Don’t try this RGB Steam Deck mod simply but

As cool because the Steam Deck appears with RGB lighting, you may not wish to try and mod your machine simply but. One Reddit consumer who tried the mod discovered that whereas including the RGB LEDs doesn’t draw a big quantity of energy from the battery, it will probably trigger fairly huge points with the Steam Deck’s motherboard.

The “RGBDeck” mod began making the rounds on Reddit earlier this month, with u/WUBBSY documenting the method of affixing a small microcontroller and LED strips to the machine. They topped it off with a clear backing from JSAUX, permitting the lights to shine by means of the case whereas the Steam Deck’s switched on. The top end result provides the Steam Deck a pleasant pop of colour (in a really gamer PC sort of means).

Adam Honse (u/CalcProgrammer1), the developer behind the open-source lighting platform OpenRGB, additionally tried the mod and even got here up with an integration that lets customers modify the Steam Deck’s lighting by means of the app. Nonetheless, Honse has since posted an replace on Saturday evening that advises in opposition to making an attempt it, noting that it “appears to be a big harm on the motherboard.”

In response to Honse, the supply of the difficulty is a tiny part “that didn’t just like the added energy draw on the interior USB connection between the motherboard and controller PCB,” the place he sourced the 5V wanted to energy the RGB lights. That piece ended up failing after a number of days, inflicting the lights and controller to exhibit some funky conduct earlier than they stopped working altogether.

It additionally did some injury to a part on the Steam Deck’s motherboard, which is meant to chop off the 5V of energy to the controller board when the machine is in sleep mode. As defined by Honse, that piece now not switches the facility off to the controller when the Steam Deck’s on standby, inflicting the machine to lose energy. “We’ll must discover a new supply of 5V energy that may deal with greater present,” Honse explains.

In different phrases, the mod simply isn’t there but, and that’s okay; I’m simply glad Honse got here ahead earlier than different modders go breaking their Steam Decks. Hopefully, it gained’t be too lengthy till we see a potential answer (a minimum of till Valve decides to include RGB into the Steam Deck by default).