Since I spent ages writing it and it got deleted it I'll shorten it and if anyone wants more detail ask me...
Firstly, I'm 16 so you can definitely give it a shot.
Before I came up with a proper solution I managed to blow 2 Corsair SP120 RGB fans.
1) I attempted to connect a 12v LED strip driver to the fan LED connector - It worked very bright for a few seconds then fizzled and smoked.
I did some research and found out they're 5v LEDs...
2) I used a 5v positive wire from a cut USB cable and a 12v negative wire from the led driver - No lights, fizzing or smoking but the smell was awful.
3) I used a 12v to 5v DC car adapter and used the positive and Red from the LED driver to convert down to 5v. It worked for a very short while very
dim but I couldn't get them to turn back on after... I plugged the fan into the corsair controller and into my current computer and it worked fine.
I then did some research as to why I couldn't get it to work at all and I found that the LEDs used on the SP120 fans are individually controllable and
use microchips within the LEDs. I then discovered the reason I couldn't get anything working is because the cable is: Positive, Data 1, Data 2, Negative.
Not Positive, R, G, B (Negatives). So after this discovery I gave up on the SP120 fans and returned the final working one.
I tried to find a standard RGB fan I could adapt to aura but had no joy. I eventually came up with an idea; the next model up Corsair fans (HD120) use the same LEDs as the SP120 but on a strip around the outside. This got me thinking whether I could disassemble the fan, remove the LED strip and add my own standard
non-waterproof 5050 RGB LED strip.
I ordered a single HD120 fan to test my theory and it arrived the other day. So... I was struggling to get it open but I found this article in which someone opens the HD120 fan to access the LEDs but for a different reason:
Imgur Article
I got the fan open a similar way to how described in the article and as I hoped the LED strip was directly exposed. I removed the strip from the fan and chopped the wire off it to use it. There was no returning the fan from point so I could only keep going.
I soldered the cable onto a standard 5050 RGB LED strip and cut the corsair connector off the other end and soldered it to a RGB LED strip connector. Next, I used heat shrink to cover the soldering at both ends and ensure the wires stay in position.
I then placed the strip around the fan and cut it as close as I could to a full lap at the cut points without it overlapping. I then fitted the wire into the exit slot and hot glued the soldered end in place from the wire's location. I then glued the other end in place ensuring that it was tight around the fan.
After this I reassembled the fan and was ready to test it. I'm building my new PC at the moment and it's my birthday next week so I'm hoping to get the remainder of my parts so I can't hook it up to Asus Aura yet. I connected the PWM from the fan to my fan controller just for test purposes and used my 12v LED strip driver from a DC adapter. I maxed the fan controller and hit the adapter at the wall...
It worked great! Firstly, the fan looks so much better in my opinion because the LED strip is 300 LEDs/m whereas the corsair strip is 150 LEDs/m. It all worked as I wanted it to and is the correct voltage for Asus Aura now. The only problem is that Asus Aura pins are: +GRB not +RGB but to solve this you merely cut and solder the middle two wires of the cable the other way round.
Hope this helps, I've got my other two fans ordered and I'll make a video of how to fully do this once they arrive and link to it.
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