Main controller
Runs your control program, screens and history on Linux
- CPU
- 4 × ARM Cortex-A53NXP i.MX 8M Plus, CompuLab SBC-IOT
- RT
- 1 × ARM Cortex-M7Real-time core, runs apart from Linux
- OS
- Debian Linux
Interkey Brain
The whole control cabinet in one box. Three-phase wiring, I/O, touchscreen and a local AI computer, with every chip open to reprogram.
Pre-order now From €1,980 excl. VAT. Tech specs >>One box, not a shopping list
For machine builders making small and medium series. A usual control cabinet starts with a parts list and ends with days of wiring. With Brain, you connect your machine and start.
A usual build: you buy and wireIn Brain: already inside
PLCMain controller with Linux and a real-time core
I/O modules12 temperature, 16 digital in, 16 digital out, 4 analog in, per board
Mains output switchingSix 230 V outputs, each with its own guard chip and current sensor
Touch panel16.2-inch wide screen in the front
24 V power supplyMean Well supply, mounted and wired
Main switch, RCD, emergency stopMounted and wired, 4-pole 63 A RCD
PoE switches32 PoE ports for cameras, screens and sensors
AI computerNVIDIA Jetson on the same back wall
Cabinet and wiringThe box itself, wired before it reaches you
From €1,980Brain, excl. VAT
€1,100+what 12 temperature inputs alone cost at two major PLC brands
About halfof cabinet manufacturing time goes into wiring
Temperature inputs: single-unit shop prices excl. VAT, checked November 2026. Your price may differ. Wiring share: ISW, University of Stuttgart study, as reported by EPLAN.
What will you run on it?
The same box runs a single machine, a greenhouse or a factory line. You connect what you have, and it becomes one system.
Machine builders
One controller for every machine you ship: control, screen and history in one box, with no cabinet to build.
Farms and greenhouses
Climate, irrigation and light from one box. Cameras watch the crop, and what they see becomes a value your program can use.
Factories
Replace an old controller, or add sensors and cameras to a line. Modbus, MQTT and EtherCAT are on board.
Smart applications
Anything with sensors, valves and motors: buildings, labs, water. Say what it should do, or program it yourself.
Use it as it is, or make it yours
Most PLCs are sealed. Brain is open to reprogram, so you choose how far you go. The wiring, the isolation and the mains side are already done for you.
- Say itDescribe your machine in plain language. Brain builds the program and the screen with cloud AI models.
- Build itProgram it yourself in Structured Text, Ladder or FBD.
- Replace itYour own firmware on the I/O board, your own software on Linux, your own models on the Jetson.
We will release an SDK, so you or your AI agent can reprogram every layer.
Nine processors. Each with one job.
Independent processors work in parallel, each in charge of its own part of the machine. The control program keeps its timing when the AI is busy, and every mains output keeps watching itself while everything else restarts.
The Linux side runs your program and screens. Its Cortex-M7 core runs apart from Linux and watches the program.
AI computer
Runs vision models on your own cameras, on the box
- Board
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano
- Video
- Cameras over PoE
Heavy vision work never competes with the control program. It also watches the rest of the Brain from outside.
I/O controller
Reads and writes every channel, with its own watchdog and a logic chip for fast signals
- MCU
- STM32F427Modbus RTU, watchdog, safe states
- CPLD
- Lattice MachXO2-7000Counts fast signals in hardware
Keeps every channel alive and carries out the safe state on its own if the Brain goes quiet.
6 × output guards
One processor per mains output, on the mains side of the isolation
- MCU
- 6 × STM8S105
- Sense
- 6 × Allegro ACS724 current sensor
- Switch
- 6 × ST T2535 TRIAC
Each one looks after one mains output and nothing else.
Opens from the front
The whole front folds down on gas struts. Everything inside faces you.
- Front flapScreen, switch, stop button
- v2 I/O board600 mm, the computers stand on it
- The cut-outSwitch and RCD come through the board
- Behind the boardPoE switches, power supply beside it
Three-phase already inside
A control cabinet usually starts as an empty box and a wiring diagram. Brain arrives finished. Bring one three-phase cable and the wires to your machine.
