GAMEMAX LCD — Linux bridge & tray app

Drive the LCD panel of a GAMEMAX IceBurg Digital AIO cooler from Linux: a small sender plus a tray application (GUI) with live monitoring, settings and autostart.

Reverse engineered independently from the Windows vendor software (PcInfoMonitorPro.exe / "IceBurg Digital Software"); the protocol notes are in docs/reverse-engineering.md (Indonesian).

Author: oxpoe · License: MIT · Independent project, not affiliated with the vendor — please read DISCLAIMER.md before using it.

Compatibility

• OS: Linux only (Windows is handled by the vendor software). No kernel module, no patched driver — it talks to the standard hidraw interface.
• Tested on: CachyOS (Arch) · kernel 7.2.9 · KDE Plasma Wayland · Python 3.14, with the panel of a GAMEMAX IceBurg 240 Digital BK (HID 5131:2007, vendor-defined usage page 0xFF00, 64-byte reports).
• Other IceBurg Digital models/sizes very likely share the same protocol; if a panel revision differs, gamemax_report.py --dry-run lets you inspect the report without writing to the device.
• The panel keeps animating on its own; the firmware offers no command to power the display off and no way to change the logo — blank mode simply sends zeros.

Screen modes

Normal — sensor values	Blank — zeros (indicator is clear)

Tested hardware

The target is the LCD block of an AIO cooler. Two things confuse people, so they are stated up front:

1. lsusb shows this device as "MSR MSR-101U Mini HID magnetic card reader". That is a VID/PID collision in the usb.ids database (the 0x5131 range is shared by cheap OEM modules), not what the device is. The HID report descriptor is vendor-defined (0xFF00, 64-byte input + 64-byte output, no report IDs) — a card reader or keyboard looks completely different. Check it yourself:

   cat /sys/class/hidraw/hidraw*/device/report_descriptor | xxd | head
   

2. The panel is not a general monitor. It belongs to one specific cooler family, and its firmware decides what it renders (two digits, fixed °C label, its own animations).

Component	What it is / what it provides
Cooler + LCD panel	GAMEMAX IceBurg 240 Digital BK — 240 mm AIO, round 66×45 mm LCD block
Panel USB identity	VID 0x5131 / PID 0x2007 · USB 1.10 full-speed · 2 × 64-byte interrupt endpoints · bInterval 160 ms · no report IDs
Vendor software analysed	PcInfoMonitorPro.exe V_1.0.0.04 ("IceBurg 240 Digital Software", product page)
CPU (temperature source)	AMD Ryzen 5 5600 → k10temp (Tctl, Tccd1; the script sends the highest)
Motherboard (fan source)	ASUS PRIME B550M-A WIFI II → Nuvoton nct6798 (fan1..fan7; only the connected headers read non-zero)
GPU	AMD Radeon RX 6600 (Navi 23) → amdgpu hwmon (temp, fan, power, busy %)
Memory / storage	32 GB RAM · NVMe root filesystem
OS / session	CachyOS (Arch) · kernel 7.2.9 · KDE Plasma on Wayland
Tooling	Python 3.14.7 · PySide6 6.12.0 · hidraw (no kernel module, no driver patch)

Because fan headers differ per board, the fan channel is a setting, not a constant: the GUI lists every fan*_input channel with its current RPM and (if the chosen one reads 0 RPM while another spins) tells you which channel to pick. Same idea for the CPU temperature source (Tctl vs Tccd).

