Friday, March 8th 2019
Aqua Computer Announces farbwerk 360 - the next generation RGB LED controller
The RGB lighting theme remains a hot topic. The German manufacturer Aqua Computer is also following this trend and is expanding its product range with the new farbwerk 360.
With the farbwerk 360, Aqua Computer launches probably the most powerful RGB controller for PCs currently on the market. It is capable of controlling up to 360 addressable RGB LEDs on 4 channels. A newly developed technology that Aqua Computer describes as ALPHApx allows for the first time to freely combine effects through transparency in up to 20 levels.
Much work has been invested in the powerful aquasuite control software. As in a video editing program, up to 20 controllers can be freely assigned, moved, copied and even cloned to areas on the LED strips using drag & drop. The operation is intuitive and effects can be freely combined with each other.
Aqua Computer has developed another technology to ensure that all effects are displayed as smoothly as possible: SMOOTHpx. With SMOOTHpx the transitions between the LEDs are blended smoothly. The effects are calculated in the farbwerk 360 on the basis of vectors, making stepless intermediate fading possible.
To easily switch between different settings Aqua Computer has integrated a profile management. The profiles can be switched smartly based on rules. For example, rules can be created on the basis of started applications. Thus a different lighting can be automatically selected for office applications than for gaming. The rules can also be controlled by measured values. In addition to 4 temperature sensors on the farbwerk 360 and a connection for a flow sensor, all data from hardware monitoring are available.
The AMBIENTpx technology is already known from Aqua Computer and the backlight for monitors can now cover almost any panel size with up to 360 LEDs. The analysis of the monitor image is done with an extremely low system load in a background service.
Special Sound-to-Light effects, level indicators and effects controllable via sound complete the possibilities.
The device works completely independently, the effects are calculated in the device and no running PC or software is required. Only if monitoring or audio/video data from the PC is used Windows needs to run - but the transfer takes place in the background even then.
Aqua Computer offers the farbwerk 360 together with two LED strips and cables at 39,90 Euro.
Technical data:
With the farbwerk 360, Aqua Computer launches probably the most powerful RGB controller for PCs currently on the market. It is capable of controlling up to 360 addressable RGB LEDs on 4 channels. A newly developed technology that Aqua Computer describes as ALPHApx allows for the first time to freely combine effects through transparency in up to 20 levels.
Much work has been invested in the powerful aquasuite control software. As in a video editing program, up to 20 controllers can be freely assigned, moved, copied and even cloned to areas on the LED strips using drag & drop. The operation is intuitive and effects can be freely combined with each other.
Aqua Computer has developed another technology to ensure that all effects are displayed as smoothly as possible: SMOOTHpx. With SMOOTHpx the transitions between the LEDs are blended smoothly. The effects are calculated in the farbwerk 360 on the basis of vectors, making stepless intermediate fading possible.
To easily switch between different settings Aqua Computer has integrated a profile management. The profiles can be switched smartly based on rules. For example, rules can be created on the basis of started applications. Thus a different lighting can be automatically selected for office applications than for gaming. The rules can also be controlled by measured values. In addition to 4 temperature sensors on the farbwerk 360 and a connection for a flow sensor, all data from hardware monitoring are available.
The AMBIENTpx technology is already known from Aqua Computer and the backlight for monitors can now cover almost any panel size with up to 360 LEDs. The analysis of the monitor image is done with an extremely low system load in a background service.
Special Sound-to-Light effects, level indicators and effects controllable via sound complete the possibilities.
The device works completely independently, the effects are calculated in the device and no running PC or software is required. Only if monitoring or audio/video data from the PC is used Windows needs to run - but the transfer takes place in the background even then.
Technical data:
- Addressable LED Controller
- Calculation of effects in the processor of the inking unit 360
- SMOOTHpx for smooth transitions
- 4 LED channels with up to 90 LEDs each
- 4 temperature sensors can be connected
- 16 software sensors, e.g. for CPU load, data rates, SSD level, etc. can be used
- 1 connection for flow sensor
- USB 2.0 interface
- aquabus interface
- Power supply 5 V, max. 8 A, 40 W
- 20 adjustable color controls which can be assigned to multiple areas of the strips, max. 60 areas can be managed
- 4 profiles
- aquasuite software included
- farbwerk 360
- 2x RGBpx connection cable 50 cm
- 2x RGBpx Strip with 15 LEDs, 10x320 mm
- internal USB cable, 1 m
- instruction
8 Comments on Aqua Computer Announces farbwerk 360 - the next generation RGB LED controller
Uses molex....
SATA Output:
4.5 amps 5V
4.5 amps 12V
Molex
11 amps 5V
11 amps 12V
If it's an issue of this aquacomputer controller (or any other PC brand selling a controller) not having enough power for more than 300 pixels, then stop trying to provide power with the controller and let the user provide it....perhaps from the Power supply less than 15cm away from the addressable header/controller. Addressable LEDs don't require that much power, and it's easy to power them from the PSU either buying making your own adapter (I recently made a 4 pin molex to a 4x way male 3 pin JST connector to power 4x 144 led per meter strips that are 2 meters long each, so 1152 pixels) or buying one off the internet.
I just don't understand why these PC brands offer such limited addressable led control in a completely "hands off" manner....i thought the pc community prides itself on diy and modding, but then every single rgb ecosystem offered is a "plug it in and never think about it again" type aimed at those with computerphobia?The only RGB Market that's confused is the PC branded one. The "generic/non-PC market, just like every other industry in the world is almost entirely standardized with 99% of LED strips coming with a 3-pin jst connector and digital controllers all having the same connector. There's no proprietary connector BS like Asus' annoying 4 minus 1 3-pin addressable header.... just couldn't help yourself could you Asus, you just had to force everyone to use you're ridiculous adapter cable. The only other connector you'll probably ever run into in the generic LED industry is a 2 or 3 pin circular weatherproof power connector that looks similar to a 3-pin XLR connector used for microphones.
BTW, Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte Fusion, etc should allow the user to switch off the 5v pin (and i guess ground as well) on the addressable header and just leave the data pin on so that I can choose to power the addressable led strip directly from the 4 pin molex on my PSU. I have a feelin that the PC brand, industry wide limit of an addressable motherboard header controlling 300 pixels or fewer is due to the lack of power the mobo manufacturers provide to the header, because any $15 generic addressable controller like an SP105E or SP108 can control 2048 pixels