- Main switch and emergency stop on the front
- 4-pole RCD, 63 A
- Mean Well 24 V DC supply
- Six 230 V outputs, wired with L, N and PE
Main switchBehind the red handle
RCD4-pole, 63 A
Power supplyMean Well, 24 V DC
Everything connects here
Signals plug in through the slots along the top and bottom. Cameras take power and picture from one cable. More boards chain on over one link.
MainsThree-phase, one cable
SignalsPluggable connectorsThrough the slots
PoE devicesHMI, cameras, sensorsOne cable each
Board linkRS-485, Modbus RTU
32 PoE ports inside
Two 16-port PoE+ switches sit inside the cabinet as bare boards, with their ports facing outward through the slots along the top and bottom. One network cable brings power and data to everything around your machine.
- The operator HMI
- Cameras
- Microphones and network sensors
2 × Netgear GS116LP, Gigabit, PoE+
Every channel, on one board
The real v2 board, with every connector where it really sits. Pick a group, then tap a connector to see its pins.
Stack boards for more I/O
Need more channels? Stack up to five boards and chain them onto the link. Your program sees one machine.
Boards12345
RTD1224364860
Digital in1632486480
Digital out1632486480
Mains out612182430
Analog in48121620
A guard on every output
Each mains output has its own small computer on the mains side, separated from everything else by isolation.
- Guard
- STM8S105If commands stop, it switches off
- Sense
- ACS724Measures that output's real current
- Power
- T2535 TRIACSwitches the load
- Fuse
- One per output
Who watches what
No single chip is trusted. Each layer watches the one above it and acts by itself, so a crash at any level has a known result.
JETSON
External watchdogNVIDIA Jetson, separate computer
WATCHESThe whole Brain over the network
IF IT FAILSRaises the alarm, even with the controller dead
M7
SupervisorCortex-M7 inside the i.MX 8M Plus
WATCHESThe control program, apart from Linux
IF IT FAILSRaises the alarm while Linux hangs
A53
Runtime and restartLinux, hardware watchdog
WATCHESEvery program scan
IF IT FAILSRestarts the program and resumes
STM32
Firmware watchdogSTM32F427 on the I/O board
WATCHESMessages from the controller
IF IT FAILSEach output goes to the safe state you chose
STM8
Output guard6 × STM8S105, one per mains output
WATCHESCommands to its own output
IF IT FAILSSwitches that output off
HW
Hard-wiredStop button, main switch, RCD
WATCHESPeople and mains
IF IT FAILSCuts power, with no software involved
Stops the right things
A heater left on can burn a batch. A vacuum pump that stops at the wrong moment can ruin one. You decide what each output does if the program dies.
Measured on a real FD440 freeze dryer by killing the control program: the outputs changed 1.1 s later. Read at the output board with mains disconnected.
Program running
Code it yourself
Brain's software is the fast way to run a machine, and it is optional. If your engineers want full control, the hardware is theirs: every layer below can be reprogrammed.
The program
Structured Text, Ladder and FBD, or plain language.
i.MX 8M Plus · A53Linux
An ordinary Debian computer. Your services, your protocols, your own screen.
i.MX 8M Plus · A53Real-time core
Your own hard real-time code, running apart from Linux.
i.MX 8M Plus · M7I/O firmware
Flash your own firmware to the I/O board over RS-485.
STM32F427Fast logic
Your own counters and fast signal logic in Verilog.
Lattice MachXO2AI models
Train and run your own vision models on the box.
NVIDIA Jetson# The I/O board speaks plain Modbus RTU. No SDK needed. from pymodbus.client import ModbusSerialClient board = ModbusSerialClient("/dev/ttymxc0", baudrate=115200) board.connect() temps = board.read_holding_registers(0, count=24, device_id=1) # 12 RTD inputs, 32-bit floats board.write_register(0x0101, 0b0001, device_id=1) # first output on
A real AI chip inside
Lift the heatsink and there it is: an NVIDIA Orin, right next to the controller. Cameras plug in over PoE, and the vision models run here, on pictures of your machine.
