Nextriv Hub Edgeedge building gateway with BACnet and KNX

What it is for

The Nextriv Hub Edge is the most ambitious device in the Nextriv Hub family — a universal node for modern building integration whose promise reads: faster, simpler and cheaper BMS modernisation. The idea is radical: instead of a separate radio gateway, a protocol converter, I/O modules and a freely programmable controller — one device on a DIN rail. It connects the Nextriv network's wireless sensors, wired buses (RS485/Modbus, BACnet, KNX) and its own physical inputs/outputs, and executes the logic locally, at the edge.

For an integrator, the arithmetic is what counts: fewer devices in the distribution board, less cabling, fewer points of failure. Plug-in connectors instead of screw terminals cut on-site wiring time by up to 70%, NFC lets you add wireless sensors with a tap of your phone, and the built-in OLED screen with buttons gives a service technician status views and basic diagnostics without a laptop — a rarity in this class of device. Underneath runs an industrial quad-core processor with 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, supporting up to 2,000 end devices and 20,000 data points.

The most important promise, though, concerns reliability: the control logic runs locally on the gateway, so the building reacts instantly and keeps working when the internet goes down. The cloud is a layer of supervision and analytics, not a single point of failure. The scenario "lead sensor fails → take over control from the backup sensor" will execute in the plant room even with the link severed.

For small and mid-sized sites, the Edge can play the role of a "mini-BMS": with its own dashboards built in Node-RED or Python (Docker is supported too), without the licence costs of a large supervisory system. It is also the simplest way to bring third-party analogue sensors into the Nextriv platform — it reads 4–20 mA and 0–10 V loops directly, with no separate transducers (the alternative is the Nextriv Control Industrial industrial controller, which connects to the platform through a gateway).

Usage scenarios

• Modernising a 2000s office building: the existing energy meters on RS485/Modbus stay where they are, new climate sensors come in wirelessly — everything meets in a single gateway, and the old BMS receives the full data set over BACnet/IP. No chiselling walls, no rewiring.
• HVAC plant room: universal inputs read PT1000 temperature sensors and 0–10 V signals from air handling units; relays and analogue outputs drive pumps and valves. Sensor-failover logic executes locally, even with the link down.
• Hotel chain: automatic BACnet device discovery (bus scanning) shortens commissioning; rooms report wirelessly, the boiler room over Modbus, and the chain's head office sees every property in the Nextriv cloud.
• Building with a KNX installation: the gateway reads KNX devices (up to 63 points) and joins the world of room automation with wireless telemetry — two installation eras in a single view.
• Small manufacturing plant as a "mini-BMS": instead of a full supervisory system — an Edge with a Node-RED dashboard: energy, hall climate, machine states from digital inputs (pulse counter up to 1 kHz), alerts to the maintenance team's phones.
• Campus and public office: two Ethernet ports (WAN/LAN) let you place the gateway between the technical and office networks; 4G failover keeps the building supervised when the fixed line fails.

Key features

• All-in-one: long-range radio + 2 × RS485 + KNX + physical I/O + two Ethernet ports + Wi-Fi + 4G in a single DIN-rail housing — replaces several separate devices.
• 19 physical I/O points: 8 universal inputs (digital / 0–10 V / 4–20 mA / PT1000 / NTC — software-selectable), 4 digital inputs with pulse counters, 3 relays up to 3 A, 4 analogue outputs — no expansion modules.
• Two-way protocol conversion: acquisition over Modbus RTU / BACnet MS/TP / KNX/TP / BACnet/IP / Modbus TCP, data exposed to BMS/SCADA/cloud over BACnet/IP, Modbus TCP, MQTT or HTTP.
• Local logic at the edge: control works without the internet; the cloud is supervision, not a precondition.
• 1.3" OLED screen + 7 buttons — status, diagnostics and basic operation right at the distribution board, no laptop needed.
• NFC for instant wireless sensor pairing — add devices with a tap of your phone.
• Plug-in connectors instead of screw terminals — up to 70% shorter wiring time and fewer installation errors.
• Developer platform: Python SDK, Node-RED and Docker — your own applications, dashboards and integrations with no extra hardware.
• Industrial durability: declared MTBF above 500,000 hours, operation at -40…+60°C, PC + aluminium alloy housing; PT1000/NTC temperature channels accurate to ±0.5°C, 12-bit analogue inputs at ±1% of full scale.
• Automatic device discovery on the buses (including BACnet scanning) and a clear web panel: status, acquisition, forwarding — three tabs instead of a maze.

In the Nextriv system

The Hub Edge feeds the Nextriv platform with data no other gateway can collect: alongside wireless sensors, it reports Modbus meters, KNX points and third-party analogue sensors from its 4–20 mA / 0–10 V inputs. Everything lands on shared dashboards (nearly 20 widget types), gets the same four-threshold alerts per metric and flows into the same PDF reports and XLSX/CSV exports — regardless of whether the source was a radio sensor, a bus or a physical input.

Notifications about threshold breaches and failures travel over six channels — email, SMS, web push, MS Teams, Discord, an audible in-app alarm — and the gateway itself is supervised like every Nextriv gateway: status on a widget, an offline alert after 15 minutes of silence. In the other direction, the telemetry can feed a supervisory BMS over BACnet/IP or Modbus TCP, so the cloud and the building automation look at the same numbers.

Typical deployments

• Office building modernisations: legacy Modbus meters and new wireless sensors in one gateway, a complete data set for the BMS — more in our smart building solutions.
• Manufacturing plants: a mini-BMS for production halls — energy, climate and machine states with local control — see our manufacturing solutions.
• Hotels: the boiler room over Modbus, rooms wireless, the whole chain in one cloud — explore our hospitality solutions.
• Schools and campuses: existing automation (KNX, BACnet) joined with new telemetry without rebuilding the installation — details in our school solutions.