Sorry for the trivial question but from specifications the octo manages up to a maximum of 90 LEDs per channel, having 2 channels reaches a total of 180 LEDs.

I had the 180 LEDs totally occupied but today, doing some tests, I added another 2 LED strips of 30 LEDs each, then another 60 LEDs and they work, how is this possible?
I expected they wouldn't light up instead they go, what am I missing?

Zitat von »Remayz«

you may start to overload the header, power-wise

As far as lighting, i suspect you may see the LEDs repeating the effect. It can only control 90 different LEDs so i don't know what the ones past 90 will do. maybe repeat what number 90 does? or restart from 1?
Either way you don't have individual control.

Still beware of current load. you may see channel shutdowns with some colors like white.

yes , I have already disconnected the additional led strips for safety, I would not want something to burn, I will connect them to the output of the next flow meter using its 90 led channel.

I was asking about the octo just out of simple curiosity because I expected that having occupied all the 180 LEDs it can manage, everything led you connect in excess would not work and instead I discovered that if you continue to connect new led strips they continue to light up, surely as you say you can't manage them individually but I expected them not to turn on at all.

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Zitat von »cptninc«

With most LED controllers, it's a simple addressing limit and nothing more. The LEDs beyond the limit usually just match the highest address (in this case, LED #90). If you're just using the same color on all LEDs, you'd never even know you went beyond the limit.

I agree but I assume that there is a safety limit within which to stop, even if you set all the LEDs on a single color I don't think you can continue to add LEDs indefinitely.
If octo can drive 180 addressable LEDs (90 per channel), as you say, you can most likely drive more than 180 if you are not interested in addressing them and you are satisfied with having them all bound and monochrome, but again, there will also be a limit beyond which you risk going to overheat the octo because you are making it manage too many LEDs? or not?


for example, I usually keep all the LEDs on the PC on the same color, almost always white, so if the limit of 90 per channel refers only to how many LEDs you can address, it doesn't matter to me because I don't address the LEDs, I keep them all on the same color.

At this moment I have connected all the fans on a channel (total 108 LEDs) exceeding the limit of 90 put in the octo specifications, but everything works, all the fans are going to be illuminated in white as I want.


On the other channel I have everything else, wb cpu, wb cpu, reservoir (total 90 leds), so on this channel they are perfectly within spec.

In total I am driving 198 LEDs when the octo claims to be able to drive 180, am I safe?

Zitat von »Remayz«

you may want to dim them a bit to avoid burning up the LEDs with time.
I don't know if the Octo has the same protection but on Farbwerk, if a channel gets overloaded, it shuts down and Aquasuite tells you the channel has been cut off to protect the controller. it restarts when you reboot the computer.

Zitat von »Speedy-VI«

If the Octo can protect itself and reset after a reboot (like the Farbwerk360), then that is probably the worst that would happen. If you blow up the Octo, they would be within their rights to not honor any warranty. You did not mention where the brightness level is set. You are only over by 18 LEDs. If each one is pulling 33ma, that's about 600ma over the limit. If you have the brightness dialed back, you are probably OK. If you set them to 100% brightness, you may pop the RGBpx output.

You could splice a DC amp meter into the Molex power chain and measure the total current flowing through the +5VDC conductor. Since most of that current is going to the LEDs, it all has to flow through the teeny little contracts in the RGBpx connector. Assuming the Octo does not trip first, I suspect the RGBpx cable and /or connector would be the next point of failure. I would carefully feel the molex power cable and the RGBpx cable plugged into the Octo to make sure they are not getting too hot.

the 108 LEDs of the fans that I connected to an Octo channel are white and I only manage them at 20% brightness, as I don't like having the fans with too strong a light, I prefer to have a suffused effect.

I could also buy a farbwerk 360 to be 100% sure that I am safe, so I can divide all the rgb on 4 channels but frankly it seems excessive to me, I would have 360 leds to be able to manage but not all those channels I need.

I don't know if the octo has that protection system that warns you like on the farbwerk, for the moment I have never received any warning on aquasuite so the possibilities are 2, either I'm not overheating the octo or there is no system warning .....

Zitat von »Remayz«

you don't have to use up all channels
And the Farbwerk also allows you to stack effects to play with transparency.. like having a white background, and maybe adding other effects on top of it. The octo only does one opaque effect at a time.
For what it's worth the farbwerk despite being just a lighting controller, adds some software sensor slots like the Octo, but even a nerd should not run out that soon !

So yea, if you never plan on using anything else than static light, it's probably not worth it. for the rest, definitely consider a FW360

what do you mean by stacking effects?

Zitat von »Remayz«

you can have several effects playing at the same time on the same channel.
Like, imagine your white lights, and adding on top of that some starlight effect where leds will blink blue at random every now and then.. or whatever. you can mix and match effects to your liking.
it's like playing with layers on photoshop. you have background effects and you can add on top of that to make more complex effects.

I did not know about this, I will try to play with it a little as soon as I get it, thank you