Certifications in progress
2022-09-08 16:00:00 +0200 CEST
We are currently working on
successfully completing the necessary EMC-tests and
certifications for our hardware.
The first full test run has shown that we pass most
standards without any problems. However, there are
still some minor issues that can be resolved
through hardware modifications. The next test run
is scheduled for September and we are confident
that we will complete it successfully.
In development the focus in the last months was to finish the user interface. In the meantime, the addons for openHAB are also largely completed, as well as our RESTful APIs.
The user interface for system management is now equipped with a wide range of functions:
- User accounts, region and security settings are conveniently set during initial setup
- Network control
- Extensive configuration of Ethernet modules
- Automatic search and setup of WLAN networks
- Easy setup of WLAN modules as access points
- Preconfigured apps (like openHAB, databases etc…) can be installed, removed and controlled (start/stop) with one click
- Download and installation of system updates
Preview (Work in Progress)
Apart from the UI changes, a few things have
also changed.
WLAN modules are now
Plug&Play capable and are
automatically started in access point mode by
default.
This allows direct connection and setup via a
default password.
This also applies to KNX modules,
which are automatically assigned their own network
segments.
These changes are not yet on Github because we
haven’t found the time to do it yet.
The plan is to do this by the end of the year.
Unfortunately, there is only limited good news
regarding the availability of semiconductor
components.
Although some orders have been delivered in the
meantime, there are still some parts missing that
are essential for the sales launch.
However, we will start production after completion
of the certification and will place the missing
parts in a second production run.
Richard Schleich
Prototype phase completed
2022-01-31 16:00:00 +0200 +0200
As previously reported, we have
successfully completed and tested the switch to a
pure Debian 11 based ARMv8 (arm64,
aarch64) operating system.
Compared to the Raspberry Pi OS, which relies on an
outdated ARMv6 build for compatibility reasons, the
performance has increased by 30%
on average.
Furthermore, we can now use special CPU
functions like
ARM NEON SIMD, which have great
performance advantages especially when
processing streams (compression, encryption).
Hardware virtualization support is now also
possible.
By the way, we could not determine a higher RAM
consumption, as often assumed.
The ARMv8 update for the Github projects has not
been released yet, but will follow soon.
In the process of the operating system
change we have also changed the basic file
system to BTRFS.
This change enables full live snapshot
support, this means that you can save,
backup and reset the state of the current system at
any time.
Another interesting BTRFS feature we enabled is
transparent LZO compression.
Since the I/O controller of the Raspberry Pi is
comparatively slow compared to the CPU, using it
increases the sequential R/W speed by up to
400% and the random R/W by up to
200%. The prerequisite for this is that
the data can be compressed, already compressed data
and particularly small files are automatically
optimized.
Furthermore we have started to
adapt and finalize our openHAB addons to the latest
openHAB 3.2 release.
These will be published as soon as we have
finalized our RESTful APIs to avoid unnecessary
rework.
Another positive news we can
give regarding our prototypes, with the receipt and
verification of the last mainboard revision, the
hardware development phase is considered
complete.
From now on only minor production relevant
corrections are planned and of course future module
extensions.
As soon as the pre-series production is completed,
there will be nothing standing in the way of a
beta.
One of the next steps is the testing of the platform according to the CE/FCC standards. Since the radio components are already certified and we have developed according to EMC guidelines from the beginning, we hope for a smooth process.
Last there is a rather bad news
regarding the expected availability of the
products.
Like all manufacturers in the electronics industry,
we are struggling with major problems in component
availability, especially as a small manufacturer,
the prices, which have increased tenfold in some
cases, are unmanageable.
Unfortunately, the situation has become even worse
since last year and series production (the
pre-series has already been completed) will
probably not be possible until the second half of
the year.
First software releases and the next steps
2021-11-09 16:00:00 +0200 +0200
We are currently working hard to advance the
software for the delivery of our products.
In the last days we have published the source code
for the different projects of our
Serial Device Bus Protocol (SDBP) driver stack on
Github (under
(L)GPL/v2/v3).
The documentation for the
Module RESTful API is also published.
This represents only a small but important part of the over 100 projects (git repos) that are included in the NEXUS UNITY OS.
Currently, the focus is on completing the NUOS migration to Debian 11 “Bullseye” and simultaneously switching to a true ARMv8 (64-bit) system.
The performance gain over the
Raspian/Raspberry Pi OS, which still relies on
ARMv6,
is 30-50% on average according to
our benchmarks, and even 60-300%
in the Java benchmarks.
This allows us to fully utilize the hardware of
the Raspberry Pi CM3+ and provide an excellent user
experience.
More information about this will be found in a
following article.
The next step is the final integration and customization of the newest openHAB release for our platform.
Unfortunately, like all other hardware
manufacturers, we are currently struggling with
component delivery issues.
This delays the provision of final prototypes for
beta testing.
Welcome to our website!
2021-08-01 23:55:45 +0200 CEST
We are proud to announce the release of our project website for the NEXUS UNITY Smart Home platform.
The website currently offers a lot of information, but is still under construction.