Security control you actually own.
Gentex Ironvex is a self-hosted security and automation control system. It runs with no internet at all, needs no account to commission a site and no subscription to keep working — the head end sits on your own network and answers to nobody else.
Three guarantees
Not marketing absolutes — commitments about what the system requires of you.
Runs with no internet at all
Every core function is local. Nothing is relayed through someone else's servers to arm a site or drive a relay.
The system keeps running when the internet does not, because it never needed the internet to begin with.
No account required to use it
There is nothing to sign up for to commission a site, and no vendor login standing between the operator and the hardware.
The head end is reached by name on the local network and serves its own dashboard.
No subscription required to use it
Nothing you paid for stops working. Nothing expires, degrades or locks out because a payment lapsed.
Once boards are flashed and wired, the site keeps operating on its own terms.
Arming, zones, relays, schedules, the failsafe and the local dashboard work with the internet unplugged and always will. No feature that works locally today will move behind a subscription.
The system at a glance
One head end and one to ten field panels on an isolated local network. The head end serves the operator dashboard and holds no physical I/O at all, by design — it is a controller, not a wiring point.
One head end, up to ten field panels, 4 relays and 10 zones each.
The head end serves the operator dashboard and holds no physical I/O. Each field panel carries 14 channels — 4 relays and 10 zones — terminated on external breakout boards. The network need not reach the internet.
- One head end per site, serving the dashboard.
- One to ten field panels carrying the wiring.
- 14 channels on every field panel: 4 relays and 10 zones.
- A network that need not reach the internet at all.
A zone reports five values, not two
A two-state input cannot tell you the difference between nothing happening and someone cutting the cable. Supervised zones use end-of-line resistors and an analogue-capable pin, and there are a limited number of those per board.
closed and healthy
Outputs never hold last state
Field panels send a heartbeat. If a panel has not heard from the head end within 15 seconds, or the physical link drops, every output on that panel goes to its configured safe state — instantly on link-down, on the timeout otherwise.
Healthy. Head end and field panel linked. Heartbeat every cycle, two relays energised.
Commissioning in four steps
- 01
Plan the site
Addresses, hostnames and roles, decided before anyone touches hardware.
- 02
Flash the boards
Firmware, hostname, static address and credentials over USB from the browser, in one pass.
- 03
Wire it
Zones, relays and supervision, terminated on breakout boards.
- 04
Power up and configure
Channels named and set from the operator dashboard.
Two ways to build it
Either profile can be a head end or a field panel. Transport is a property of the board, not of the job it does.
Profile A — ESP32-S3 with Ethernet
A Waveshare ESP32-S3-POE-ETH board: ESP32-S3R8 with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM, W5500 Ethernet over SPI and native USB-C.
Profile B — ESP32 WROOM 32 on WiFi
A commodity ESP32 WROOM 32 devkit with 4 MB flash and USB over CH340 or CP2102.
Start small. Grow without replacing anything.
Only the first stage exists. Everything beyond it is planned or exploratory, and labelled as such.
- 01Today
Development boards
The two profiles above. Off-the-shelf, self-sourced, self-assembled.
- 02Planned
Validated third-party boards
A published list of additional boards tested and supported.
- 03Exploring
Purpose-built boards
Gentex-designed hardware with I/O, supervision and relay protection integrated.
- 04Exploring
Server edition
A Linux head end on a small dedicated machine for larger sites.
The device protocol does not change as you move up. Panels, wiring and commissioning stay the same — only the head end grows.
(09) Optional, and unbuilt
ExploringThe connected tier
An optional connected tier is being explored. It would only add capabilities that are genuinely impossible on an isolated network — never unlock capability the hardware already has.
- Remote access without port forwarding or a VPN to configure. The head end would make an outbound connection; nothing inbound would be opened on the site network.
- Off-site backup of configuration and event history, so a stolen or destroyed head end does not take the site records with it.
- Push notifications to a phone that is not on the site network.
- Multi-site management for someone maintaining many installations.
- Monitored alerting, including handoff to a central monitoring station.
- Firmware and update distribution without a site visit.
(10) Roadmap
What is planned next
Everything listed is planned, not delivered. Dates are an order of operations, not a commitment.
Foundations
- Bench validation on real hardware.
- Relay cold-boot testing before any relay drives anything real.
- Live data replacing the simulated dashboard.
- Field panel enrolment.
Connected tier
- Optional remote access without port forwarding or a VPN to configure.
- Off-site backup of configuration and event history.
- Push notifications, multi-site management and monitored alerting.
- Subscription funded, never required.
Open the Portal when you are ready to flash a board.
The Portal finds a head end on the network, writes firmware over USB and walks through commissioning.