Hive Nano v2 Hub Teardown

Much like its predecessor the Hive Nano v2 is simple but sleek in design, its casing is slightly larger at 9.5 x 9.5 x 2.5cm. The hub has 3 LEDs on the front right above a Hive logo. Along the top side of the hub there is a RJ-45 Ethernet port, a 9v AC plug, a small reset button and a mystery unused USB socket covered by a small blanking plate.

Inside the Hub

The inside of the Nano v2 is slightly more complex than the v1 with a PCB hosting 2 smaller wireless daughter cards. There are again a couple of pin headers which may be used for console or debug connectivity. The following are a few photos of the inside of the hub:

The Hive Nano V2 Hub with 3 status LED’s (Green, Amber, Red).
Inside the Hive Nano 2 Hub.
Showing Ethernet plug, USB port and 2 mini daughter boards:
Mid-left: Wireless controller.
Bottom-left: ZigBee chip.
Texas Instruments MPU.

Also showing 4 pin header to the left (I soldered the header pins on here to see if I could read it with a TTL serial cable – no luck yet).

Unused 10-pin header (possible serial port?).

Also close up of Sigma ZigBee module.

Unused 4-pin header. (I soldered these header pins on here). Pin 1 is the left most pin.

List of Chips

While opened up I have also taken an inventory of the chips in the Nano v2. I have also attempted to look up the data sheets for each chip to see if I could work out any further information.

Chip Model / Serial Numbers Notes
SEC528

K4B4G1646E BCK0

JRD5741JC

Samsung SDRAM (4Gb E-die DDR3L SDRAM)

[Data Sheet]
AM3352BZCE30

5IALLCW G1

962B ZCE

Texas Instruments (MPU ARM® Cortex®-A8 32‐Bit RISC Processor)

[Data Sheet]
SEC534 BO31

KLM4G1FEPD

S2WRKAHHS

Samsung DRAM?
SD3503A-GNE3

A702431.1

1522 TWN

ZigBee Sigma (Serial interface modem SoC)

[Data Sheet]
RF6555

1529

F14QP Z2

Wireless RFMD (Front End Module (FEM) for WiFi and ZigBee applications.

[Data Sheet]
57AKY7G3

83848JSQ

‘S’ Unknown?

On the rear of the circuit board.

For the Nano v2 there appears again to be a spare 4 pin connector on the circuit board (which I have soldiered a header block onto), but by using the same cable and pin configuration as the Nano V1 above I have, as of yet, not been able to achieve any results. There is also another unused 10 pin header on the Nano 2’s circuit board (see photos above) but again I have not been able to work anything out.

Aside from the 4-pin header there is another, currently redundant, component of interest… a unused female USB-A port hidden by a small plastic cover, it is not mentioned in any of the Hive documentation but is presumedly there for possible future connectivity, data logging, debugging or firmware updates? I have tried plugging a cable into it and it does provide power which at the very least could be used to power or charge another USB device.

10 thoughts on “Hive Nano v2 Hub Teardown

  1. James says:

    Did you ever find out what the USB slot was for? My hive hub has gone bust ( Unplugged during a software update) and could do with looking at the code

  2. Eddie says:

    Very interesting. Do you have any views on why Hive insist that if you move house into a place that already has a Hive system, the new buyers must replace the hub with a brand new one?

  3. Da Gr says:

    Hi
    What should the power supply be – I need a replacement.
    On mine it says 5V DC – your article refers to 9V AC?

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