TWI772069B - Illumination control system and method of gaming peripherals - Google Patents

Abstract

An illumination control system and method of gaming peripherals is provided. The illumination control system comprises a mainboard and a peripheral device. The mainboard comprises a first storage unit and a first control interface. The first storage unit stores a controlling macro process. The peripheral device comprises a micro control unit, a second storage unit, a plurality of LEDs and a second control interface. The micro control unit couples to the second storage unit, the LEDs and the second control interface. The second storage unit stores a reading script process. The micro control unit access the controlling macro process of the first storage unit according to the reading script process. The micro control unit drives the LEDS according to the controlling macro process.

Description

Lighting control system and method for gaming peripherals

A control system and method for an electronic device, particularly a lighting control system and method for gaming peripherals.

With the rise of the video game industry, it also drives various hardware for electronic competitions. Generally speaking, in addition to providing high computing power, gaming devices can also link the interaction between software and other peripherals. Therefore, when the application is running, the processor not only needs to bear the execution load of the application, but also needs to send control commands to the gaming peripheral. The control command not only includes the signal input or signal output of the gaming device, but also includes the control of the light-emitting diodes of the gaming device.

Therefore, the higher the number of connections to the gaming device, the higher the processing load on the processor. For example, when a target in a video game is damaged, the related peripherals connected to the motherboard and the associated LEDs will flash or change color in linkage, thereby prompting the player of the current game state. For example: the light bar of the case shell or the light-emitting diodes on the side of the screen will flash in conjunction with the damage of the target. While the processor is running the game, the processor also controls other gaming peripherals to emit light. As the number of gaming peripherals increases, the load on the processor will also increase, which will affect the synchronous lighting of the gaming peripherals connected to the motherboard. In addition, when the motherboard is mixed with gaming peripherals of different brands, the lighting of the gaming peripherals will also be out of sync. Or when the host computer is not running the operating system, the processor will not send control commands to the gaming peripherals, so that the lighting of the gaming peripherals will also be out of sync.

In view of this, in some embodiments, the lighting control system of the gaming peripheral includes a motherboard and peripheral devices. The motherboard has a first storage unit and a first control interface, the first storage unit stores a control macro; the peripheral equipment has a microcontroller, a second storage unit, a plurality of light emitting diodes and a second control interface, the microcontroller is coupled to connected to the second storage unit, the light emitting diode and the second control interface, the second control interface is coupled to the first control interface, the second storage unit has a script reading program, and the microcontroller executes the script reading program, The microcontroller reads the control macro of the first storage unit according to the script reading program, and the microcontroller drives the light-emitting diodes according to the control macro. The peripheral devices of the lighting control system around the gaming environment can read the control macros by themselves, without the need for the processor to send control commands to the peripheral devices one by one. Therefore, the processor can reduce the workload of sending control commands.

In some embodiments, a power supply terminal is further included, which transmits operating power to peripheral devices and provides operating power to the microcontroller and the light-emitting diodes.

In some embodiments, the peripheral device executes the script reading program in the zero state (S0), the first state (S1), the second state (S2) or the third state (S3) of the advanced configuration and power interface to Read the control macro of the first storage unit.

In some embodiments, the peripheral device includes a first light-emitting group and a second light-emitting group, the first light-emitting group is part of the light-emitting diodes, the second light-emitting group is the rest of the light-emitting diodes, and the microcontroller The light-emitting scripts of the first light-emitting group and the second light-emitting group are respectively driven according to the control macro.

In some embodiments, the peripheral device includes a first light-emitting group and a second light-emitting group, the first light-emitting group is part of the light-emitting diodes, the second light-emitting group is the rest of the light-emitting diodes, and the microcontroller The light-emitting scripts of the first light-emitting group and the second light-emitting group are respectively driven according to the control macro.

In some embodiments, the control macro further includes a lighting script, and the lighting script includes lighting intensity, lighting frequency or lighting color.

In some embodiments, the microcontroller writes the control macro to the second storage unit, and the microcontroller drives the light emitting diode according to the control macro of the second storage unit.

In some embodiments, the script reading program includes a direct reading mode, the microcontroller reads the control macro from the first storage unit every time the microcontroller passes the first update cycle, and the microcontroller reads the control macro from the first storage unit according to the control of the first storage unit. The macro drives the light emitting diodes.

