.
    • Cut 4 pieces off the green wire reel.
    • Strip the insulation of both ends of all 7 of the wires.

  • Preparing the power supply:
    • Cut off the unused SATA plug from the Molex-Sata-Adapter, remove the unused 12v and the duplicate GND wire.
    • Strip the insulation from the two remaining wires' ends.
    • We will need 2 GND wires, so solder both of our black wire pieces to the GND wire (black) of our power adapter.
    • Solder our red wire piece to the 5v wire (red) of our power adapter.
    • Apply heat shrink tubing to the solder joints and heat them with a hairdryer until they are tight.

  • Preparing the connector cable:
    • Solder (and/or crimp) one end of each of the four green wire pieces to a contact.
    • Solder (and/or crimp) the end of one of the black wire pieces to a contact.
    • Solder (and/or crimp) the end of the red wire piece to a contact.
    • Apply heat shrink tubing to the wires so it covers the contacts and the wires and heat them with a hairdryer until they are tight.
    • Connect the contacts to the pins of the JST PH 2.0 6pin socket:

    • Apply heat shrink tubing to the socket so it covers part of the socket and the attached wires and heat them with a hairdryer until they are tight.

  • The final crafting steps:
    • Solder the remaining black wire piece (GND) to the first contact GND on the Arduino.
    • Solder the first green wire piece (data1) to contact 2 on the Arduino.
    • Solder the second green wire piece (data2) to contact 4 on the Arduino.
    • Solder the third green wire piece (data3) to contact 6 on the Arduino.
    • Solder the fourth green wire piece (data4) to contact 8 on the Arduino.

  • Post crafting steps to finalize the project physically:
    • Connect the Dupont plug of the USB cable to a free internal USB 2.0 header on your mainboard.
    • Connect the Micro-USB plug to the Arduino.
    • Connect the MOLEX power supply plug to your PSU.
    • Connect the 6pin plug of the Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus to the socket of the crafted connector cable.

  • This is the software we will use:
    • SignalRGB (One for all! Control and sync your favorite RGB devices from any brand with one free application.)
    • Arduino IDE (The open-source Arduino Software makes it easy to write code and upload it to the board.)
    • FastLED Library (This is a library for easily & efficiently controlling a wide variety of LED chipsets.)
    • Corsair Lighting Protocol Library (Used to turn our Arduino into a "Corsair Node Pro" for easy control with SignalRGB.)

  • Installing the required libraries:
    • Launch the Arduino IDE app.
    • Click "Tools" -> "Manage Libraries..." to open the Library Manager.
      • Type "FastLED" in the top right field of the Library Manager and click the "Install"-button on the "FastLED" entry that appears.
      • Type "Corsair" in the top right field of the Library Manager and click the "Install"-button on the "Corsair Lighting Protocol" entry that appears.
      • Click "Close" after installing both libraries above.
    • Click "File" -> "Preferences" to open settings menu.
      • Paste the following URL into the text field next to "Additional Boards Manager URLs":

        https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Legion2/CorsairLightingProtocolBoards/master/package_Legion2_CorsairLightingProtocolBoards_index.json

      • Click "OK" to close the settings menu.
    • Click "Tools" -> "Board:" -> "Boards Manager..." to open the Boards Manager.
      • Type "Corsair" in the top right field of the Boards Manager and click the "Install"-button on the "Corsair Lighting Protocol Boards" entry that appears.
      • Click "Close" after installing the library above.

  • Setting up our Arduino:
    • Click "Tools" -> "Board:" -> "Corsair Lighting Protocol Boards" and select "CLP Arduino Leonardo".
    • Click "Tools" -> "Device:" and select "Lighting Node PRO".
    • Click "Tools" -> "Port:" and select a "COM"-port.
    • Click "Tools" -> "Get Board Info" to test the settings, if you receive an error, try again with a different COM-port.

  • Flashing the Arduino:
    • Download the sketch file that we will flash to our Arduino
    • Click "File" -> "Open..." browse to the folder you downloaded the "LianLiGPUStrimer_NodePro.ino", select it and click "Open".

      The Arduino IDE requires sketch files to be in a correctly named subfolder, so confirm the dialogue asking to move the file to the correct folder with "OK".

    • Click "Sketch" -> "Upload" in the Arduino IDE window that opened.
    • The Upload takes a few seconds, so just wait and have an eye on the status at the bottom of the window.
    • Once it says "Done Uploading." our fake "Corsair Node Pro" is ready to be used within SignalRGB!
    • Click "File" -> "Quit" and continue to the next section.

  • Configuring the fake "Corsair Node Pro":
    • Click the "Devices"-submenu on the left
      • Select the "Corsair Lighting Node Pro" from the list of devices on the left side.
      • Click the "config"-gear at the bottom left of the device's overview page.
      • On the far right side of the window scroll down to the Channel/Port drop down boxes and select "Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus (27)" for ch1|port1, ch1|port2, ch2|port1 and ch2|port2.

    • Click the "Layouts"-submenu on the left
      • Select the "Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus" and scale and position them on the canvas one after the other.

    • Enjoy your fully addressable GPU Strimer Plus!

  • Both, the Triple 8pin GPU Strimer and the 24pin ATX Strimer use 6 instead of 4 data lines:
    • You will need a JST PH 2.0 8pin socket instead of a 6pin socket
    • You will need 6 pieces of green wire instead of 4 pieces
    • You will need to solder the 6 data lines (green wires) to the contacts 2,3,4,5,6,7 on the Arduino

  • Config differences in SignalRGB:
    • For the Triple 8pin GPU Strimer select "Lian Li GPU Strimer Plus (27)" for ch1|port1, ch1|port2, ch1|port3, ch2|port1, ch2|port2 and ch2|port3.
    • For the 24pin ATX Strimer set "custom strip size" to 20 and select "Custom" for ch1|port1, ch1|port2, ch1|port3, ch2|port1, ch2|port2 and ch2|port3.

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