What?
The name NAHS-Bricks covers a collection of hard- and software pieces which are forming a homeautomation environment. On the hardware side there are the Bricks, these are custom made PCBs build around ESP12-F/S modules. The software side mainly consits of NAHS-BrickServer and NAHS-Brick-OS. NAHS-BrickServer is the brain of everything whereas the Bricks itself are kinda dumb, just receiving signals from NAHS-BrickServer and delivering sensor-data (or displaying data delivered from NAHS-BrickServer)
Why?
The idea of building a homeautomation system reaches back to the year 2012 and became more realistic with ESP12 modules reaching the market. In the time between mid to end 2020 I finally got around to focus on this project idea and started tinkering, just it was fun. I’m quiet aware that there are other similar platforms build around the ESP12. One major point is, that I’m quiet restrictive about data send from my home network to the internet no matter what kind of encryption is used I don’t like to have data (like temperatures) stored on a server accessible from the internet. NAHS-Bricks is designed to work in a 100% isolated network infrastructure without any connection to the internet IF YOU LIKE. Another big point I’d like to addess is power consumption. A lot of ESP based systems seem to just ignore batteries, they are designed to have wallplugs permanently connected to them. NAHS-Bricks are optimised for battery usage, in fact the Sleep and Bat Features (more on that later) are currently the most extensive parts of Brick-OS and BrickServer.
Long story short; why am I doing NAHS-Bricks?
- It’s fun to do (at least for me)
- Building a system for my home, that is fully isolated
- Focusing on power consumption, to be able to place Bricks everywhere I like
The Plan?
Currently I’m half way through with the stuff I like to have for “Version 1.0”. The basic concept of how things work together is done. But there are some functions I didn’t start to develop yet. Also some parts require quiet time consuming tests (capturing battery lifetime for example, and optimizing it).
But whats the plan? I do not really now; in short term I’m going to focus on all the functions I have in mind to get them work. The mid term goal is to document all design choices, functions, features and hardware. (That’s the purpose of this website). And lastly the long term goal could be to make an actual product out of this project. I do not have any idea in which form this could be, but it came to my mind. Maybe I’m gaining some interest with writing more and more stuff about NAHS-Bricks on this website to find some people how are interested (maybe as beta-testers?).
Anyway if you like to follow me along my journey or like to contact me about this project consider following me on twitter, the link can be found in the right hand column 🙂