In some embodiments, the script reading program includes an indirect reading mode, and the microcontroller writes the control macro of the first storage unit into the second storage unit every time the microcontroller passes through the second update cycle; the microcontroller writes the control macro of the first storage unit into the second storage unit; During two refresh cycles, the microcontroller drives the light-emitting diodes according to the control macro of the second storage unit.

In some embodiments, the lighting control method of the gaming peripheral includes writing a control macro into a first storage unit; reading the control macro of the first storage unit by a peripheral device; and driving a plurality of light-emitting two by the peripheral device according to the control macro Polar body glows. The lighting control method of the gaming peripheral is that each peripheral device reads control macros from the first storage unit, and it is not necessary for the processor to send control commands to the peripheral devices one by one. Therefore, the processor can reduce the workload of sending control commands.

In some embodiments, the step of writing the control macro into the first storage unit includes connecting the peripheral device to the motherboard, so that the peripheral device is electrically connected to the first storage unit of the motherboard.

In some embodiments, the step of reading the control macro of the first storage unit by the peripheral device includes executing a script reading program of the peripheral device, wherein in the zero state (S0), the first state of the advanced configuration and the power interface A state (S1), a second state (S2) or a third state (S3) executes the script reading program.

In some embodiments, the step of driving a plurality of light emitting diodes to emit light according to the control macro in the peripheral device includes dividing the light emitting diodes into a first light emitting group and a second light emitting group; respectively driving the first light emitting group and the second light emitting group. The glow script of the second glow group.

The lighting control system and method for gaming peripherals can not only control the brightness of gaming peripherals, but also reduce the processor's burden of dispatching control commands. The processor does not need to send corresponding control commands to each peripheral device at all times. In addition, the lighting control system of the gaming peripheral does not need to increase the cost of new hardware, and the corresponding control macro can be obtained by the microcontroller of the peripheral device, so as to drive the action of the light emitting diode.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic structural diagram of a lighting control system 100 for gaming peripherals according to an embodiment. The lighting control system 100 for gaming peripherals can be applied to a personal computer, a notebook computer or a computer related to gaming. The lighting control system 100 includes a mainboard 110 and at least one peripheral device 120 . The motherboard 110 has a processor 111 , a first storage unit 112 and a first control interface 113 . The processor 111 is coupled to the first storage unit 112 and the first control interface 113 . The first storage unit 112 stores the control macro 114 . The first storage unit 112 may be a read only memory, a flash memory or an Electrically-Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory or the like.

The control macro 114 records the device information (without label) and the lighting script (without label), and the device information corresponds to the peripheral device 120 and the associated LED 123 (or a set thereof). In other words, different peripheral devices 120 each have corresponding device information. The light-emitting script is used to control the light-emitting of the light-emitting diode 123, and the light-emitting script includes light-emitting brightness, light-emitting frequency or light-emitting color. In one embodiment, all the peripheral devices 120 can share the same device information, so that all the peripheral devices 120 can emit light in synchronization or in the same emission color.

The first control interface 113 is coupled to the peripheral device 120 . The type of the first control interface 113 can be, but is not limited to, Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIE), Universal Serial Bus (Universal Serial Bus), thunderbolt, dual-line memory Module (Dual In-line Memory Module) or lamp socket (LED Strip socket). The first control interface 113 transmits the control macro 114 to the peripheral device 120 . In one embodiment, the first control interface 113 can transmit operating power to the peripheral device 120 .

The peripheral device 120 has a microcontroller 121 , a second storage unit 122 , a plurality of light emitting diodes 123 and a second control interface 124 . The types of peripheral devices 120 may be, but are not limited to, keyboard 212 , mouse, fan, radiator, cable, memory, light bar, hub, power supply, or storage device. The microcontroller 121 is electrically connected to the second storage unit 122 , the light emitting diodes 123 and the second control interface 124 . The second storage unit 122 stores the script reading program 125 . The microcontroller 121 executes the script reading program 125 to obtain the path position of the first storage unit 112 and read the control macro 114 . The script reading program 125 can acquire the path position of the first storage unit 112 in the motherboard 110 and the control macro 114 through the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). Alternatively, the script reader 125 obtains the control macro 114 according to the memory address or sector.

The type of the second control interface 124 corresponds to the first control interface 113 . The second control interface 124 is coupled to the first control interface 113 , and the second control interface 124 transmits the control macro 114 . The microcontroller 121 reads the control macro 114 of the first storage unit 112 according to the script reading program 125 . The microcontroller 121 drives the light-emitting action of the light-emitting diode 123 according to the control macro 114 . In addition to recording device information, the control macro 114 also records the LEDs 123 and lighting scripts of the corresponding devices. The microcontroller 121 can acquire the lighting script of the corresponding LED 123 according to the device information. The control macro 114 can store the device information of one group of peripheral devices 120 , and can also store the device information of multiple groups of peripheral devices 120 at the same time.

