What is PoE?

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I’ll start by saying that I love Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

Yeah, yeah, it’s what I do for a living, but, really, how cool is it that you can take the ethernet cable you have in your wall and get it to power up cameras, iPads, or even TV’s? I see PoE as Potential (okay, yeah, I couldn’t resist the nerd joke, and be forewarned they keep coming).

In all seriousness, though, Power Over Ethernet can save you 30% on any given project where you would otherwise have to call a licensed electrician out to pull a permit just to put an outlet somewhere so you can hang a camera. Even better, because PoE runs on low voltage power (less than 56 volts) you can safely do the work yourself, or at least get your techie nephew to do it.

If it’s so cool, why doesn’t everyone do this all the time? Frankly I’m stumped. However, I blame it on it sounding too technical because it has to do with computers talking to each other.

That ends today. I help a lot of people find the right PoE solution, and believe me when I say you can understand PoE. Once you have a few basic terms and principles, you’ll blow minds! To make that magic happen for you I will simplify Power Over Ethernet (PoE) in an easy to understand way even if you’ve never worked on a network before.

PoE is Smarter Power

Introduce yourself to What PoE is and Why you would benefit from pushing your business towards the future.

Let’s start off with a pronunciation guide.

This is worth your time. You drop this on your friends and coworkers, and you become the de facto expert on PoE.

PoE – pronounced PEE – OH – EEE. Not like Edgar Allan “Poe”.
IEEE 802.3af – pronounced EYE TRIPLE EEEE EIGHT OH TWO DOT THREE AYE EF.
Okay, so say it with me now . . . EYE TRIPLE EEEE EIGHT OH TWO DOT THREE AYE EF.

Great work!!

So what does that all mean?

Working from the ground up (another engineer joke!), PoE means putting electricity onto an ethernet cable along with a data signal. You can use that electricity to power all kinds of things: cameras, lights, wifi access points, iPads, phones, TV’s, computers, media players, Raspberry Pi’s. Warning: once you get into what you can power with PoE, it goes deep, like X-Files deep.

Oh, about the IEEE thing (yeah, you heard how cool you sound saying it). Simply put, you have a very smart guy making cameras and you have another smart guy like me – ahem, why thank you – making devices that can power those devices over a network cable. To make sure we all work together without having to constantly fight over things, we called our friends at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE – “EYE TRIPLE EEE”) and asked them to help us create a standard way of doing things. They agreed and added us to the 802nd section part three subsection “af” of their standard.

You don’t need to read it, but if you do – SPOILER ALERT – data and power get together by the end.

That standard is how engineers agree how the PoE will work, so we both make devices that talk the same PoE. As time passed we kept coming up with better and better ideas, like MORE POWER! So now we have a few more standards. Here’s a table of the PoE standards as they stand today (don’t worry, I will explain it all so just bask in the glory of it):

The Current PoE Types and Standards

PoE Type or Standard

Nickname

Power Per Port
(at the device)

Types of Devices

IEEE 802.3af

PoE

12.9 watts

IP Cameras
IP phones
iPads and Tablets (<10″)

IEEE 802.3at

PoE+

25.5 watts

Outdoor PTZ Cameras
Dual Radio Wifi Access Points
USB Type C phones and tablets (>10″)

IEEE 802.3bt

PoE++
4Pair PoE

79 watts

Televisions
Lights
Blinds
Laptops

*Passive PoE

24 Volt PoE
Passive

Up to 55 watts

Ubiquiti or Mikrotik
Wireless Internet PtP or PtMP
(big Wifi Radios)

*Passive PoE can operate anywhere from 12 volts up to 58 volts.

You’ll want to check your specifications carefully to make sure they match your device.

Oh no! My Device Doesn’t Have PoE!

Have no fear! You can use a device called a PoE Splitter to change PoE into almost any kind of power you need: USB, 12 volt DC, 19 volt DC, USB Type C. So find out what kind of power you need, then get a splitter for it.

