May
The 1st generation Hive hub (Nano v1) is simple in design but yet packs a plethora of features into its surprisingly small package. The 7.5 x 7.5 x 2.5 cm casing has no buttons and its simple status feedback is made via a multi coloured LED light which shines trough a ‘wireless beacon’ logo on the front of the hub. On the top side of the hub there is an RJ-45 Ethernet port and a 9v AC plug. Small, simple, smart.
Inside the Hub
Again, the inside of the hub appears fairly simple in design with a single PCB. The following are a few photos of the inside the hub:
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The Hive Nano V1 Hub. The status light shines through the ‘wireless beacon’ logo (inherited from AlertMe logo). |
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Left: 9v AC power socket.
Right: RJ45 ethernet socket. |
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Opening up the Hive V1 Hub.
No screws, just 2 plastic clips left and right. The PCB is mounted in the top half of the casing. |
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Front: 2 x 4 PIN headers. (Debug, Modem).
Back: Cirrus Logic ARM CPU. Right: EM260 ZigBee chip. |
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Reverse of PCB. 2 x memory chips.AlertMe.com Rev 1-1 Nano Hub (c) 2009 |
List of Chips
The following is a list of chips found in the Hive Nano v1 Hub:
| ChipModel / Serial Numbers | Notes |
|---|---|
| EP9302-CQZ
EFWAE2VK1329 330306 |
Cirrus Logic ARM CPU |
| EM260
QBP715.AD 1309M |
ZigBee Silicon Labs (Ember) |
| 1332 2-7
48LC16M16A2 P – 6A G |
Micron Technology
256Mb: x4, x8, x16 SDRAM Features |
| K9F1G08U0D-SCB0
CRFI40GCN |
Samsung 331
128M x 8 Bit NAND Flash Memory [Data Sheet] |
| 8700C-AEZG
C1302-A2C14 302R2YA ATC-CN |
SMSC
LAN Ethernet Controller Chip [Data Sheet] |
Hub Operating System
I have been reading a couple of posts on the internet which suggest that the Hive v1 hub runs an operating system called ‘HubOS’ which is essentially a customised version of Linux.
On the old AlertMe forum a group of people have managed to connect to the command line of the AlertMe hub by connecting a serial cable to the 4 pin connector found on the circuit board (pictured above).
The forum post suggests that command line access is made by connecting a TTL-232R-3V3 (USB to TTL) cable to the 4 pin connector using the following pins:
- Pin 1: Unused (Square Pin)
- Pin 2: RX (Yellow)
- Pin 3: TX (Orange)
- Pin 4: GND (Black)
- The port runs at 115200 baud.
screen /dev/tty.usbserial-FT903RDF 115200
Then by using a terminal program on a computer to read the serial line, the following can be seen whilst booting the hub, from here people have further managed to hack the Hive hub:
HubBoot v1.01, processor ID 9231C384 Cold reset HubOS v0.71 Copyright (C) AlertMe.com 2007-09 Bad reset count : 0 Loading system from NAND in 5 seconds [OS] Mains power now on Loading linux...
In a future post, I intend to look further into this and attempt to connect to my Nano hub and explore its available commands and options.
Just a quick note to let you know that AlertMe are shutting down their servers for the original system on Tuesday, 31st October 2017. I’ve had no time at all to really look in Hive or tinker with the old stuff, but now I’m being shifted over to Hive (they’ve been really quite generous in providing a kit to migrate old AlertMe customers) it’s floated up the to-do list a bit more now. I’d love to be able to repurpose some of these old devices; very interested in your work with the XBee and the SmartPlugs. I have plenty of them around here and until I’d read your article they were only going to be any good to me until British Gas Safe & Secure (precursor to Hive) is taken offline as well. All very interesting stuff!
Hi Andy, It is good news they are providing you upgrade to Hive! I have discovered it is certainly possible to control old AlertMe devices with XBee, see my project PyAlertMe here: https://github.com/jamesleesaunders/PyAlertMe
I have discovered that there is little difference between the AlertMe and Hive Kit (in fact I am surprised Hive don’t just allow AlertMe devices to associate with their Hub. The only AlertMe device they do allow this with is the SmartPlug.
Whoa, you’ve replicated the basic Hub functionality? That’s amazing! So, really all I need to get basic control and logging of the devices from the original kit is a decent little XBee platform?
I’d be very interested in tying this together with the Alerty app I wrote some years ago. The app gives really basic control and straightforward info from AlertMe devices and supports the British Gas Safe & Secure system as well as the original AlertMe boxes. Just the very basic functionality would still be great.
Do you have any hardware recommendations? I’ve really not looked in to the Zigbee / XBee side of things; though I did once manage to get a device with integrated Zigbee to see some traffic from a SmartPlug – but that was about the lot.
Exciting stuff!
Hello – it seems as if there has been no activity on this thread for a while, but here goes – I have a V1 hub which has a hardware issue. Its power supply seemed intermittent so I removed the plug and socket and soldered the power wires directly to the board. Being very careful about polarity! This has not cured the problem. When I power up no LEDs come on.
My question is: does anyone have a schematic for the board? Mine is ” AlertMe.com REV-1-1 NANO HUB 2009″. I’d be very grateful for a copy. The problem is almost certainly power supply centred.
Thanks…