I’ve built a weatherproof box to remote mount my gear and I’ve selected the TP-Link TL-POE150S injector and Uctronics UC-3AF-USBC to power it. However, I consistently get an undervoltage green LED green blinks when testing the setup. If I plug in a dedicated CanaKit USB C adapter it works perfectly. I actually have 2 of those POE injectors and both provide an undervoltage. I’ve hooked both up directly…tried multiple cables, etc. Cable length for testing is 3 feet or less…
What have you used to POE power a RPi 4 successfully?
Edit: I just reimaged a SD card with the OEM OS and tried the POE setup w/o the dongle, etc… Getting the low voltage warnings in the top right. This TP-Link stuff seems to be weak…
Feeding 5V on long PoE cable may cause excessive voltage drop and low voltage at RPi.
For long PoE cables, a 48V DC supply at router/switch, and a down convertor to 5V at RPi works satisfactorily.
There are two types available. Some models are “NOT AF compliant”, and some other are “AF-compliant”.
Go for “AF-compliant” POE. It will only apply power after being “asked” for it, and will protect non-POE devices, if you plug them in.
Some cheap non-standard POE stuff will fry your non-POE devices if you forget, and plug them in without the POE splitter.
Below is one such complete kit. This item is given as an example for guidance only. If you search Amazon and eBay, you will find many other makes and prices.
CAUTION:
The “PoE Kit TL-POE200”amazon.com/dp/B004UBUB7C
often advertized together with the PoE150 and PoE10R, is a cheaper version and NOT AF-compliant. It still works well, but should never be mixed with other units, and there is no guarantee that it will not damage a non-PoE device if plugged in by mistake. Also, it can NOT accept inline power (data + power on the same wires)
I ordered a splitter that will seemingly deliver 5V at 4A. It’s “rated” for RPi 4. I just looked at my semi-official CanaKit RPi 4 supply - it’s 3.5A and running the 8gb Pi4 & dongle fine.
Splitter:
Injector (Ordered this too per your inputs way above):
Thanks for your help (many times over…). Will advise results. Prob won’t put this up until the world-ending snow storm blows over :-/
Hi,
Else, a PoE switch may not be that much more expensive than a splitter.
My router ran out of LAN ports, and I’ve been down that road, using that switch https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/4001297371435.html
and that splitter https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005001356576287.htm (100M version, I bought both micro-USB and USB-C versions), to power raspis and OrangePi SBCs (including the one monitoring the air traffic).
Ironically, I think I’ve never used a gigabit device on this switch.
802.3af is the ‘entry level’ compliant PoE. 802.3at will provide significantly more power, as will 802.3bt plus some exotics we don’t need to worry about (eg. 802.3bu).
I run Pi3’s and a Pi4 over PoE using the cheap chinese splitters, but they are in a hot climate and the mortality is quite high. If you choose these, keep spares on hand.
$13.90 - Gigabit USB Type C Active PoE Splitter for Raspberry Pi 4 4B (Output power Max.20Watt (DC5V4A) when used with the IEEE802.3at standard PoE switch (or 802.3at PoE injector)
Have the new POE injector and the splitter in place. Tested it for a few days on the dining room table - worked flawlessly other than having to explain what the heck that box thing was about five times to all manner of inlaws. Put it up outside just now on a 10’ pole but will roof-mount it when the weather is better.
It’s winter here so the RPi is running at 24-26C (was running 38-40C when testing inside). Have two 1" PVC tubes to bring in cool air and exhaust out hot air via pan fans mounted on each. Intake fan blows across the RPi and the dongle. This will be tested more next summer of course. I have some screen material to cover the intake when bugs become a problem.
Antenna is sealed with RTV and stainless steel fender washers/RTV. Tested with the sink sprayer - seems good.
Thought…should I have used the orange dongle vs. the blue in this type of installation? I really have little to no interference in my area so would the non-filter dongle provide xx% better signal to decode? Do you really even need an pre-amp here either?
Yes. Some more than others.
A few dB of filter loss doesn’t matter if it’s after (say) 15dB of amp.
The loss becomes important if the filter is before the amp.
I installed the blue dongle just by habit but I do have a few of each (blue/orange). Not super complicated to get the box down to swap, just wondering if it’s worth it. The sun’s out and it’s 46F…hmmm.
?