I wanted to share this opinion on Hackaday about a topic that is the usefulness of a something that has become ubiquitous relatively fast.

This techonolgyy has a lot of potential, what do you think?

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    10 months ago

    I wish PoE would get more love. Networking and power in one package. Voltage is high enough that you can run it around your house without too much power loss, but not so high that you are supposed to have a licensed electrician do it. The equipment for it is getting cheaper. It’s easily powerful enough to run smart LED lights without wireless network nonsense. Plus, you can give your PoE switch its own dedicated UPS, and now your lights are all on battery backup.

    It was born for a corporate IT environment for running VoIP phones and security cameras, and mostly ignored for residential customers. Good news is that used 48 port switches with full PoE are cheap on eBay.

    • Dale'sDeadBug@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      I love PoE, but there are some hard limitations to that idea. Mainly cost per meter of cable, but also in the amount of runs that would need to be completed to accomplish that. I cant splice two ethernet cables together and run one to a nearby light or other device without a switch, which means more equipment or more cable to make it work. Also, being 48v, it will have a lower overall efficiency compared to direct wiring with 110-220v, especially with the higher resistance of ethernet vs 14ga romex. That being said, I’d love to see 48v dc in home outlets.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        10 months ago

        If we’re talking about hiring someone to run AC wires, then the cost of extra equipment can be offset by the labor costs.

        (I have definitely hired a master electrician for every outlet added to my house. Definitely.)

      • Flipper@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        Oh boy do I have something for you. The single pair ethernet standards. Connect 8 devices on the same line as a bus.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          10 months ago

          That would only allow PoE+, which limits devices to 25.5W. Speed would be limited to 100Mbps. Still enough for lights, though.

        • Dale'sDeadBug@sh.itjust.works
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          10 months ago

          Didn’t realize that was part of the spec. But wouldn’t that be 4 devices? 2 wires per device for tx/rx and power +/-.

          • Flipper@feddit.de
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            10 months ago

            No. It’s a single twisted pair wire to connect at least 8 devices over a minimum distance of 25m. However the speed is only 10MBit. The spec is called base10-t1s

    • laverabe@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      PoE is terrible. I threw mine away and went to 802.11ac wireless and it was 10x faster. The problem is the circuit breakers, washing machines, or anything that generates EMI screw with the quality. Ethernet>wifi>PoE, at least for most use cases.

      • Brickhead92@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think you are confusing PoE (Power over Ethernet) with EoP (Ethernet over Power).

        PoE: is an ethernet technology that uses the ethernet cabling to power small devices like APs, phones, cameras, etc. while providing an ethernet connection.

        EoP: is using a pair (or more) of devices that plug into power outlets which you then connect ethernet cables to. This “extends” the ethernet cabling over the power cables in your house.

      • Jtskywalker@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Are you talking about the adapters that let you run network through your electrical circuits? Because that’s different from PoE. PoE is running power through the network cables so you get power and network with one plug, so kind of the opposite of that.

        I can confirm that using electrical infrastructure for network is really not great.

        • laverabe@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Ah yes, that is what I was thinking of, thought that was the same thing since it was power and Ethernet together.