Predator CG437KP - RGB Light sense weirdness

Hi Everyone,

So I was an early adopter of the big Predator but I never really got round to setting up certain bits of it for a long time. Part of my issue was that the support material provided by Acer was errmm sparse to say the least. Using the monitors' own control panel the 4 led strips that came with the monitor will light up and the various patterns and colours will all work correctly.

I have now figured out I needed to install the USB-A - USB-B cable between the monitor and the PC (facepalm - yes I never realised what the USB Upload port was for) I finally got RGB light sense to pick up the monitor. In the monitor settings all 4 led strips are ticked and have the 15 leds in the appropriate box for each strip.

But when I change any of the profiles or colours in RGG Sense program it only changes 3 of the strips. The other just stays set to whatever the monitor control panel setting was.

Is there something I need to do ahead of starting RGB light sense? Disabling the LEDS in the monitor CP didnt impact the RGB settings. Its driving me a bit bonkers and not sure if it is something stupidly obvious like the USB thing. Anyone come across similar or have any thoughts?

Any help would be most appreciated.
Cheers

Accepted answers

cinoaz

In case anyone ever comes back here, the solution is:

FUBAR'd

RGB Sense App has a software bug that doesn't index the ports on the monitor correctly. It's a 0 based indexing error. I think the CG monitor firmware refers to the ports as 1-4 wheras other monitors index into ports as 0-3. Whatever, it's a zero based index software bug.

If you use the Monitor to control the lights, I call this HardControl, all 4 lights work with the Ports. The numbering from the side of the monitor and moving inward

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

If you use RGB sense, I call this SoftControl, then the port numbers are shifted due to the software bug 0 based indexing error. Starting from the side of the monitor moving towards the center:

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0(Doesn't exist)
SoftControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

So when RGB Sense is trying to Softcontrol Port 1, it's software points to an index of 0 port in HardControl and 0 port doesn't exist. However, RGB Sense SoftControl Port 2 controls HardControl Port 1 in hardware, 3 controls 2, etc.

You can have the Monitor control Port 4 only (Set setting in Monitor to control Port 4 only) and have it illuminate but you are limited to Monitor control for Port 4. You can have RGB sense SoftControl Ports 2-4 which are HardControl 1-3 on the panel.

Acer for the WIN !!!!

All comments

Breemzoner

How did you install the RGB light strips on the back of the monitor? Can you please tell me?

Hemroidgod1

Im having the exact same issue, 1 LED strip stays solid blue while the other 3 are working with RGB lightsense.

ViqerFell

Breemzoner said:

How did you install the RGB light strips on the back of the monitor? Can you please tell me?

Thanks for replying, I will post a proper reply this evening (I need to get behind my desk to recall the exact setup). Apologies work went a bit hectic last couple days.

Hemroidgod1 said:

Im having the exact same issue, 1 LED strip stays solid blue while the other 3 are working with RGB lightsense.

frustrating isnt it!

cinoaz

In case anyone ever comes back here, the solution is:

FUBAR'd

RGB Sense App has a software bug that doesn't index the ports on the monitor correctly. It's a 0 based indexing error. I think the CG monitor firmware refers to the ports as 1-4 wheras other monitors index into ports as 0-3. Whatever, it's a zero based index software bug.

If you use the Monitor to control the lights, I call this HardControl, all 4 lights work with the Ports. The numbering from the side of the monitor and moving inward

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

If you use RGB sense, I call this SoftControl, then the port numbers are shifted due to the software bug 0 based indexing error. Starting from the side of the monitor moving towards the center:

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0(Doesn't exist)
SoftControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

So when RGB Sense is trying to Softcontrol Port 1, it's software points to an index of 0 port in HardControl and 0 port doesn't exist. However, RGB Sense SoftControl Port 2 controls HardControl Port 1 in hardware, 3 controls 2, etc.

You can have the Monitor control Port 4 only (Set setting in Monitor to control Port 4 only) and have it illuminate but you are limited to Monitor control for Port 4. You can have RGB sense SoftControl Ports 2-4 which are HardControl 1-3 on the panel.

Acer for the WIN !!!!

ViqerFell

cinoaz said:

In case anyone ever comes back here, the solution is:

FUBAR'd

RGB Sense App has a software bug that doesn't index the ports on the monitor correctly. It's a 0 based indexing error. I think the CG monitor firmware refers to the ports as 1-4 wheras other monitors index into ports as 0-3. Whatever, it's a zero based index software bug.

If you use the Monitor to control the lights, I call this HardControl, all 4 lights work with the Ports. The numbering from the side of the monitor and moving inward

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

If you use RGB sense, I call this SoftControl, then the port numbers are shifted due to the software bug 0 based indexing error. Starting from the side of the monitor moving towards the center:

HardControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0(Doesn't exist)
SoftControl: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

So when RGB Sense is trying to Softcontrol Port 1, it's software points to an index of 0 port in HardControl and 0 port doesn't exist. However, RGB Sense SoftControl Port 2 controls HardControl Port 1 in hardware, 3 controls 2, etc.

