PHN16-72 unit with Darfon lighting controller (0D62:BA51) instead of ENEK5130 — RGB/rear-logo controls unavailable

[bigd213]

Summary

On a Predator Helios Neo 16 PHN16-72, all WMI-backed controls (battery limit,
fan modes, performance profiles, USB-off charging, boot sound, keyboard
timeout) work correctly. However, RGB keyboard control and the rear Predator
logo panel are shown in the UI but grayed out / non-interactive.

Root cause found

This unit's lighting controller is not the ENEK5130 chip (0CF2:5130) that
ASense's HID probe and udev rule (71-asense-hid.rules) target. Instead it
enumerates as:

HID_ID=0003:00000D62:0000BA51
HID_NAME=Darfon Cover Logo

Vendor 0x0D62 = Darfon, not ENEK. No 0CF2:5130 device is present anywhere
in /sys/bus/hid/devices/*/uevent on this machine. It looks like Acer sources
this controller from different OEM suppliers across PHN16-72 production
batches, so the "reference model" DMI match doesn't guarantee the same
lighting chip.

Probe summary

ASense compatibility probe summary
Schema: 3 | mode: passive
Build: 0.3.0 | commit: cef7e2b15d54d2532594877dc903a37cfe0d80d7
Machine: Predator PH16-72 | BIOS: V1.11
System: linuxmint 22.3 | kernel: 6.8.0-136-generic x86_64
Daemon: protocol 2 / version 0.3.0
Drivers: acer_wmi=loaded, asense_rgb=loaded(0.3.0) | WMI GUIDs=3 | hwmon-owner=acer_wmi
Profile: transport=kernel | current=turbo | choices=5
Fans: gaming-wmi modes=auto,manual,maximum | RPM readable=2/2 | temperatures readable=0/0
Platform: transport=gaming-wmi | values=6 absent=0 errors=1 | error-fields=rear-logo
Lighting: none
HID: acer-ec-hid-power-candidate=1025:174b

Full asense-probe.json (schema 3, passive mode, no serials/UUIDs/hostname
per the project's privacy doc) is attached.
asense-probe.json

What works

• Battery charge limit (set to 80%, holding correctly)
• Battery calibration control
• Fan modes: Auto / Manual / Maximum, RPM readback (2/2 channels)
• Performance profiles (5 choices via kernel platform_profile)
• USB-while-powered-off threshold
• Boot sound toggle
• Keyboard RGB timeout toggle
• LCD override

What doesn't work

• Rear Predator logo: On/Apply controls disabled in UI (platform probe
  reports errors=1, error-fields=rear-logo)
• Keyboard RGB zone/color control: "Keyboard" tab disabled in UI
  (Lighting: none in probe — no ENEK5130 target found to bind)

Ask

Would you be open to adding 0D62:BA51 ("Darfon Cover Logo") as a second
supported lighting-controller identity alongside the ENEK5130, if the report
format is close enough? Happy to test a build against this chip or capture
additional evidence (e.g. asense probe with --extended/HID descriptor
dumps) if that's useful and safe to request.

Environment

• Distro: Linux Mint 22.3 (Ubuntu 24.04 base)
• Kernel: 6.8.0-136-generic
• ASense: v0.3.0, installed via the standalone Ubuntu 26.04 installer package
  (binaries ran fine against 24.04's libraries — no missing-library errors)
• Installed via install.sh; DKMS module built/signed/loaded cleanly