Overview and History of Konnected Device Firmware

Konnected was founded in 2017 with the first iteration of the Konnected Alarm Panel made with a NodeMCU IoT module and built with the NodeMCU firmware — an open-source firmware development framework originally for the ESP8266. While the NodeMCU framework served us well for years, and there are still thousands of Konnected devices out in the world running the NodeMCU-based firmware, we've evolved and grown with the capabilities of the IoT community and since 2023 have transitioned to ESPHome as the firmware platform for all of our devices.

This article discusses a brief history of Konnected firmware, key improvements in our newest firmware platform over the original, and practical considerations for end-users like you for managing your Konnected devices.

Original NodeMCU Firmware (aka "Legacy" Firmware)

Konnected's original Alarm Panel, Alarm Panel Pro, and GDO White (v1) used firmware built using the NodeMCU framework. Key characteristics of the original firmware platform:

• The firmware was largely open-source, based on Lua scripts (NodeMCU / Lua 5.1) and some C++ components.
• Each device used an identical firmware build, and the devices were configured by the end user by sending configuration data from the Konnected App or local smart home hub to the device, which was then stored in flash memory.
• OTA (over-the-air) updates were supported for many changes; but some big platform changes required USB flashing or more involved updates.

These early firmware builds served us well, but had limitations:

• Konnected devices act as a network client and the smart home hub or cloud service acted as the server. This meant that each Konnected device could only be connected to one smart home hub or platform at a time.
• Adding new features and capabilities was challenging and cumbersome as each smart home platform needed a custom integration or plugin to implement the Konnected device's custom API.
• It was difficult (if not impossible) for end users to add customizations and tweaks to the logic on the device.

ESPHome Transition (~2023 and onward)

Around 2023, Konnected began introducing ESPHome firmware as an alternative / optional firmware path. Then gradually, ESPHome became more broadly supported, eventually becoming the default firmware platform for all new Konnected devices sold today.

What is ESPHome?

ESPHome is an open-source firmware framework designed for the ESP8266 and ESP32 chips used in Konnected devices, and maintained by the Open Home Foundation, the same beautiful and brilliant people who brought us Home Assistant and a multitude of other open-source smart home projects and standards. Key improvements of the ESPHome firmware (in a Konnected context) are:

• Tight integration with Home Assistant, but usable in many environments (local API, local web page, cloud connectivity, etc.)
• ESPHome devices act as a network server and the smart home hub or app is a client -- meaning that one Konnected device running on ESPHome can now be controlled and communicate to multiple smart home platforms at once.
• All configuration data and customizations are baked-in to the firmware and advertised to clients via discovery, making it far simpler to roll out new features and capabilities on multiple smart home platforms at once.
• Device configuration and customization is done at build time. This means that each configured Konnected device runs a unique firmware build with all of your configuration and settings baked-in to the firmware.
• ESPHome has wide community adoption and massive worldwide support, meaning that it's updated more frequently and has bleeding-edge access to the latest technology and capabilities.
• Security and encryption is built-in and standardized on ESPHome devices.

ESPHome on Konnected Devices

Konnected devices are built with and ship with our open-source ESPHome firmware base build pre-loaded on the device, so you can plug it in and get going in minutes.

The Konnected App discovers and provisions Konnected devices running ESPHome, and provides all of the settings and customizations needed to make your Konnected device your own. Learn more about this at: Managing Konnected Devices with the Konnected App

Konnected devices can work 100% locally and also can optionally connect to Konnected Cloud, our free to use cloud service that connects your device with cloud platforms like SmartThings and Alexa. Konnected Cloud is completely opt-in and your device will never talk to our cloud service without your explicit consent.

Advanced users and seasoned ESPHome tinkerers can also take control of their Konnected device firmware and use the ESPHome Device Builder add-on for Home Assistant or ESPHome command-line tools to make their own configuration changes and manage updates. More about this at: Adopting a Konnected Device running ESPHome

ESPHome Versioning and Updates

ESPHome operates on a monthly release cycle, and ESPHome versions are named like a datestamp, for example 2025.9.0 is the first release in September of 2025. When you update a Konnected device with ESPHome using the Konnected App, we automatically provide the most recent ESPHome firmware version.

See a changelog of ESPHome platform releases.

Konnected's Contributions to ESPHome

We give back to the ESPHome community by contributing to the project and documentation. See Konnected's contributions to ESPHome.