nn = nexus noki · open source

A smart home that answers to you.

nn runs your cameras, sensors and automations on boards you own, on your own network. No cloud account, no subscription, and no company that can switch your house off.

Get started Source on GitHub

your home networkcloud: not needed

hub camera sensor (Thread mesh)

Why nn exists

Most smart homes are rented, not owned.

You buy the hardware, but the vendor keeps the keys. Four things go wrong again and again.

Your home lives on someone else's server

Cameras send your living room to a vendor's cloud. You can't see who looks at it, how long it is kept, or where it goes after a breach or a takeover.

The company closes, the device becomes a brick

When the servers shut down or the app leaves the store, hardware that still works stops working overnight. You paid for it; you can't keep it alive.

Broken, and nobody is allowed to fix it

Locked bootloaders, closed firmware, no spare parts. Once updates stop, security holes stay open, and the only repair left is the bin.

Lose the hub or the internet, lose the automations

A switch and a lamp in the same room, yet the decision travels to a data centre and back. When the link or the hub drops, the house stops listening.

Philosophy

Four promises behind every decision.

Each one answers one of those problems. They are the rules nn is built by, not features that can be switched off later.

Local first, no cloud

Video, sensor readings and automations stay in your home. The internet is optional: when it drops, cameras still record and lights still switch. Remote access is yours to add, behind your own login.

answers ~~your home on someone else's server~~

You own the firmware

Every device runs firmware you can rebuild from public source and update from your own hub. No vendor account, no locked bootloader, no update server that can disappear.

answers ~~the device becomes a brick~~

Devices act on their own

Automations are compiled on the hub and run on the sensors themselves, over the Thread mesh. A button still switches a lamp while the hub is off or restarting.

answers ~~lose the hub, lose the automations~~

Cheap, off-the-shelf boards

ESP32 modules, a BeagleY-AI, an Orange Pi: boards anyone can buy. Replace a broken part yourself, and keep what you learn for your next project.

answers ~~nobody is allowed to fix it~~

What nn does

Cameras, sensors and a hub that work together.

Cameras

Cameras that see, and keep what they see at home

Motion is checked five times a second. Only when something moves does the object detector wake up, on the camera's own AI accelerator or on the hub's, so the chip stays cool and the recordings stay yours.

Linux cameras (BeagleY-AI) and FreeRTOS cameras (ESP32-P4)
Live view in the browser, with event clips and detections
Swap in your own detection model without touching code

Front door · livemotion → detect on NPU

Sensors

Sensors that act on their own

Buttons, lights and sensors talk to each other over a Thread mesh radio. You write the rule in the hub's web app; the hub compiles it and hands it to the devices, which run it themselves.

No round trip to a server for a light switch
A Linux camera can double as the mesh gateway
The hub keeps the history and fills in what the radio missed

Automation · hallwayrunning on 2 devices

when button hall-switch is pressed
then toggle light hall-lamp
and if hall-motion sees nothing for 5 min
then turn hall-lamp off

hall-switch→hall-lamp hub:not required

Hub

One hub, set up with one script

An Orange Pi 6 Plus or any Debian machine becomes the hub. It sets new devices up over Bluetooth, keeps their records, serves the web app and records camera events. Running the script again is the update.

Web app for devices, cameras, automations and logs
Flash a brand-new board straight from the browser
Look in from outside only if you choose, through your own tunnel and login

$ sudo ./deploy/install-hub.sh --user you
== hub package -> /opt/nn-hub/venv
== nn-hub.service
nn-hub is running: open http://hub.local:8769/devices

front-doorcamerastreaming

hall-switchsensoronline

garage-gwgatewayonline

Updates

Updates you control, from your own hub

The hub signs every firmware image and sends it over the air. A device installs only an image it can verify, and goes back to the previous one by itself if the new one fails. You can rebuild every image from the public source.

Signed images, verified on the device
Automatic rollback when an update misbehaves
You decide when a version reaches the whole fleet

0.0.55signature verified · installed

0.0.56failed its health check · rolled back to 0.0.55

0.0.57not signed by your hub · refused

How it fits together

Everything talks inside your home.

The dashed path is the only one that leaves the house, and it exists only if you add it.

Solid lines stay on your network; the dotted amber lines are the Thread radio mesh. Cameras send video to the media server; the hub keeps the control channel and its keys never leave it.

Hardware

Runs on boards you can buy today.

No proprietary hub and no special radios. The manual walks you through each one.

Hub

Orange Pi 6 Plus

Or any Debian machine. Its AI accelerator runs detection for the cameras.

Linux camera

BeagleY-AI

IMX708 camera module, AI on the board, can act as the mesh gateway.

FreeRTOS camera

ESP32-P4

A low-power camera with an ESP32-C6 for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth.

Sensors · gateway

ESP32-C6

Thread, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in one module for sensors and the radio gateway.

Get involved

Built in the open. Come build it with us.

Follow the manual on your own hardware, report what was unclear, send a fix, or bring nn to a board you love.

How to contribute NexusNoki on GitHub

Everyday users Software developers Embedded engineers 3D printing experts PCB designers ISP tuning experts AI model experts Chip designers and vendors OEMs and ODMs

nn is young and made by a small team. Parts of it are still rough, and that is where your help counts most. Every contribution is read, and your name stays on it.