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EOppie

Anyone used a POE switch like this?

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I have used a somewhat similar one from Netgear that is a 16 port 10/100 switch with 8 ports of PoE for the IP phones at my wife's office.

 

What's nice about it is that since you have some non PoE ports to use, you can use one of those to trunk up to the rest of the network and really have all 8 ports available for PoE devices. With the one you have linked you will only really be able to drive 7 devices if you plan on connecting this to the rest of the network.

 

The downside is that all of these small PoE switches use an external 48V AC transformer, and they, or the power input on the switch are somewhat prone to failure. I've already gone through one of the Netgear units at my wife's office, after 3 years it gave up the ghost and died.

 

If I wanted something like that, I would get this one from Cisco, it's cheaper and probably better supported;

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?is=REG&sku=813246&Q=&O=&A=details

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I looked at that Cisco model, however it only has 4 POE ports. Many of the 8 port models in that range that have POE only drive 4 ports for power.

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The main thing to look out for on the cheaper PoE switches is their *total* rated power. They may supply power on 4 or 8 ports, but sometimes it might have a low limit (30 Watts, etc.), which prevents it from supplying *full* power on all ports. Make sure whatever you intend to use with it won't exceed its power budget.

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Interesting device! Looks to me like it's got 2 potential benefits over mainstream POE switches.

 

- High power output - 35W/port! That could be useful for driving high power devices (heater/fan enclosures, for instance), assuming the receiving end can deal with it. The POE standard is only 15.4W per device, so the extra power may not be useful for most gear.

 

- POE input port - that could be useful if you wanted to run it as a simple remote switch; I'm assuming you wouldn't be able to run much POE gear off of it that way due to the input power limitations. Again, a bit of a limited and specialized app.

 

As voip-ninja said, you'll only have 7 ports available for running gear. I've already maxed out my 8 port switch due to this, and am shopping for an inexpensive 24 port. Mine is 60W POE budget for 8 ports (7.5W max per port average if all are used), but I've had no problem running 7 assorted cams from it. I only have a few cams that run over 5-6W, so there's extra budget for the higher power ones.

 

Also, none of the ports are GB and there's no spec on the fabric bandwidth, so it's possible you could have data rate problems, depending on what you're transferring over it. I like to have at least one GB port for connecting to the rest of the network.

 

I'm also fond of managed switches, so you can monitor power usage, but I'm a data geek.

 

For the money, I'd go for something more mainstream.

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I've used a lot of Aaxeon switches which are similar. The power input is a terminal block, not a plug-in style, might make a difference on a residential install.

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I looked at that Cisco model, however it only has 4 POE ports. Many of the 8 port models in that range that have POE only drive 4 ports for power.

 

Ah, interesting. I knew that most 8 port switches only had 4 poe ports but did not see that in the Cisco spec. The Netgear 16 port 10/100 switch has 8 poe ports and the advantage is you can use all 8 ports for poe since your uplink port will be a non poe port. It is very compact and I have had good success with it, other than the one early failure on a unit after about 2.5 yrs. I have had a second unit running for the past 10 months and so far so good.

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For my smaller installs where I only need 4 cameras I use the ZyXEL ES1100-8P switch. It's only about $60 on amazon or wherever and it has been working great for me. My only wish would be that the indicator lights and the cables be on the same side, but whatever. For $60 I'm not going to nitpick too bad lol. 64 watt output is it's rating, I've used it with four cameras with no issues, but they are not real high power draw cameras either. Not replaced one as of yet and I have installed about 20 of them now.

 

http://us.zyxel.com/Products/details.aspx?PC1IndexFlag=20040520161143&CategoryGroupNo=C6CF889E-2F7B-4CE4-B569-F87B1611773A

 

http://www.amazon.com/ZyXEL-ES1100-8P-8-Port-Ethernet-Unmanaged/dp/B005GRETPO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336663087&sr=8-1

 

 

If I need 8 POE ports I use the Cisco 300 series switch, great price and performance and not had one fail yet. About $260 but a lot of options and a big step up form the one I use above. In some cases though I'll use two of the cheaper switches as they can basically do the same thing for $120 or so less. Managed is sure nice though, but I have other options for remote power cycling and such so I don't need it every time.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-SF-302-08P-SRW208P-K9-NA-Managed/dp/B004496TFS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1336663435&sr=1-1

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When I chose swith for IP megapixel cameras, I'm checking port buffer size (should be 192kb or more) and overall switch speed, should be 2x sum of all ports - for 8 port switch it should be 100x8x2 = 1.6Gbps.

Also for more than 8 cameras, I always use switches with one or two gigabit ports.

For exaple Cisco SF 300-8P (lifetime warranty) or cheaper (5yr warranty) Allied Telesis AT-FS708/POE 8FE

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I also can throw in there Edge-Core and HP as making very high quality PoE switches. One thing to note is that not all PoE solutions are 802.3at type 1/2 compliant. Especially passive solutions. Many passive devices will not work with 802.3at compliant gear and require an external "converter" that can signal PSE is 802.3at capable by the PD presenting a 0.25–4 mA load. All of those switches I mention have more than enough switching fabric to handle video np. Fiber/GigE into the server via SFP from those switches is also possible. A fantastic workhorse model from Edge-Core is the ES4308-PoE. It's EOL though but still available through some channels. The replacement is an SMC branded model called the SMCGS10P-Smart. It's power management is very robust in the sense you can assign priority for the SMPS to each port. In other words you can assign specific wattage to a specific port or have a priority setting for what ports get what current over other ports. It's 10 PoE 802.3at compliant ports with two 2 SFP Uplinks. It's a great unit! If you want more aggregate power then checkout the Edge-Core enterprise units. They cost a lot more but are cheaper than HP or Cisco in that tier and are Type 2 compliant.

