The Hornet Nest Alarm Panel Brings Your Wired Alarm System Into Home Assistant with Ease
With up to 42 zones, Power-over-Ethernet support, and pre-flashed ESPHome firmware, there's no sting in the tail for this Hornet Nest.
Ohio-based Technology Automation Consulting is preparing to launch a board designed to make it easier to bring existing home security systems into a Home Assistant-managed smart home infrastructure: the Hornet Nest Alarm Panel.
"Hornet Nest Alarm Panel is the ultimate solution for integrating wired security systems into your smart home," Techology Automation Consulting's Christopher Greenlee explains of the device. "Created with Home Assistant and ESPHome in mind, this PoE [Power-over-Ethernet]-enabled panel offers unprecedented flexibility, control, and ease of use for beginners and advanced users alike."
The Hornet Nest Alarm Panel, its creators say, delivers support for up to 42 security zones and support for a broad array of devices and sensors — allowing even complex existing wired security infrastructure to be moved across to the new panel and integrated into Home Assistant. The board includes three 12V relay outputs, one 3-12V DC trigger, 42 optoisolated inputs for sensors, a piezoelectric buzzer for local alarms and per-zone status LEDs, and an integrated wESP32 — an Espressif ESP32-based microcontroller board with wired Ethernet connectivity and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) support.
"We’ve developed the Hornet Nest Alarm Panel using several open-source tools, including ESPHome for firmware, the wESP32 PoE board for power and networking, and KiCad for PCB design," Greenlee says of the company's decision to make the project open source. "By making these components open and accessible, the project invites the home automation and developer communities to explore, customize, and enhance the Panel to meet their specific needs."
Schematics for the Hornet Nest Alarm Panel are available on the project's GitHub repository, and appear to be available under the permissive MIT license; YAML configuration files are also provided.
Technology Automation Consulting is also preparing to sell the hardware via a crowdfunding campaign on Crowd Supply, with interested parties invited to sign up on the campaign page to be notified when it launches.