The real difference between the types of PoE is how much power your devices need which is called out in Watts. What you need to know is that the watts are how much power a device consumes to do its job. The last column shows you the kind of devices each power level can support.

And that, my friends, is all you need to know. Seriously. When it’s all said and done, you just need to make sure you pick a Powered Device (PD) like a camera or media controller that matches the standard of the Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE). You like how I snuck . . . sneeked . . . er . . . snooked some more vocabulary in there?

“But how do I do that?” you ask. I’ll break it down bullet point style. Let’s say you’re looking to add a new camera or any device to your network.

First, go find the datasheet. Don’t Panic. Every engineer makes a datasheet because its their way of bragging. It’s like they’re street racers with their tricked-out muscle cars, they want you to know what they’ve got under the hood. Typically, you can find PoE in the Electrical section. You’ll find something like “POE” or “IEEE 802.3 af”. That tells you what kind of PoE your new toy has.

Second, select a type of Power Sourcing Equipment (PoE), that’s your PoE switch or midspan (injector). What’s a switch and what’s a midspan you ask? They look a lot alike, but don’t be fooled. They’re different animals with different purposes like a king snake and a coral snake (Krykie, she’s a beauty! I’m going to pick her up!).

Why use a Midspan when I can just buy a PoE switch?

There are two situations where a midspan injector makes more sense:

Let’s say you have your network all set up, and it’s working great. All the ports are forwarding, Quality of Service (QoS) is great, and everything has been working for a while. If you’re like me, the guy who set up the network has gone all Jason Bourne on me which means I’ll never find him again. Then you need to add PoE to it, or you need to add PoE+ to your PoE switch because you just need that little extra power. Do I really want to try to pull out that switch that I paid a lot of money and headache to get configured to add a few PoE+ devices? At this point, it’s not about the money, it’s about the headache of nothing working for a month while we get it all sorted out again. Or do I just add a midspan in a few minutes and forget about it.
You don’t want to have to buy a switch that doesn’t have the features you want just because it can do the PoE you want. We see this more often than you’d think. For example, you have an NDI switch that doesn’t have PoE or doesn’t do PoE+. You need that PoE power for your streaming camera. Do you buy an NDI switch that may be way more than you need with PoE+ or just use a midspan to add it to the switch you know and love?

Finally, once you know your switch or midspan is compatible, then make sure you have enough ports and power budget for all your PoE devices on your PSE. Most switches and some midspans don’t have enough total power budget to give you full PoE power on all ports at the same time. Why?! you may ask. It comes down to cost and how much you’ll really use each port. Your Toyota Corolla technically can go to 120 mph, but you really use it to get to work and back. If you really wanted to go 120 mph, you upgrade a Porsche or Corvette or something truly awesome.

There’s a catch . . . this part takes . . . gasp . . . math. I know you swore you would never touch a calculator again when you got out of school. Believe me. It’s not that bad.

Simple Method:

Add up all the rated power consumption of all the devices and compare it to the rated power of your PSE. For example:

2 x PTZ Optics cameras at 12 watts each = 24 watts

2 x Polycom Phones at 6 watts each = 12 watts

1 x High End Wifi Access Point (WAP) = 23 watts

All together: 24 + 12 + 23 = 59 watts

You need at least 5 ports and a total of 60 watts. Oh, and by the way, you need PoE+ for that high end WAP.

Nerdy Method:

I couldn’t leave you with it that simple. If you’d really like to get details, you can use our PoE Calculator to estimate how much you can expect in cable loss as well!

Now you can find our APP for Apple and Android devices!

*Passive PoE can operate anywhere from 12 volts up to 58 volts.

You’ll want to check your specifications carefully to make sure they match your device.

PoE Specifier's Guide

E voila! That covered what you need to know. You now know more than 90% of people in the world about Power Over Ethernet. With this simple set of tools you’ll shock yourself (please only figuratively) with what you can accomplish and how easily it will happen. Put that 30% into a new rocking set of drums or your kid’s college fund, whatever you think is most important. Whether you decide to tackle a project yourself or hire someone else, you now have the core knowledge you need to handle a Power Over Ethernet project.

