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I am building a PC and wanted to do custom lighting with an RGB LED strip. I could connect an Arduino to one of the internal USB headers but decided that I wanted to try and connect the power to molex (It is a 12 volt strip) and the other serial pins to the USB data lines. I am having trouble because Windows doesn't recognize it as a device. I was going to make an application in Processing using the serial library but can't because it isn't a COM port I can reference. I have been considering writing a drive but don't know if I can override the USB signals directly. Is there another controller I need in between the USB port and the LED strip or will writing a driver work? I know there are probably RGB LED strips that already have a USB port on them but I am planning on having some custom effects for it.

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  • Your trying to connect to a device that isn't even a data device.
    – Ramhound
    Mar 12, 2015 at 1:55
  • The device you "need" is probably a USB to TTL-serial adapter but with USB-header connector instead of the typical USB type-A connector . Mar 12, 2015 at 10:34

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None of what you're doing makes any sense. Please stop and educate yourself significantly about exactly what USB is. If you continue doing what you're doing, you will break something, if you haven't already. You can't just connect things that weren't designed to be connected. It's not a USB device, it should not be connected to a USB port's data lines.

If the RGB LED strip has an RS232 serial port, you can connect it to a USB RS232 serial adapter. Do not do this unless you are certain the serial pins are RS232 compliant. There are other voltage standards and connecting them to each other can fry things.

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