In FIG. 2 , the main board 110 is represented by a diagram of a personal computer mainframe, and the displayed image on the screen is the content of the control macro 114 . Taking the cooling fan 211 and the keyboard 212 as an example, the cooling fan 211 and the keyboard 212 are respectively configured with different device information. When the microcontroller 121 of the cooling fan 211 reads the control macro 114, the microcontroller 121 can obtain the corresponding lighting script according to the device information. The light-emitting script of the cooling fan 211 adjusts the light-emitting color, light-emitting brightness or light-emitting frequency of the light-emitting diode 123 according to the detected temperature or the fan speed. In Figure 2, the luminous color is represented by a color code. Different color codes in the same row represent color changes of the light emitting diodes 123 . In Figure 2, only two sets of color codes are used as gradient transformations and the brightness is also adjusted accordingly. The light-emitting diodes 123 of the cooling fan 211 perform the aforementioned changes in brightness and color with a period of 500 ms (corresponding to FIG. 2 ), but the control macro 114 is not limited to this representation.

Similarly, after the microcontroller 121 of the keyboard 212 reads the control macro 114 , the microcontroller 121 obtains the corresponding lighting script from the control macro 114 according to the device information. The lighting script of the keyboard 212 may determine other keys and the brightness or color of the LEDs 123 of the other keys according to the key positions.

In one embodiment, the lighting control system 100 further includes a power supply terminal 311 . The power supply terminal 311 provides operating power to the peripheral device 120 . The peripheral device 120 can be coupled to the peripheral device 120 through the second control interface 124 or other interfaces. In one embodiment, the first control interface 113 includes a power supply terminal 311 . When the first control interface 113 is connected to the second control interface 124 , the first control interface 113 provides operating power to the peripheral device 120 . If the peripheral device 120 is a USB hub, in addition to the USB connector (corresponding to the second control interface 124 ), the USB hub can be provided with a power input terminal on the side of the USB hub, as shown in FIG. 3 . The power input terminal can be connected to a power supply terminal (eg, commercial power or DC power supply, etc.) to obtain operating power.

To further illustrate the operation process of this embodiment, please also refer to FIG. 4 , which is an embodiment of a lighting control method for a gaming peripheral. The lighting control method of the gaming peripheral includes the following steps: Step S410: write the control macro into the first storage unit; Step S420: read the control macro of the first storage unit by the peripheral device; and Step S430: The peripheral device drives the plurality of light-emitting diodes to emit light according to the control macro.

First, during the operation of the motherboard 110 , the processor 111 writes the acquired control macro 114 into the first storage unit 112 . The processor 111 can obtain the control macro 114 or update the control macro 114 through an operating system, an application program or a remote server. If the control macro 114 does not exist in the first storage unit 112 or the version information of the control macro 114 is an old version, the processor 111 writes the acquired control macro 114 into the first storage unit 112 .

Next, at least one peripheral device 120 is coupled to the motherboard 110 . After the peripheral device 120 is coupled to the motherboard 110 , the microcontroller 121 of the peripheral device 120 executes the script reading program 125 . The microcontroller 121 finds the path to the first storage unit 112 according to the path of the script reading program 125 and obtains the control macro 114 . The microcontroller 121 acquires the corresponding lighting script of the LED 123 according to the device information and the control macro 114 . The microcontroller 121 drives the LEDs 123 according to the control macro 114 and the lighting script. The microcontroller 121 will repeat the reading and driving processes of steps S420 to S430 until the motherboard 110 is shut down or hibernated.

In some embodiments, the peripheral device 120 may be in the zero state (S0), the first state (S1), the second state (S2), or the first state (S2) of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). The three states ( S3 ) take the control macro 114 of the first storage unit 112 . During the running process of the mainboard 110 (corresponding to the zero state), the processor 111 can update the control macro 114 at any time. In the first state ( S1 ), the second state ( S2 ), or the third state ( S3 ), the processor 111 goes into sleep mode, but the peripheral device 120 and the first storage unit 112 keep operating. Therefore, the peripheral device 120 can still obtain the control macro 114 of the first storage unit 112 through the second control interface 124 .

