AniMe Matrix control for Linux

Put images, GIFs, video, a clock or a music visualiser on the LED lid of your ROG Zephyrus G14 or G16. Open source, made for Linux, no Armoury Crate or G-Helper needed.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anshmehta7x/animatrix/main/install.sh |
              bash

Linux x86_64. Installs to ~/.local and asks for sudo once for device access. Build from source

Everything the lid can do

Images, GIFs and video

Drop a file on the preview, then drag to move and scroll to zoom. GIFs keep their per-frame timing.

Clock and text

Digital, analogue and binary faces, and scrolling text that fits around the panel's cut corner.

Music visualiser

Bars, spectrum, waveform or spectrogram from whatever your speakers play, via PipeWire.

Generative effects

Matrix rain, Game of Life, starfield, plasma, a breathing glow and system stats.

Power aware

Off on battery or with the lid closed, firmware animations while asleep, back on resume.

Firmware built-ins

Pick the boot, awake, sleep and shutdown animations stored in the panel itself.

The animatrix panel showing matrix rain, the music visualiser, an image being placed and the clock on a live preview of the LED lattice

A compact tray panel with a live preview of the real staggered LED lattice.
A command-line tool for scripts and shortcuts: animatrix gif loop.gif.
A small daemon that owns the device and exposes a D-Bus API for any language.
Scenes and a playlist to save setups and rotate between them, plus night dimming.
Tested on the Zephyrus G14 GA402XU. GA401 and GU604 profiles included.

Script it

// TypeScript
import { Matrix } from "@anshmehta7x/animatrix";

const m = await Matrix.open();
await m.showImage("cat.png", { fit: "contain" });
await m.draw((c) => { c.clear(); c.text(30, 4, "hi"); });
await m.close();

# or from any language over D-Bus
busctl --user call dev.animatrix.Matrix1 /dev/animatrix/Matrix1 \
  dev.animatrix.Matrix1 Play ss clock '{"face":"analogue"}'

Questions

How do I control the AniMe Matrix on Linux?

Run the installer above, then open the animatrix panel or use the animatrix command. It talks to the panel directly over hidraw, so it needs neither Windows, Armoury Crate nor G-Helper.

Which laptops have an AniMe Matrix?

The ROG Zephyrus G14 2020/2021 (GA401), the G14 2022/2023 (GA402R, GA402X, GA402N) and the Zephyrus G16 2023 (GU604). Models from 2024 on have Slash Lighting instead, which is different hardware and not supported.

Does it work with asusctl?

Keep asusctl for fans, keyboard lighting and power profiles. Its daemon, asusd, also claims the AniMe device, so stop asusd while animatrix runs. animatrix detects it and tells you.

Can I play a GIF or a video on the lid?

Yes. GIFs play with each frame's own timing, and videos stream through ffmpeg at up to 30 frames per second, the panel's measured limit.