 

The best in the business is generally considered HP but very pricy.

 

BTW that switch you list sure looks interesting and one of the most powerful af Type 2 models I've ever seen in such a small form factor. I dunno about the brand though as I've never heard of them.

 

Most "passive" PoE solutions from unknown brands are retarded in the sense they don't negotiate PoE requirements etc via the 802.3at standard and simply shoot power on pins 4/5 and 7/8. These unit IMHO are very DANGEROUS and people can accidentally plug those ports into a device that's not "passive" PoE. Generally when you do this you damage the PHY in the device connected. Many that claim to offer 802.3af compliance are really just dumb passive injectors that don't do detection or classification. These are the units that are DANGEROUS IMHO. It looks like this unit the OP linked isn't such a beast. It looks like a really amazingly priced Type 2 unit ehh!

Edited by Guest

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I also can throw in there Edge-Core and HP as making very high quality PoE switches. One thing to note is that not all PoE solutions are 802.11f compliant. Especially passive solutions. Many passive devices will not work with 802.11f compliant gear and require an external "converter" that can send the power on command to the 802.11f compliant switch. All of those switches I mention have more than enough switching fabric to handle video np. Fiber/GigE into the server via SFP from those switches is also possible. A fantastic workhorse model from Edge-Core is the ES4308-PoE. It's EOL though but still available through some channels. The replacement is an SMC branded model called the SMCGS10P-Smart. It's power management is very robust in the sense you can assign priority for the SMPS to each port. In other words you can assign specific wattage to a specific port or have a priority setting for what ports get what current over other ports. It's 10 PoE compliant ports with two 2 SFP Uplinks. It's a great unit! If you want more aggregate power then checkout the Edge-Core enterprise units. They cost a lot more but are cheaper than HP or Cisco in that tier.

 

The best in the business is generally considered HP but very pricy.

 

 

What does 802.11f Inter-Access Point Protocol have to do with POE complaint switches? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Access_Point_Protocol

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What does 802.11f Inter-Access Point Protocol have to do with POE complaint switches? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Access_Point_Protocol

 

Just an obvious typo/brainfart.

 

That's a very powerful type 2 he's linked to. Dunno what you'd need that kinda power for though! Just be sure it's proper compliant in that it does negotiate PoE injection etc. Cheap non compliant "af" over "at" models can stupidly always sends juice down the segment. Plug those suckers by accident into a GigE PHY and it will surely blow up or take out SMT fuses and require SMT PCB rework.

 

Some PSE use layer 2 to negotiate power "injection" as well. IMHO non intelligent/negotiated 802.3af PoE injection is DANGEROUS.

 

Thanks for sharing that info EOppie as Tycon Power has some really nice looking gear and the pricing looks decent!

Edited by Guest

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http://www.transition.com/TransitionNetworks/Products2/Family.aspx?Name=SISTP1010-380-LRT&ProductID=45374

 

Lots of industrial switches out there for this, but they are pricey.

 

Been looking for another option for a 12VDC POE switch thank you!!

 

 

That is a very nice looking "industrial" unit and even look at it's temp ratings etc. I recognize that name from YEARS AGO setting up thin-net back in the late 80s early 90s I think.

 

I bet a lot of solutions for boats, cars and RVs use those.

 

They have a non 12V model for 120V that has the same specs but adds two SFP ports. It's called SISPM1040-182D-LRT.

 

Great product from the looks of it thanks for sharing.

 

thewireguys that Tycon Power unit also has 12-57V DC input on a block on the NC model! VERY VERY NICE. owhh and input power can also be on a block and there is two for power fallback.

 

WOW thanks for sharing the info on that TP-SW8-NC OP!

 

On paper that a very versatile unit that can handle compliant and non compliant at various voltages as well as having DC and AC powering solutions with 2 blocks for power fallback etc. And it starts at $170 bucks! SMOKING DEAL from the looks of it.

 

I'm amazed at how many cameras are not proper 802.3at compliant like the 12V ACTi units. Maybe I'm wrong here and they use layer 2 LLDP to negotiate voltage to 12V ? They claim class 3 compliance. I don't get why they would use 12V like that. You'd think from a engineering standpoint if your device uses the current to be class 3 then you'd be much smarter to use a higher voltage for PoE. As a note the Axis M11s that I'm comparing to the ACTi TCM-1231 are class 1 and use 48V standards 802.3at type 1. 48V will have a lot less insertion loss than 12V !

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Is that Cisco fanless?

 

Sorry for the delay, but yes it is fanless. I just got two more of them in yesterday so I opened one up just to double check a few minutes ago to be sure.

 

Great switch for the money if you need managed. There is also a high power version of the switch, but so far I've never needed the extra power for the cameras I'm using. I think it has an MP at the end of the part number but I'm not positive.

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Is that Cisco fanless?

 

Sorry for the delay, but yes it is fanless. I just got two more of them in yesterday so I opened one up just to double check a few minutes ago to be sure.

 

Great switch for the money if you need managed. There is also a high power version of the switch, but so far I've never needed the extra power for the cameras I'm using. I think it has an MP at the end of the part number but I'm not positive.

 

Thanks for the response. Some of the cams I am looking at need 802.3AT that can deliver up to 25 watts so I probably will have to stick with mid-span units.

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Have you looked into Zyxel's at all? That's what we use and we've had nothing but great performance from them. Oh I missed Razer's post. I'd definitely give them a good look. They've got great products.

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