FAQ
Is uncoil made by Razer?
Section titled “Is uncoil made by Razer?”No. It is an independent open-source project, not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Razer Inc. “Razer”, “Synapse” and “Chroma” are trademarks of Razer Inc., used here only to say which hardware and software uncoil works with.
What is the licence?
Section titled “What is the licence?”GPL-3.0-or-later. Free to use, study, change and share; changes you distribute stay under the same licence. Protocol facts and some device data derive from OpenRazer and OpenRGB, both GPL-2.0-or-later.
How light is it, really?
Section titled “How light is it, really?”Measured on the maintainer’s PC (a Ryzen desktop with a BlackWidow V4 Pro 75%, Basilisk V3 Pro and Goliathus Chroma Extended):
| Razer Synapse 4 | uncoild | |
|---|---|---|
| Processes | 17 | 1 |
| Memory | ~1.4 GB at start, leaking to several GB over days | ~3 MB |
| CPU, wave running | ~7% of one core | under 1% of one core |
| On disk | ~500 MB | 1.4 MB, one executable |
| Kernel drivers | yes | none |
That is one machine. Memory and CPU were measured on an earlier build; the size is the build of 2026-10-07
(1,402,880 bytes). With live OpenRGB streaming to 350 more LEDs it showed 5 to 6 MB of memory.
uncoild measures itself and writes the numbers to %LOCALAPPDATA%\uncoil\status.json (uncoil status prints
them), so you can check yours.
What still needs Synapse?
Section titled “What still needs Synapse?”What uncoil doesn’t do yet:
- macros;
- what each command-dial mode does, and custom images on the BlackWidow’s dial screen (uncoil sets the active mode and the screen’s brightness);
- switching onboard profiles;
- firmware updates;
- devices that aren’t on the list.
Key and button remapping (normal and Fn layers) works from the app and the CLI. Only one remap, Fn+P to Print Screen, has been checked on a real keyboard so far; see the protocol. DPI, DPI stages, poll rate, battery, the sleep timer and the scroll wheel (tactile or free spin, acceleration, Smart Reel) are there too, from OpenRazer’s documented commands. DPI, stages, poll rate, scroll mode and Smart Reel are confirmed on the Basilisk V3 Pro (2026-10-07); for the rest uncoil reads each value first and won’t change it unless the read makes sense.
Anything already stored in a device’s own memory stays there after Synapse is uninstalled. If you need one of the above occasionally, you can install Synapse, make the change, quit it properly, and uninstall it again.
Will it support my device?
Section titled “Will it support my device?”If it is a Razer device that OpenRGB or OpenRazer already knows, probably, and adding it is mostly a data file. 29 such devices already have an experimental file waiting for someone with the hardware to confirm it. Anything else is out of scope: uncoil drives Razer devices, and can leave the rest of the PC to OpenRGB if you set that up: a hand-off to the devices’ own effects at sign-in, or live, where the motherboard, RAM and GPU follow the desk effect.
Does it collect anything?
Section titled “Does it collect anything?”No. There is no account, no telemetry, no connection off this PC and no updater. It reads its config and device files,
writes a status file, a small log and a record of writes to device memory under your profile, talks to USB
devices, and answers the app and the CLI over a local named pipe that only your user account can open. The
one network connection it makes is in live OpenRGB mode, to OpenRGB on 127.0.0.1. To spot programs that
would fight it over the devices, it compares the names of running programs against a short list (Synapse,
Razer Chroma, OpenRGB, SignalRGB) and keeps only the names that match.
Does it need administrator rights?
Section titled “Does it need administrator rights?”Once, to install: the executable goes to %ProgramFiles%\uncoil, where only administrators can write. The
daemon itself runs as you, unelevated; its device access is plain user-mode HID. Only the optional OpenRGB
part runs elevated, from its own task (install-task.ps1 -OpenRgb: a one-shot hand-off, or in live mode
OpenRGB’s server for as long as it runs), because RAM lighting sits on the SMBus, which needs administrator
rights. -Elevated runs the whole daemon elevated, as a fallback for a
PC where it cannot open its devices otherwise.
Windows only?
Section titled “Windows only?”Yes, Windows 10 and 11. On Linux, OpenRazer already does this job well.
Why “uncoil”?
Section titled “Why “uncoil”?”It unwinds the things you didn’t ask to have running. Make of the snake what you like.