Features

• Sends CPU temp/load/clock/fan/power, GPU temp/load/clock/fan/power, RAM and disk usage to the panel as a 65-byte HID report (the layout the firmware understands)
• Reads sensors from standard Linux interfaces: hwmon, /proc/stat, cpufreq, /proc/meminfo, statvfs — no extra dependencies (pure Python, stdlib only)
• Tray app (--tray-only) plus a window with an animated gauge, bars and details
• Settings: fan channel (pick the header your fans are on), CPU temperature source, send/sample interval — saved to ~/.config/gamemax-report/config.json
• Clear mode indicators: green "showing sensor data" / orange "blank (zeros)" / grey "sending stopped", dimmed tray icon and a desktop notification per change
• Autostart via a systemd user unit (equivalent of the vendor's Task Scheduler trick)
• Plug and play: the service waits for the device, streams while present and keeps waiting through unplug/replug; a udev rule grants access to the logged-in user
• Single instance: launching the app again just raises the running window
• AppImage build script (packaging/build_appimage.sh, PySide6 bundled)

The GUI labels are in Indonesian.

Requirements

• A GAMEMAX IceBurg Digital panel connected over USB (VID 0x5131, PID 0x2007)

• hidraw access for your user (see the udev rule in Install)

• Linux with a working hidraw stack (tested on CachyOS / Arch, KDE Wayland)

• Python 3.10+ for the sender (stdlib only)

• For the tray app: PySide6 (uv run --with pyside6 python src/gamemax_gui.py) or use the prebuilt AppImage

Install

# 1. device access for the logged-in user (once, needs root)
sudo cp packaging/70-gamemax.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo udevadm control --reload && sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=hidraw

# 2. try it without installing anything
cd src
python3 gamemax_report.py --dry-run      # build and print a report, no device writes
python3 gamemax_report.py --listen 5     # read panel -> host reports (none on this panel)

# 3. send for real
python3 gamemax_report.py --count 3      # a few reports
python3 gamemax_report.py                # keep streaming (Ctrl-C to stop)

Run as a background service (autostart + plug and play)

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gamemax-report ~/.config/systemd/user
cp src/gamemax_report.py ~/.local/share/gamemax-report/
cp packaging/gamemax-report.service ~/.config/systemd/user/
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now gamemax-report.service
journalctl --user -u gamemax-report -f        # shows "waiting for 0x5131:0x2007" / "opened ..."

The tray app can do all of this for you (buttons Pasang / perbarui layanan, Mulai otomatis saat login).

Tray app / AppImage

uv run --with pyside6 python src/gamemax_gui.py            # window + tray
uv run --with pyside6 python src/gamemax_gui.py --tray-only

bash packaging/build_appimage.sh                            # -> dist/GAMEMAX-LCD-x86_64.AppImage

Protocol (verified on hardware)

VID 0x5131 / PID 0x2007, vendor-defined HID page 0xFF00, 64-byte IN + 64-byte OUT, no report IDs. The host sends 64 data bytes:

Offset	Field	Notes
0	report ID	always 0
1	64	payload length
2	CPU temp	0..99 °C, two digits only; values ≥ 128 are ignored by firmware
3	CPU load %
4..5	RPM slot	big-endian u16 — the panel shows this field next to the fan icon
6..7	CPU clock MHz	big-endian u16
8..9	CPU power W	big-endian u16
10	GPU temp	0..99 °C
11	GPU load %
12..13	GPU clock MHz	big-endian u16
14..15	GPU fan RPM	big-endian u16
16..17	GPU power W	big-endian u16
18	RAM usage %
19..20	total RAM MiB	big-endian u16
21	disk free %
22..23	total disk GB	big-endian u16
24..64	unused	zero

Firmware behaviours worth knowing: the panel latches values it accepts, blinks the value area when the data stops changing, cannot display three digits, has a fixed °C label, and offers no command to power the display off.

Repository layout

src/         gamemax_report.py (sender)  gamemax_gui.py (tray app)  icon.png
packaging/   build_appimage.sh  70-gamemax.rules  gamemax-report.service
tools/       ildump.py, string_refs.py — helpers used to read the vendor MSIL
docs/        reverse-engineering.md — full analysis (Indonesian)
assets/      previews and icon

Credits

Reverse engineered and written by oxpoe, with the help of REA (managed-code analysis) and Ghidra. Not affiliated with GAMEMAX/GameMax — see DISCLAIMER.md.