Heatsink and fanNVIDIA's own cooler
AI chipNVIDIA Orin
NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano
On the box, on your machine's own pictures
- AI
- Up to 67 TOPSOrin Nano Super, 8 GB
- GPU
- NVIDIA Ampere
- CPU
- 6 × ARM Cortex-A78AE
- Video
- Cameras over PoE
- Learns how your machine looks when it runs normally
- What it sees becomes a value your program can read
Choose how much AI
AI models live in memory. More memory means bigger models, and more of them running side by side, all on the box next to your machine.
Orin NanoIncluded
Orin NXUpgrade
AGX OrinUpgrade
Vision on your camerasYesYesYes
Small language modelsYesYesYes
Bigger language models next to visionNoYesYes
Several large models at onceNoNoYes
Have another AI computer in mind? We can fit a similar one.
Where does this wire go?
Brain tells you. Its screen names the signal and points at the exact terminal. Plug the wire in: that channel's LED lights, then turns green once Brain reads the signal. Outputs get a 1.5 s Pulse, so you see whether the right thing moved. Try it.
A simulation of Brain's setup screen. On the box the channels are read for real: sensor values on inputs, the output's own feedback on outputs.
A screen as wide as the machine
16.2 inches and 2608 × 720 pixels in the front of the box. Every value of the machine fits on it at once.
And a calm one for the operator
Your operators get a screen built around your machine: what is happening, how long it will take, and the button they need.
Real Brain software on a real FD440 freeze dryer: six hours of a recorded batch in 16 seconds.
Or just say what it should do
Keep the grow room at 24 °C and 60 % humidity.
Brain writes the control logic with cloud AI models, builds the screen and runs it.
It gets to know your machine
Brain records every run on the box. The longer it works, the better it knows what normal looks like, and with your OK, every machine of the same type learns from the others.
- On your box
Every run is recorded on the box. Brain compares each run with your machine's own normal and tells you when something drifts.
- Your choice
Sharing stays off unless you turn it on. You decide what leaves the box, and you can turn it off again.
- One model per machine type
As machines of a type share data, that type gets its own model. A new freeze dryer will start out knowing freeze dryers.
In series production from 2027
Every WAVE freeze dryer runs on Brain
WAVE builds commercial freeze dryers in Vienna for food, pharma and industry. From 2027, Brain is the controller in all of these machines.
- FD440
- FD450
- FD470
- FD480
What does your machine need?
Count what you want to connect. Brain works out how many I/O boards you need. Everything else is already in the box: screen, main switch, RCD, power supply, AI computer and 32 PoE ports. Need more AI memory? Pick a larger AI computer.
Start from
Each extra I/O board adds €500 excl. VAT. Using thermocouples? Connect them through a 4–20 mA transmitter.
Tech specs
Main switchRotary, on the front
Status lampsRun and fault
Emergency stopRed mushroom button
Touchscreen16.2 in, 2608 × 720
SlotsPluggable signal connectorsTop and bottom
Per I/O board12 × 4-wire RTD, ADS122016 × digital in, ISO121116 × digital out, IPS20504 × analog in, AD74412R6 × mains out, T2535
Inside
- NXP i.MX 8M Plus: 4 × Cortex-A53, 1 × Cortex-M7
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB. Larger AI computers on request
- STM32F427, Lattice MachXO2-7000, 6 × STM8S105
- Isolated RS-485, TI SN65HVD75, two ports: stack up to 5 boards
- 2 × Netgear GS116LP boards: 32 ports of Gigabit PoE+
- ATSHA204A security chip, TPS26620 input protection
- Three-phase in, 4-pole 63 A RCD, Mean Well 24 V DC
Software
- Structured Text, Ladder, FBD, or plain language
- Modbus RTU and TCP, MQTT, EtherCAT
- Your own firmware and software are welcome
INTERKEY LTD, England & Wales. Board figures from the v2.0 design. Investors and partners: get in touch.