I will close with the immortal words of Stan Lee, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

ProTip:

Whatever you do, do not put on a blonde mullet wig, don a furry pair of briefs, and hold up a sword shouting, “I have the POWER!”. It never turns out the way you think it will.

If you find this learning center helpful, like and subscribe to our social channels to learn when we post new guides!

PoE Lighting Drives Costs Down

Learning Center, Learning Center Featured, Learning Center Trending

Resorts World Confirms PoE Lighting Costs Less

Independent Study Confirms PoE Texas’ Denton DBI Costs Less Than Traditional AC

Resorts World and its electrical contractor have finally answered the most important question facing PoE lighting and automation. Can a Power Over Ethernet lighting system compete in price with what gets installed today?

They performed an exhaustive, electrical contractor-led analysis of the total costs comparing a managed lighting system using PoE to an unmanaged traditional AC lighting installation, and the results stunned them.

Denton DBI Savings

Their analysis says yes, a PoE Texas-managed solution costs less than traditional AC even without controls. They were so impressed with the results, they agreed to make them public.

Open Floor Plan Convention Area:

Monochromatic downlights
Grid-based lighting
and Channel Lighting

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Schedule a One on One with our CTO!

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The Comparison

As the basis for comparison, the light control system for the AC solution included standard dimming while the PoE solution included customized group controls provided by Electronic Theater Control (ETC) touchscreens. Conspicuously excluded from the estimated results is the specified ETC which would have increased the AC overall price by $100,000.

In the cost analysis, the quote comparison shows an overall reduction in material cost when utilizing PoE, due to:

Exclusion of steel conduit
Reduced copper wire
Fewer circuit panels

Equivalent Performance

In the technical analysis, PoE outperformed the comparable High-Voltage system in lumen to power efficiency due to PoE’s control fidelity. At a lower price point PoE allows the end user to easily manage each fixture individually or control them collectively in a group setting with precision not cost-effectively available for a basic AC solution.

In summary,the traditional AC hardware and material priced at $129,000 vs. PoE at $97,000. The cost of labor increases when installing PoE because each fixture requires individual addressing and programming, resulting in higher labor costs.

This raised the labor cost for PoE to $104,000, while traditional AC was at $99,000. Regardless, in total, the final cost for a lighting installation using Traditional AC Power came to $274,984, while PoE only cost $240,656.58.

Concluding the Study

In the final analysis, the integration of PoE controls far exceeded the basic savings as it met theatrical standards without any additional expense resulting in savings far beyond 15%. With a true control system comparison, PoE Texas saves more than $134,000. This study highlights that PoE, and PoE Texas’ Denton Digital Building Intelligence (DBI) in particular, delivers a significant cost advantage with built-in controls, material cost reduction, automation capabilities, and lack of integration expenses over even basic traditional AC systems.

Resorts World discovered they could have a fully managed lighting system for less than the cost of their basic lighting package.

Resorts world space recrop property-amenity-2

USA,Stacked chairs in an empty convention center meeting room.

PoE Lighting FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions about PoE Lighting

The Experts at PoE Texas Answer Your Most Popular Questions

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Topics:

Market Information

Sales and Marketing

Design

Hardware

Installation

Integration

Market Information

What is the largets market, in terms of commercial real estate size, for PoE Lighting and Automation?

Answer:

Tyler: 90% of the real estate market are buildings and spaces less than 50,000 sq ft. Want to see where we get that infromation:

Smart Industry Forum

Energy Star

Has PoE lighting known to have been installed on any military installations?

Joe: We have one installation in a military SCIF facility (no internet no wireless allowed, Made in America)

Is there any information about residential use?

Joe: yes we have several residential sites – contact me for plans and drawings jherbst@poetexas.com. Or click on the link on the bottom of the page to schedule a meeting.

Do you have any use cases in hospital or clinical environments?

Joe: We have a assited living and Urgent care facilites that are PoE lighting control based.

Change is hard. How to leverage the need for PoE professionals for projects? Should I look for professionals with specific Certifications (besides electrician) for this job?

