liquidctl/docs/nzxt-smart-device.md

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NZXT Smart Device (V1) and Grid+ V3

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.

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

Monitoring

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                        PWM  
├── Fan 1 current               0.04  A
├── Fan 1 speed                 1064  rpm
├── Fan 1 voltage              11.91  V
├── Fan 2                        PWM  
├── Fan 2 current               0.01  A
├── Fan 2 speed                 1051  rpm
├── Fan 2 voltage              11.77  V
├── Fan 3                        PWM  
├── Fan 3 current               0.09  A
├── Fan 3 speed                 1581  rpm
├── Fan 3 voltage              11.77  V
├── Firmware version           1.0.7  
├── LED accessories                2  
├── LED accessory type    HUE+ Strip  
├── LED count (total)             20  
└── Noise level                   62  dB

Fan speeds

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.

RGB lighting

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 backwards-marquee-5 2f6017 --speed slowest

Colors are set in hexadecimal RGB, 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.

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
backwards-spectrum-wave None
super-wave Up to 40
backwards-super-wave Up to 40
marquee-<length> One 3 ≤ length ≤ 6
backwards-marquee-<length> One 3 ≤ length ≤ 6
covering-marquee Up to 8, one for each step
covering-backwards-marquee Up to 8, one for each step
alternating Two
moving-alternating Two
backwards-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