Driver API and source code available in liquidctl.driver.smart_device.
The Smart Device is a fan and LED controller that ships with the H200i, H400i, H500i and H700i cases.
It provides three independent fan channels with standard 4-pin connectors. Both PWM and DC control is supported, and the device automatically chooses the appropriate mode.
Additionally, up to four chained HUE+ LED strips or five chained Aer RGB fans can be driven from a single RGB channel. The firmware installed on the device exposes several presets, most of them familiar to other NZXT products.
A microphone is also present onboard for noise level optimization through CAM and AI.
This driver also supports the NZXT Grid+ V3 fan controller, which has six fan speed channels but no LED support or microphone.
All configuration is done through USB, and persists as long as the device still gets power, even if the system has gone to Soft Off (S5) state. The device also reports the state of each fan channel, as well as speed, voltage and current.
All capabilities available at the hardware level are supported, but other features offered by CAM, like noise level optimization and presets based on CPU/GPU temperatures, have not been implemented.
Changed in 1.9.0: the firmware version and the connected accessories are now reported after initialization.
After powering on from Mechanical Off, or if there have been hardware changes, the device must first be initialized. This takes a few seconds and should detect all connected fans and LED accessories. Only then monitoring, proper fan control and all lighting effects will be available.
# liquidctl initialize
NZXT Smart Device (V1)
├── Firmware version 1.7
├── LED accessories 2
├── LED accessory type HUE+ Strip
└── LED count (total) 20
Changed in 1.9.0: the firmware version and the connected accessories are no
longer reported (see Initialization).
Changed in 1.9.0: the noise level is not available when data is read from
Linux hwmon.
The device can report fan information for each channel, the noise level at the onboard sensor, as well as the type of the connected LED accessories.
# liquidctl status
NZXT Smart Device (V1)
├── Fan 1 speed 1492 rpm
├── Fan 1 voltage 11.91 V
├── Fan 1 current 0.02 A
├── Fan 1 control mode PWM
├── Fan 2 speed 1368 rpm
├── Fan 2 voltage 11.91 V
├── Fan 2 current 0.02 A
├── Fan 2 control mode PWM
├── Fan 3 speed 1665 rpm
├── Fan 3 voltage 11.91 V
├── Fan 3 current 0.06 A
├── Fan 3 control mode PWM
└── Noise level 59 dB
Fan speeds can only be set to fixed duty values.
# liquidctl set fan2 speed 90
| Channel | Minimum duty | Maximum duty | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| fan1 | 0% | 100% | |
| fan2 | 0% | 100% | |
| fan3 | 0% | 100% | |
| fan4 | 0% | 100% | Grid+ V3 only |
| fan5 | 0% | 100% | Grid+ V3 only |
| fan6 | 0% | 100% | Grid+ V3 only |
| sync | 0% | 100% | all available channels |
Always check that the settings are appropriate for the use case, and that they correctly apply and persist.
Only NZXT Smart Device (V1)
For lighting, the user can control up to 40 LEDs, if all four strips or five fans are connected. They are chained in a single channel: led.
# liquidctl set led color fixed af5a2f
# liquidctl set led color fading 350017 ff2608 --speed slower
# liquidctl set led color pulse ffffff
# liquidctl set led color marquee-5 2f6017 --direction backward --speed slowest
Colors can be specified in RGB, HSV or HSL (see Supported color specification formats), and each animation mode supports different number of colors. The animation speed can be customized with the --speed <value>, and five relative values are accepted by the device: slowest, slower, normal, faster and fastest.
Some of the color animations can be in either the forward or backward direction.
This can be specified by using the --direction flag.
| Mode | Colors | Notes |
|---|---|---|
off |
None | |
fixed |
One | |
super-fixed |
Up to 40, one for each LED | |
fading |
Between 2 and 8, one for each step | |
spectrum-wave |
None | |
super-wave |
Up to 40 | |
marquee-<length> |
One | 3 ≤ length ≤ 6 |
covering-marquee |
Up to 8, one for each step | |
alternating |
Two | |
moving-alternating |
Two | |
breathing |
Up to 8, one for each step | |
super-breathing |
Up to 40, one for each LED | Only one step |
pulse |
Up to 8, one for each pulse | |
candle |
One | |
wings |
One |
The following modes are now deprecated and the use of the --direction backward is preferred,
they will be removed in a future version and are kept for now for backward compatibility.
| Mode | Colors | Notes |
|---|---|---|
backwards-spectrum-wave |
None | |
backwards-super-wave |
Up to 40 | |
backwards-marquee-<length> |
One | 3 ≤ length ≤ 6 |
covering-backwards-marquee |
Up to 8, one for each step | |
backwards-moving-alternating |
Two |
New in 1.9.0.
These devices are supported by the liquidtux nzxt-grid3 driver, and status
data is provided through a standard hwmon sysfs interface.
Starting with version 1.9.0, liquidctl automatically detects when a kernel
driver is bound to the device and, whenever possible, uses it instead of
directly accessing the device. Alternatively, direct access to the device can
be forced with --direct-access.