Answer:

Joe: Agreed. We have had great success with data installers and electricians vested in staying in touch with the evolution of tech. It is less about the historical skill set and more about their intellectual curiosity and willingness to learn. We train electricians at EJATCs and have had very positive results. We have also been successful teaching lighting and controls to datacom folks.

Sales and Marketing

What is the cost per sq ft savings that I can tell my client what percentage of savings they will see in real numbers?

Joe: We typically see 30% CAPEX (total installed) savings and 30-50% OPEX (operational expenses) savings.

Was the cost savings (60%) in copper based upon comparing a single run of #14/2 vs numerous runs (how many?) of 23awg UTP?

Joe: You typically need #14/5 to support dimming and be code compliant. Line, neutral, ground, Dim+ and Dim- Relative to AWG14 2 wire that we use that is a 60% savings in material.

Tyler: The other aspect of copper savings is in the reduction of electrical runs. To wire a traditional AC system, you have to run 14/2 from the breaker panel to all the lights in series and run to any light switches you’d like to control those lights. With PoE, those “connections” are done digitally. You can make the shortest, most efficient runs from the PoE switch to the fixtures or lights. Then you simply program any given light switch to control any desired fixture.

How do you sell a POE ligthing system to a client who has an existing normal lighting system? How do you convince the client to move over to the POE system?

Answer:

Joe: A conversion to PoE from an existing one is limited largely by sheetrock. If it is a substantial retrofit (down to studs) or new construction the pitch is easy. We sell rerofit kits that can get installed in the ceiling adjacent to the exisitng high voltage system and save money just on the efficiecies of LED over Fluerescent. See link for example
https://shop.poetexas.com/products/dent-lk-c4-b

Tyler: Converting to a PoE managed lighting system doesn’t necessarily mean the customer has to tear out all of their existing lighting. A good PoE lighting control system can also manage non-PoE lights while looking the same for your customer. See our lighting control panels below. So invite your customer to upgrade their current lights without tearing them out and adding PoE lighting as the project/needs arise.

Lighting Control Panels

Is the cost savings in copper based upon comparing a single run of #14/2 vs numerous runs (how many?) of 23awg UTP?

Answer:

Joe: You typically need #14/5 to support dimming and be code compliant. Line, neutral, ground, Dim+ and Dim- Relative to AWG14 2 wire that we use that is a 60% savings in material

Would PoE Lighting be suitiable for residental like houses and condos, for example how about a 2400 sq ft house?

Answer:

Joe: Yes it would be suitable.

What might a cost comparison be between a traditional lighting system and a SPOG setup for something like a 10,000 sqft office building? Would there be savings over traditional copper conductors? Are NFPA 101 requirements easily met?

Answer:

Joe: Please see our Midas case study. A PoE based lighting/controls system saves typically 30% on the capital side and 40-70% on the operational side. Primary savings come from: 100% less conduit (steel), 60% less copper wiring (18 AWG vs 12 AWG), and removal of AC to DC conversion at each light fixture.

It is difficult to provide a good ROI for PoE lighting for new construction, as well as retrofit. Is the PoE Consortium working on accurate cost estimate tools that include ALL the factors to build and maintain the system?

Answer:

Joe: You are absolutely correct this is hard. The biggest savings (conduit and copper savings) are hard to get a good number around. I have talked to many master electricians and the best numbers I have are 250ft of conduit per junction, but I have found too much varaince in that to give you a confident number. Other factors include the reduction in panels (since the power distribution is through PoE and there is a “circuit breaker” built into each port).

Design

What percentage of space increase in the Telecom rooms/racks are experienced by adding poe lighting?

Answer:

Joe: This is a tough one to answer beyond ‘it depends’….so follow my logic. Average building has ~ 0.1-1W lighting per ft^2. so assume 1W. Each port can feed 90W – so assume each port feeds 100ft^2 for easy math. Each switch then supports ~ 2400 ft^2 – round to 2500 for convenient math. Assume 1 full rack of equipment supports 10 24 port switches ~25k ft adds one rack of equipment. Be conservative and cut that in half for quoting

Tyler: We have a detailed package we share with designers to estimate the space, rack room, and cooling they’ll need for their PoE lighting system:

PoE Lighting Designer Kit

Who does the design to confirm proper light levels per code?