In some embodiments, the script reading program 125 includes a direct reading mode 511 and an indirect reading mode 512 . The processor 111 may send a switching command to the peripheral device 120 so that the peripheral device 120 selects the direct reading mode 511 or the indirect reading mode 512 . When the peripheral device 120 is in the direct read mode 511 , the microcontroller 121 reads the control macro 114 from the first storage unit 112 every time the microcontroller 121 passes the first update cycle. The microcontroller 121 drives the corresponding light-emitting diodes 123 according to the control macro 114 of the first storage unit 112 . The length of the first update cycle is determined according to the control macro 114 .

Please refer to FIG. 5 , the middle part of FIG. 5 is the time axis, and the upper part of the time axis is the first update cycle (no label), and the double-headed arrows indicate the interval length of reading the control macro 114 . Below the time axis are the second update cycles (described later). For example, the light-emitting time length of the peripheral device 120 is 1500 ms. Therefore, the first update period should be less than or equal to 1500ms. When the microcontroller 121 reads the returned control macro 114 from the first storage unit 112 every time the first update cycle passes.

When the peripheral device 120 is in the indirect read mode 512 , the microcontroller 121 reads the control macro 114 from the first storage unit 112 and writes the control macro 114 into the second storage unit every time the microcontroller 121 passes the second update cycle. 122. Wherein, the duration of the second update period is greater than the duration of the first update period. The microcontroller 121 drives the corresponding LEDs 123 according to the control macro 114 of the second storage unit 122 in the second update cycle and every time the first update cycle passes, as shown in FIG. 5 .

Following the previous example, if the second update period is 4500 ms, the microcontroller 121 will go through three rounds of the first update period during the second update period. The microcontroller 121 reads the control macro 114 from the second storage unit 122 and drives the light emitting diodes 123 in the second update cycle and every time the first update cycle passes. When the microcontroller 121 goes through the second update cycle, the microcontroller 121 reads the control macro 114 from the first storage unit 112 . Different peripheral devices 120 can be set to different read modes, which further reduces the access frequency to the first storage unit 112 .

In some embodiments, the light emitting diodes 123 of the peripheral device 120 may be divided into a first light emitting group 611 and a second light emitting group 612 . The control macro 114 records the lighting script of the first lighting group 611 and the lighting script of the second lighting group 612 . Herein, the lighting script of the first lighting group 611 is referred to as the first script 621 , and the lighting script of the second lighting group 612 is referred to as the second script 622 , please refer to FIGS. 6A and 6B . In FIG. 6A , a case with light-emitting diodes 123 is used as the peripheral device 120 for illustration. The microcontroller 121 can drive the first light-emitting group 611 and the second light-emitting group 612 according to the first script 621 and the second script 622, respectively, as shown in FIG. 6B .

The first light-emitting group 611 and the second light-emitting group 612 can be under different action conditions (that is, the cycle in FIG. 6A ), and the first light-emitting group 611 can be converted from color code #00BFFF to color code #1E90FF Gradient transformation, And the luminous brightness is changed at the same time when the gradient is transformed. In addition to the color transformation of the color code, three primary colors or other color coordinates can also be used as a means of color transformation. For the second light-emitting group 612, the second light-emitting group 612 gradually changes from the color code #F08080 to the color code #FF0000 every 350 ms, and the brightness of the second light-emitting group 612 remains constant.

The lighting control system 100 and method for the gaming peripheral can not only control the brightness of the gaming peripheral, but also reduce the burden of the processor 111 for dispatching control commands. The processor 111 does not need to send corresponding control instructions to each peripheral device 120 at all times, as shown in FIG. 7 . The upper part of FIG. 7 is the load record of the processor 111 sending control commands at all times according to the prior art, and the lower part of FIG. 7 is the load record of the processor 111 of the lighting control system 100 around the gaming environment.

In addition, the lighting control system 100 for gaming peripherals does not need to increase the cost of new hardware, and obtains the corresponding control macro 114 through the microcontroller 121 of the peripheral device 120 to drive the LEDs 123 to operate. When the processor 111 is in the zero state, other peripheral devices 120 can still read the control macro 114 by themselves, so as to maintain the synchronous lighting of the light-emitting diodes 123 .

