Nif-T - An all in one smart home automation board

A No-Nonsense Ethernet + PoE Smart-Home Controller

Renders

Visuals because everyone loves eye candy.

The middle ground planes are hidden in the PCB Routing render

BOM

All the silicon, magnetics, and clicky-relay goodness live here.

What is this?

Nif-T is a wired smart-home automation controller built around an ESP32-WROOM-32E, designed to be the thing that actually flips real switches when you ask your house to do something.

It’s meant for:

Lights
Outlets
Relays
Buzzers
Addressable LEDs
And other “turn this on when I say so” tasks

Unlike a lot of Wi-Fi-only smart devices, Nif-T speaks Ethernet — and it can be powered over the same cable using PoE. One cable in, automation out.

At a high level, Nif-T:

Exposes physical relays and LEDs
Talks to Home Assistant
Which then talks to Google Home
So you can say things like:

“Hey Google, turn on the big light.”

…and something actually happens.

Features

Relay Control

8× independent relay outputs
Designed for:
- Lighting circuits
- Power control
- Low-voltage automation tasks
Each relay is individually addressable via firmware
Can be controlled via:
- MQTT
- Home Assistant
- Google Home (through HA)

(Please don’t hot-switch mains unless you know what you’re doing.)

Ethernet + PoE

Because reliability matters — and wall warts are annoying.

LAN8720A Ethernet PHY
- RMII interface
- Dedicated 50 MHz oscillator on the PHY
IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet
- Single-cable power + data
- On-board PD controller and isolation
- Clean DC rails generated locally
No Wi-Fi congestion
No random disconnects
No external power brick required

Plug in Ethernet. That’s it.

RGB Status LEDs

Because silent boards are boring.

10× SK6812 Mini (GRBW) LEDs
Can indicate:
- Network status
- MQTT / Home Assistant connection
- Relay activity
- Boot / error states
- Or just run rainbow animations for morale
Fully firmware-controlled

Buttons & Feedback

User button
- Can be mapped to:
  - Toggle a relay
  - Enter config mode
  - Trigger a scene
On-board buzzer
- Boot beeps
- Error alerts
- Confirmation chirps
- Mildly annoying sounds (optional but encouraged)

Connectivity & IO

ESP32-WROOM-32E
- Dual-core MCU
- Plenty of GPIO for:
  - Relays
  - LEDs
  - Buttons
  - Buzzers
USB-UART
- Firmware flashing
- Serial debugging
Screw terminals
- For relays and power connections that shouldn’t wiggle loose

Pin Highlights (High-Level)

Function	Notes
Relays	8× GPIO-controlled outputs
LED Data	SK6812 GRBW strip (10 LEDs)
Ethernet RMII	LAN8720A w/ external 50 MHz oscillator
PoE Input	IEEE 802.3af compliant
User Button	Input-only GPIO (external pull-ups)
Buzzer	GPIO-driven piezo output

(See schematic for full pin mapping and signal names.)

How It Works

At a high level:

You plug in Ethernet (which also provides power via PoE)
The PoE PD negotiates power and generates isolated DC rails
The ESP32 boots and brings up Ethernet
It connects to:
- An MQTT broker (usually Home Assistant)
Home Assistant:
- Discovers Nif-T automatically
- Exposes relays and LEDs as entities
Google Home talks to Home Assistant
You talk to Google
Nif-T clicks relays and blinks LEDs

Why?

Because:

Wi-Fi smart plugs are flaky
Ethernet is king
PoE makes installs clean
And sometimes you just want a solid, hackable, relay board that plays nicely with modern home automation

Nif-T exists to be:

Boring in the best way
Reliable
Predictable
And extremely easy to integrate into a real automation stack

Project State

The parts have been ordered and are currently being shipped.

Disclaimer

This project is open-source, built for fun, and tested only in theory.

If you:

Wire mains incorrectly
Ignore clearance rules
Overload a relay
Or let the magic smoke out

That’s on you.

Be careful, be smart, and enjoy having a house that actually listens.

Propose a modification on GitHub