Answer:

Joe: We do design based on experience but if you want a formal lux map lighting layout we can connect you with a certified LC or engineer. We use the same IES files as a high voltage equivalent.

Tyler: We can provide a design with the IES file inputs that an architect and/or lighting designer can use to confirm the final design. If your customer doesn’t have access to someone for that and it’s a requirement for the job, we can call in partners who do this kind of thing every day for our customers.

Is Exit Lighting allowed to be PoE?

Answer:

Joe: Exit lights can be powered by 24VDC. We take a PoE 24v splitter and attach all the exit sign to one of the PoE switches that has EM backup AND use exit signs that have 90 minute battery backups

Tyler: We have multiple options for achieving PoE enabled exit lighting including a range of fixtures and methods. We customize the solution to fit the job.

How many lights can be supported from one 90 watt switch port?

Answer:

Joe: Typical examples are: 4 20W 2×2 panels, 3 25W 2×2 panels, 2 40W panels but no reason you can not do 10 8W fixtures or 12 5W fixtures.

Can this system also handle security, ie instead of cameras?

Answer:

Joe: This system can incorporate cameras into the control of lighting or messaging. So a camera can let us know motion was detected. We then connect that to actions such as “turn on the lights and if it is after 10pm text the security guard” or the camera tells up 5 people are in a conference room – we can send a message to the HVAC to tun on ventilation.

What is the recomended CAT cable?

Answer:

Joe: cat6 or better ; cat5e is also ok

Tyler: The key is selecting a CAT rated cable with 23 awg or less so you can handle the power load. Many CAT 6 cables are already 23 awg, and some manufacturers like Superior Essex and Berk-tek make a CAT 5e cable with 23 awg for PoE lighting applications.

How do you handle emergency lighting? What about potential switch failure? How do you handle emergency lighting with UL924 or UL1008?

Joe: We design two network stacks – one UPS backed or connected to EM power, the other utility power. EM fixtures can then be connected to the EM network switches and have ability to go to 100% on utility power loss using a UL924 transfer switch – contact me for drawings.

Tyler: On the switch failure question, the best contractors we know intentially spread the lighting across multiple switches, basically ensuring that no one area would be totally affected by a single switch failure. It provides overall system redundancy.

In a typical PoE installation, are the back-of-house components typically housed in telecom, or electrical rooms? Who maintains and administers, the electrical dept. or IT dept.?

Joe: I have seen them housed in either or both closets. Who maintains it is more about the politics of the organization and who holds the purse strings but ultimately we can support facility managers up to CIO’s.

Tyler: We have started encouraging building owners and facility managers to own their own PoE switches separate from the IT infrastructure. It’s called OT infrastructure. Facility managers need control of their own network hardware, and IT managers are often happy to stay out of it.

Will you homerun to each driver and patch cord to each LED?

Joe: PoE Switch to driver (LINC) via cat6, then AWG18-2 to each fixture up to 4 fixtures. LINC usually sits in cable tray close to fixtures. For small facilities, put all the LINC nodes in the closet and just run 18-2 from closet to each of the fixtures.

Is there a sigle line drawing showing how the system is wired?

Joe: yes – contact me jherbst@poetexas.com

Tyler: You can find wiring drawings in our designer toolkit.

What is the function of PoE in the SPOG? Do the systems to be controlled or integrated have to be PoE energized?

Answer:

Joe: PoE is not a requirement. But the SPOG has to host a browser (to quickly adapt to changing information) and thus must have an ethernet or wifi connection for the data. PoE represents the dual benefit of data+power so if you have to pull wires to power a pane of glass why not bring data into the same cable and remove a lot of cost and complexity. The PoE w/r/t the system is just a backbone. Any legacy or future system can be incorporated into the data+power PoE paradigm but the “E” in PoE is where all devices have optimal connectivity given its prolific, trusted infrastructure. The “P” part essentially gets rid of wall warts and AC to DC conversion losses.

