QuadcastRGB

About

The program (or driver, if you wish) allows changing the RGB colors of the microphone HyperX Quadcast S just like NGenuity does. Should support all Unix-like platforms. Only Linux and partially FreeBSD were tested so far.

Available modes are solid, blink, cycle, wave, lightning, and pulse. The program runs as a daemon, kill it or unplug the mic to stop.

Features:

free & open source (GPL-2.0-only)
most Linux distros supported, *BSD should work
cli
daemon

Things yet to be done:

several microphones support
extra modes: ~~pulse,~~ visualizer
~~aur, deb, rpm packages~~
~~refuse to work if another instance is running~~
~~the original modes: solid, blink, cycle, wave, lightning~~
~~brightness & speed~~
~~delay - blink-specific option~~
~~actual installation~~

Examples:

# Default solid color (#f20000, red) for the whole micro:
quadcastrgb solid 
# Random blinking colors:
quadcastrgb blink
# Default cycle (rainbow) mode for the whole micro:
quadcastrgb -a cycle 
# Purple color for the upper part and yellow for the lower:
quadcastrgb -u solid 4c0099 -l solid ff6000 
# Default cycle mode for the upper diode with 50% brightness and yellow lightning for the lower:
quadcastrgb -u -b 50 cycle -l lightning ff6000

Install

Arch-based distro

quadcastrgb is available in the AUR.

Install with yay

yay -S quadcastrgb

Build on your own

mkdir quadcastrgb && cd quadcastrgb
wget https://gitlab.com/Ors1mer/QuadcastRGB/-/raw/main/aur/PKGBUILD # PKGBUILD download
makepkg -sri # build and install
cd .. && rm -rf quadcastrgb # clean-up

Debian-based distro

The already-built deb package is in the deb directory. Simply download it and install:

wget https://gitlab.com/Ors1mer/QuadcastRGB/-/raw/main/deb/quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1-amd64.deb
dpkg -i quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1-amd64.deb

Alternatively, it is possible to make a deb package of your own:

git clone https://gitlab.com/Ors1mer/QuadcastRGB.git
cd QuadcastRGB
make debpkg # build the package with dpkg
dpkg -i deb/quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1-amd64.deb # install

RPM-based distro

Everything is pretty much the same as for deb. Simply download and install:

wget https://gitlab.com/Ors1mer/QuadcastRGB/-/raw/main/rpm/quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm
rpm -ivh quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Or build the package from source:

git clone https://gitlab.com/Ors1mer/QuadcastRGB.git
cd QuadcastRGB
make rpmpkg # build the package in ~/rpmbuild/
rpm -ivh ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/quadcastrgb-1.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm

Compiling from source

If you are lucky, this should be enough:

make install # linux
gmake install OS=freebsd # freebsd

Specify BINDIR_INS and MANDIR_INS for make if you want to change the install locations.

Basic problems during & after Install

Problem 1: make failed

Check the dependencies:

gcc v12.2.0 OR clang v14.0.6 (most versions should do fine)
libusb-1.0 v1.0.26
gettext v0.21-2
glibc
gcc-libs

Problem 2: command not found

Check the $PATH and manpath. The program follows XDG specifications, so the binary is stored in $HOME/.local/bin (should be in $PATH) and the man is in $HOME/.local/share/man (should be in $MANPATH). It is possible to move them, of course.

Problem 3: couldn't open the microphone

Check the error code. If it is 4, try running the program under superuser privileges. If that was the problem, you should eventually create a dev rule for the microphone to allow certain users access to it.

How to create the udev rule

Firstly, check what is the VendorID:ProductID of your mic e. g. like this:

$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0951:171f Kingston Technology HyperX QuadCast S # this is what you're looking for
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0951:171d Kingston Technology HyperX QuadCast S

It should be either 0951:171f, 03f0:0f8b, or 03f0:028c (if it isn't, contact me, the author, I'll add support for your IDs).

Let's proceed to the rule creation:

# Here the rules are stored:
cd /etc/udev/rules.d 
# Do under superuser:
vi 10-quadcast-perm.rules

Write this line, save & exit (:wq):

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="<THE_VENDOR_ID>", ATTRS{idProduct}=="<THE_PRODUCT_ID>", MODE="0660", GROUP="hyperrgb"

Now the microphone is accessible for the group "hyperrgb". Add your user to the group and it's done.

Problem 4: launching the program a second time does nothing

Probably, the previous instance is still running. Kill it with kill or killall.

How to end the program

Simply kill the process by name:

killall quadcastrgb

Problem 5: "HyperX Quadcast S isn't connected" even though it is

Chances are you have a new revision of the mic that has unsupported VendorID:ProductID. The currently supported IDs are 0951:171f, 03f0:0f8b, 03f0:028c, and 03f0:048c. If you have different IDs (check it with lsusb, for example), contact the author; I'll add the support very quickly.

davimargelo/QuadcastRGB