100: Lighting Control System 110: Motherboard 111: Processor 112: The first storage unit 113: The first control interface 114: Control Macros 120: Peripherals 121: Microcontroller 122: Second storage unit 123: Light Emitting Diode 124: Second control interface 125: Script Reader 211: cooling fan 212: Keyboard 311: Power supply terminal 511: Direct read mode 512: Indirect read mode 611: The first light group 612: The second luminous group 621: First Script 622: Second script S410~S430: Steps

[FIG. 1] is a schematic diagram of a system architecture of an embodiment. [ FIG. 2 ] is a schematic diagram of various peripheral devices and corresponding lighting scripts according to an embodiment. [FIG. 3] is a schematic diagram of a power supply end of an embodiment. [FIG. 4] is a schematic diagram of a lighting control flow of an gaming peripheral according to an embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a direct reading mode and an indirect reading mode according to an embodiment. [FIG. 6A] is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a control macro having multiple light-emitting groups. [FIG. 6B] is a schematic diagram of the structure of controlling the corresponding light-emitting group with the corresponding script according to an embodiment. [ FIG. 7 ] is a schematic diagram of the load of the processor according to an embodiment.

100: Lighting Control System

110: Motherboard

111: Processor

112: The first storage unit

113: The first control interface

114: Control Macros

120: Peripherals

121: Microcontroller

122: Second storage unit

123: Light Emitting Diode

124: Second control interface

125: Script Reader

Claims (13)

A lighting control system for gaming peripherals, comprising: a motherboard with a first storage unit and a first control interface, the first storage unit stores a control macro; and a peripheral device with a microcontroller, a second storage unit, a plurality of light-emitting diodes and a second control interface, the microcontroller is coupled to the second storage unit, the light-emitting diodes and the second control interface, the second control interface coupled to the first control interface, the second storage unit has a script reading program, the microcontroller executes the script reading program, and the microcontroller reads the first storage unit according to the script reading program The control macro, the microcontroller drives the light emitting diodes according to the control macro. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a power supply terminal for transmitting an operating power to the peripheral device, and providing the operating power to the microcontroller and the light emitting diodes. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first control interface corresponds to the second control interface, and the first control interface is a fast peripheral component interconnection standard, a universal serial bus, a lightning bolt Communication protocol, two-wire memory module or lamp holder. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, wherein the peripheral device is in an advanced configuration of the motherboard and in the zero state (S0), the first state (S1), and the second state of the power interface (S2) or the third state (S3) reads the control macro of the first storage unit. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, wherein the peripheral device includes a first lighting group and a second lighting group, and the first lighting group is part of the lighting The second light-emitting group is the light-emitting diodes of the remaining parts, and the microcontroller drives a light-emitting script of the first light-emitting group and the second light-emitting group respectively according to the control macro. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals according to claim 1, wherein the control macro further includes the lighting script, and the lighting script includes a lighting intensity, a lighting frequency or a lighting color. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, wherein the microcontroller writes the control macro to the second storage unit, and the microcontroller drives the control macro according to the control macro of the second storage unit some light-emitting diodes. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 1, wherein the script reading program includes a direct reading mode, and each time the microcontroller passes through a first update cycle, the microcontroller sends the data to the first storage unit. Reading the control macro, the microcontroller drives the light emitting diodes according to the control macro of the first storage unit. The lighting control system for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 8, wherein the script reading program includes an indirect reading mode, and each time the microcontroller passes through a second update cycle, the microcontroller stores the first storage unit. The control macro of the second storage unit is written into the second storage unit; the microcontroller drives the light-emitting diodes according to the control macro of the second storage unit during the second update cycle. A lighting control method for gaming peripherals, comprising: writing a control macro into a first storage unit by a processor; reading the control macro of the first storage unit by a peripheral device; and the peripheral device according to The control macro drives a plurality of light emitting diodes to emit light. The light-emitting control method for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 10, wherein the step of writing the control macro into the first storage unit comprises: connecting the peripheral device to a motherboard to electrically connect the peripheral device the first storage unit on the motherboard. The lighting control method for gaming peripherals according to claim 10, wherein the step of reading the control macro of the first storage unit by the peripheral device comprises: executing a script reading program of the peripheral device, wherein in An advanced configuration of the motherboard and the zero state (S0), first state (S1), second state (S2), third state (S3) or fourth state (S4) of the power interface to execute the script Read the program. The light-emitting control method for gaming peripherals as claimed in claim 10, wherein the step of driving a plurality of light-emitting diodes to emit light according to the control macro in the peripheral device comprises: dividing the light-emitting diodes into a first light-emitting diode group and a second light-emitting group; and a light-emitting script for respectively driving the first light-emitting group and the second light-emitting group.

Images