[GUIDE] How to install OpenRGB on FW16

Wow, I didn’t know about OpenRGB until I saw this thread! I honestly had no idea that someone created an open source project to normalize controlling various different RGB devices using one standardized open SDK & protocol. I just opened this up on my desktop machine and was able to change the lights on my RTX 4090 in my case and control my Elgato Key Lights by IP address, which is pretty cool. Sadly, it does not look like it supports WLED devices at first glance, but it looks like it supports plugins, so perhaps someone wrote something that will allow it, or I can later down the road since I have a nice LED sign I built that runs WLED for displaying stuff on my live stream in the background.

Thanks for letting me know this exists. I’ll take some time to flash my keyboard and macropad with the right firmware to support the QMK Protocol so I can then control the lights on the keyboard both locally or remotely with events and scripts, which will be pretty awesome. Having the keyboard flash when I get a new email or message from someone important would be pretty awesome, or having the colors of the keys change based on whatever key or macro I’m currently pressing would also be super cool. It looks like it can do all these colors and stuff in real-time, hence the audio visualizer thing working.

I also have various KASA TP-Link plugs that look like they also work with this. I wonder if someone wrote a plugin that will pull the screen buffer and change the color of a TP-Link RGB bulb to match the averaged color of the screen for a given frame. That would be awesome for watching movies in my bedroom where the PC could change the lights on either side of the room to match the hue of that half of the screen for a given movie. I’ve seen people do that with LED strips before and the effect is pretty cool. Also, it looks like this can remotely control things, meaning that I could also connect my Framework laptop to another PC and control its devices remotely to sync up with the lighting scheme of the rest of the room, etc. Just thinking out loud, this is a seriously powerful piece of software that I can’t believe I never knew about. Another perk of owning a Framework laptop is that you learn about open source projects you didn’t know existed that extend far beyond the Framework laptop itself in terms of usefulness!

Thank you @knfn for writing the thread. Now I just need to find some time to read through the directions and flash the devices. I just hope it’s possible to flash under Windows so I don’t have to boot into Linux or use WSL2 to figure this all out because I’m rusty AF when it comes to Linux, if I’m honest :wink:

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The RP2040s used in the keyboards are extemely easy to flash. If you’re just flashing pre-complied .uf2 files (which @knfn has provided), you don’t even need to install anything to your computer. When put into bootloader mode, the RP2040 appears as if it’s a flash drive & you just drag .uf2 file over. It reboots & loads the new firmware. You could flash these from anything, windows, mac, smartphone, potato. As long as you have a cable to connect to the keyboard.

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No freaking way, this is quite literally the exact same way I update the macros on my Kinesis Freestyle Edge keyboard on my Desktop PC. I love when device manufacturers keep things super simple like this. Makes life so much easier! :pray: I am going to play with this tomorrow because I ended up getting sidetracked with my AC in the Nerdcave getting stuck full on making the room like 40F and forming a giant block of ice on the heat exchanger because ultimately, I found a stuck relay on the mainboard that I freed up with a little percussive maintenance after spending hours trying to trouble shoot everything else first. However, I did do one cool thing with OpenRGB which was to sync my TP Link RGB lights to different sides of my screen to give ambient light effects that match whatever I am watching. That honestly is a cool trick and now I need to make this work in my bedroom with my HTPC. I also realized that I can use this to make all the lights in the house flash different colors when different people in the house get important emails, etc to prompt them to check their email or even flash all the lights red when the ring doorbell detects someone. The things that can be done with this are ENDLESS! Now I just need to figure out how to program my own modules so I can get my TP Link smart plugs to work by having white be on and black be off just so I can do some basic light flickering effects, etc with smart switches even though they aren’t technically lights. There has to be a way right?

Yep but I forgot, I only have the RGB MacroPad, the keyboard is just the regular white backlight one since I ordered this before the RGB keyboard was available.



Would it be possible I got a MacroPad early enough that there is a slight hardware difference that makes it not compatible with this firmware? (I used the precompiled uf2 from knfn github) I also have a SteelSeries RGB Mouse that OpenRGB also detects and lets me successfully change the color of, so OpenRGB seems to be working in general.

I don’t know. But I wouldn’t think so.