Two 5V RGB "signals" conflicting/connected into one another?

[y3llowduk]

Does anyone know what would happen in the below scenario?

 

5V ARGB fan hub with a remote control. Lets say you set it to pulsing green via the remote control. All it's 3-pin 5V outputs will have a "pulsing green" signal.

 

Motherboard with a 5V ARGB header outputting a red pulse (controlled via software)

 

What if you accidentally used a female to female 5v ARGB cable, going from the motherboard into one of the 3-pin outputs on the hub? (NOT into the "RGB IN" connector which might be featured on the hub). You'd then have a conflict... two opposing signals, one wanting pulsing green, one pulsing red.

 

Would something pop/burn? Can see this being a pretty easy scenario to accidentally hook up, especially if you have multiple hubs too.

[Applefreak]

20 minutes ago, y3llowduk said:

Does anyone know what would happen in the below scenario?

 

5V ARGB fan hub with a remote control. Lets say you set it to pulsing green via the remote control. All it's 3-pin 5V outputs will have a "pulsing green" signal.

 

Motherboard with a 5V ARGB header outputting a red pulse (controlled via software)

 

What if you accidentally used a female to female 5v ARGB cable, going from the motherboard into one of the 3-pin outputs on the hub? (NOT into the "RGB IN" connector which might be featured on the hub). You'd then have a conflict... two opposing signals, one wanting pulsing green, one pulsing red.

 

Would something pop/burn? Can see this being a pretty easy scenario to accidentally hook up, especially if you have multiple hubs too.

As long as it's just a signal and no voltages change, nothing would be damaged. What happens depends on how both sides are programmed for. Usually the controller will passthrough the signal from the MB and act as a dumb HUB in that case. If both are dominant, it depends if the signal from the MB is filtered out or not. Either it doesn't work of you have some weird flickering or mismatched colors.

[y3llowduk]

8 minutes ago, Applefreak said:

As long as it's just a signal and no voltages change, nothing would be damaged. What happens depends on how both sides are programmed for. Usually the controller will passthrough the signal from the MB and act as a dumb HUB in that case. If both are dominant, it depends if the signal from the MB is filtered out or not. Either it doesn't work of you have some weird flickering or mismatched colors.

That makes sense, upon looking at the pinout it would only be the data pin which is conflicting. Would be impossible to short the +5V/ground as the 5v header can only be connected one way.

 

Why would the conflict on the data pin not cause a burny burny issue though as well as just a garbled signal? Is it because it never carries any meaningful current? My electrical knowledge doesn't stretch far enough haha

[Applefreak]

38 minutes ago, y3llowduk said:

That makes sense, upon looking at the pinout it would only be the data pin which is conflicting. Would be impossible to short the +5V/ground as the 5v header can only be connected one way.

 

Why would the conflict on the data pin not cause a burny burny issue though as well as just a garbled signal? Is it because it never carries any meaningful current? My electrical knowledge doesn't stretch far enough haha

Honestly I have not taken the time to read up on it. But as far as I know, it is just a signal pin to change or modulate the voltage to change color. In order for something to burn, you would have to short with the ground pin, which is opposite the 5V. You could crimp your own cable to cross them but it would simply not work. Also there is not enough Amperage in those lines to cause fault like that unless you really want to.