You can have the Monitor control Port 4 only (Set setting in Monitor to control Port 4 only) and have it illuminate but you are limited to Monitor control for Port 4. You can have RGB sense SoftControl Ports 2-4 which are HardControl 1-3 on the panel.

Acer for the WIN !!!!

Thank you for this answer. Saves me pulling my monitor away from the wall as I was about to.

Just simply wow

So unless ACER fix their software, the monitor is not able to function fully as advertised? For a premium price monitor this is utterly shambolic and quite possibly constitutes false advertising as I imagine the software has never indexed the ports correctly.

How did you find out about this bug? Presumably Acer are aware and aren't planning to fix?

cinoaz

Not sure Acer is aware.

I don't know for "SURE", but, this is how the ports react. Having done some software in the past it seems like a simple mixup, having an array that is 0 based or having an array starting with 1.

Not having any information in the manual, online or anywhere on what the 4 connectors were numbered, I simply used the Monitor Menu to figure out which port controlled what. Once I did that and had the mapping, I turned to SoftControl and as soon as I saw the offset, I pretty much knew what was going on.

It's a simple fix if it is the issue, just changing an index reference from 0 to 1, however, in doing that in software it may bugger all other monitors they make "generic software app" unless they have a lookup table for each monitor in the software which is possible as well. I would expect about a 1 man hour job. 5 minutes to make the change and verify it works on the monitor, 55 minutes to complete all the paperwork to document the change.

Hell, if Acer would open the source code to me, I'll make the change and ship it back to them for free. But, alas, that will never happen, nor expect any fix from Acer on this. They may fix it in later firmware of the monitor but I highly doubt it.

Not being cynical, just realistic.

I ended up putting Port 4 under HardControl and reducing the brightness and letting it shift through the colors (very slowly). Not the best but it does ok.

cinoaz

Breemzoner said:

How did you install the RGB light strips on the back of the monitor? Can you please tell me?

Some use Hot Glue Gun, I used little patches of velco. On the short length LEDs, a patch of velco at either end. On the long strip, one at either end and one in the middle.

You can use tape, liquid cement, whatever you want. The bigger point is that there is no way for the LEDs to mount to the monitor out of the box and there are no instructions. I mounted my lights about 1.5-2" from the edges of the monitor. Depends on the look you want. The more the light bars are near the edge, the brighter it will be on the wall but you may see the individual LED shadows on the wall (hotspots for each LED on the strip). The further the lights are moved to the center, the more "blended" the light will appear around the outside of the monitor but the intensity will be a less. To far in and you will lose the independent coloring on 3 sides of your monitor (it will all blend into one color). I would suggest starting around 1" and going from there.

I captured a screenshot of my RGB Sense settings below. With the long strip at top. Given there's a bug in the software (see my earlier post) the best you can do in RGB sense is to control 3 light bars. I chose to control the two sides and top using RGB Sense and you can see my configuration in the screenshot.

There is no Port1 because of the software bug, it's useless and doesn't work. So any profile that uses Port1 in RGB sense won't work. The only profile that worked for me was Profile 4.

Note: In order to get Profile 4 you have to have ALL 4 LEDs connected You can chose in HardControl (Monitor Menu) to deactivate the lights but ALL 4 have to be plugged in to get Profile 4 option in RGB Sense.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/91/d2db9eseru5c.jpg

Vlad2517

cinoaz said:

Breemzoner said:

How did you install the RGB light strips on the back of the monitor? Can you please tell me?

Some use Hot Glue Gun, I used little patches of velco. On the short length LEDs, a patch of velco at either end. On the long strip, one at either end and one in the middle.

You can use tape, liquid cement, whatever you want. The bigger point is that there is no way for the LEDs to mount to the monitor out of the box and there are no instructions. I mounted my lights about 1.5-2" from the edges of the monitor. Depends on the look you want. The more the light bars are near the edge, the brighter it will be on the wall but you may see the individual LED shadows on the wall (hotspots for each LED on the strip). The further the lights are moved to the center, the more "blended" the light will appear around the outside of the monitor but the intensity will be a less. To far in and you will lose the independent coloring on 3 sides of your monitor (it will all blend into one color). I would suggest starting around 1" and going from there.

I captured a screenshot of my RGB Sense settings below. With the long strip at top. Given there's a bug in the software (see my earlier post) the best you can do in RGB sense is to control 3 light bars. I chose to control the two sides and top using RGB Sense and you can see my configuration in the screenshot.

There is no Port1 because of the software bug, it's useless and doesn't work. So any profile that uses Port1 in RGB sense won't work. The only profile that worked for me was Profile 4.

Note: In order to get Profile 4 you have to have ALL 4 LEDs connected You can chose in HardControl (Monitor Menu) to deactivate the lights but ALL 4 have to be plugged in to get Profile 4 option in RGB Sense.

Thanks man for the instruction!👍😎 As I understand it, there is little hope that ACER will add support for the fourth rgb tape in its RGB Light Sense program ..🤔

HemanthJJ

I am unable to connect RGB light Sense, I connected the strips and when I open RGB sense application it says no supported device connected and my LED strips are lighting just in blue color. Can someone help me how to connect RGB light sense please?

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