SensorBridge

A hardware sensor bridge for Proxmox Windows VMs. Reads real host hardware data via LibreHardwareMonitor and exposes it over gRPC streaming and WMI — giving your Windows guest authentic, live sensor readings instead of nothing.

What it does

When Windows runs inside a Proxmox KVM guest, hardware monitoring software sees no sensors. This project fixes that by running a .NET 8 Windows Service that:

• Reads real CPU temps, fan RPMs, voltages, and NVMe temps via LibreHardwareMonitor
• Streams them over gRPC (h2c) on port 9999
• Writes them directly to a custom WMI class (root\SensorBridge\LiveSensors)
• Any Windows software that reads WMI sensors will see live, authentic hardware data

Windows VM
└── SensorBridge.exe (Windows Service)
    ├── LibreHardwareMonitor → reads NCT6798D, k10temp, NVMe
    ├── gRPC streaming server :9999
    └── root\SensorBridge\LiveSensors (WMI)

PVE Host (optional)
└── sensor-bridge.py → connects to VM :9999, re-serves as TCP JSON

Gen8 / Linux clients (optional)
└── scripts/gen8_smoke_client/client.py → gRPC stream consumer

Confirmed working on

• Proxmox VE 7.0, ASRock X570 Steel Legend, Windows 11 guest
• GTX 1080 Ti passthrough, NCT6798D superIO, AMD k10temp

WMI output example

Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\SensorBridge" -Class "LiveSensors" | Select-Object *

CpuTemp    : 56.6
SystemTemp : 40
VrmTemp    : 55
Vcore      : 0.696
Fan2Rpm    : 1560
Fan5Rpm    : 825
Fan6Rpm    : 2132

---

Requirements

• Windows 11 (guest VM)
• .NET 8 Runtime or SDK
• Administrator rights (required for WMI class creation and LHM kernel driver)

---

Build

cd SensorBridge
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true -o ..\service

Or open SensorBridge.sln in Visual Studio and publish from there.

---

Install as Windows Service

# From an elevated PowerShell prompt
sc.exe create SensorBridge binPath="C:\SensorBridge\service\SensorBridge.exe" start=auto
sc.exe description SensorBridge "Hardware Sensor Bridge"
sc.exe start SensorBridge

# Verify
Get-Service SensorBridge
Get-WmiObject -Namespace "root\SensorBridge" -Class "LiveSensors" | Select-Object CpuTemp, Fan2Rpm, VrmTemp

---

Configuration

Edit appsettings.json to map sensor channels for your hardware:

{
  "SensorMapping": {
    "CpuTempSensorName": "CPU Package",
    "SystemTempSensorName": "System",
    "Fan2SensorName": "Fan #2"
  }
}

Sensor names come from LibreHardwareMonitor — run LHM standalone first to find the exact names for your board.

---

Proto schema

The gRPC interface is defined in SensorBridge/Protos/SensorBridge.proto. Key fields:

cpu.package_temp_c
thermals.system_temp_c
thermals.vrm_temp_c
fans.fan2_rpm / fan5_rpm / fan6_rpm
voltages.vcore_v / v12_v
storage.nvme_temp_c
source_timestamp_ticks
board_device_id

If you use the Gen8 smoke client, the .proto file in scripts/gen8_smoke_client/ must match SensorBridge/Protos/SensorBridge.proto exactly.

---

Gen8 / Linux smoke client

cd scripts/gen8_smoke_client
python3 -m pip install --user grpcio grpcio-tools
python3 -m grpc_tools.protoc -I. --python_out=. --grpc_python_out=. ./SensorBridge.proto

export POWER_AMP_HOST=<your-windows-vm-ip>
python3 client.py

See scripts/gen8_smoke_client/INSTALL_GEN8.txt for full setup.

---

PVE host bridge (optional)

If you want the Proxmox host itself to read sensor data, /usr/local/bin/sensor-bridge.py connects to the Windows VM's gRPC endpoint and re-serves the data as simple TCP/JSON on port 9999.

# Install lm-sensors (used for fallback/validation)
apt install lm-sensors -y

# Copy sensor-bridge.py to /usr/local/bin/
# Install and enable the systemd service
systemctl enable --now sensor-bridge.service

---

Anti-cheat / transparency context

This project is part of a broader effort to make a Proxmox Windows VM indistinguishable from bare metal. Real sensor data via WMI is one layer of that — it eliminates the "no hardware sensors" tell that some software uses to detect virtualization.

What this does: Fills the WMI sensor gap. Confirmed working against Overwatch and similar titles.
What this doesn't do: Bypass EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat). EAC operates at a kernel/driver level below WMI. This is one layer of a larger fingerprint-elimination effort.

Other layers (separate work, not in this repo):

• Custom patched pve-qemu-kvm (SMBIOS spoofing, VMgenid disabled, FwCfg eliminated)
• Drive serial spoofing
• CPU flag configuration (kvm=off, hv_vendor_id)

---

Known issues

• v12 voltage mapping is incorrect for the X570 Steel Legend — in2 on NCT6798D is not the 12V rail on this board. Other readings are accurate. Fix pending correct channel identification.
• Sensor channel names in appsettings.json are board-specific. You will likely need to adjust them for your hardware.

---

License

MIT