Are there provisions for ACL-type role assignment? I have diverse users with tiered levels of needed access (think: secretary, building admin, maintenance).

Answer:

Joe: Using the kiosk mode you can lock it to a specific “room” which only has certain buttons. But there is no difference between a “room” and a “person” or a “role” in our paradigm. So each POG (wallstation) can be locked to a specific page and you specify what is on that page. No limit to the number of pages. The Admin has access to all the pages and the setup for each. So yes we can support as many roles/people/rooms as you want and then have one POG locked to that web page.

Does the POE powered lighting emergency specification/code match the same duration and as 277VAC emergency lighting uptime?

Answer:

Joe: The PoE emergency lighting can be setup to provide whatever duration you want. Code stipulates 90 minutes but based on the number of fixtures and the size of the UPS you can exceed this. We don’t have the traditional restrictions of a fixed circuit wiring so you can add/move/remove any fixture from the emergency response system.

Is power dissipation in cable is an issue when using PoE?

Answer:

Joe: The power dissipation is incorporated into the PoE specification so you don’t need to worry about it. The maximum loss on a 100m (328ft) cat 6 is 18W so a 90W source would deliver 72W worst case. In most installations this power loss is typically less than 5W.

Is intelligent passive cabling preferable to monitor ports apart from active network?

Answer:

Joe: PoE is backward compliant with passive switches – it just offers the option to add power if the device (PD) on the other side negotiates to need some. If there is no negotiation then there is no power put on the line.

What is the future of SPOG based on NFPA 70 Article 726 "Class 4 Fault-Managed Power Systems"?

Answer:

Joe: The two are not directly coupled other than being new technology. Class 4 FMP is all about safety. Touch the line, cut the line, fault it in any way the source upstream cuts the power. To the degree the SPOG is not downstream from that power cut it can notify you of such events. So a SPOG can be on a seperate power distribution system but monitor fault events elsewhere in the network and give immediate notification of the event in whatever form you want (email, text, light turning red, web button flashing etc).

Does each device need a separate license to be purchased? For the end user, as one tenant may have multiple user's at different rooms?

Answer:

Joe: No recuring fees – comes with lifetime license. Each SPOG can be limited to only display the elements in that room and not have visibility to other rooms.

Should we use separate networks or VLANs for all PoE devices?

Answer:

Joe: Lighting should ideally be a separate network but a separate VLAN at a minimum. Lighting is latency sensitive – press a button and you must respond in less than half a second. Having a network that has media streaming interfere with that is undesirable.

Hardware

What is the controller with the USB stick? What does it do? Who makes it?

Answer:

Joe: We make the controller – it is called a CORTAP. It is the “air traffic controller” for the building

Tyler:

DENT-COR-TAP

General costs of a high power switch?

Joe: Our 24 port 2.1kW all ports 90W capable + 3000W dual hot .swappable rectifier sells for $1800.

Tyler:

What is a rectifier? Who makes it?

Answer:

Joe: The rectifier converts AC (120VAC to DC (53VDC) up to 3000W

Tyler: We have it made for us by a trusted partner.

How compatible are the lighting systems/software with BMS platforms like Niagara? Can data be shared to allow for lighting occupancy sensors to also control mechanical systems?

Answer:

Joe: The gateway can connect to a Niagra system and share information such as occupancy status.

Would this have its own application to control the system or could it be integrated into a BMS system such as Jonhson Controls Metasys?

Answer:

Joe: It has its own management software, connects to conventional wallswitches and occupancy sensors. It can also connect to other systems like JC through relay contact closures or through our REST API interface.

Most heat load happens at the fixture, not at the data switch, correct?

Joe: AC to DC conversion is not efficient and one of the benefits of PoE is you remove that heat loss at each fixture.

Tyler: Most of the heat loss is in the rectifier followed by the PoE switch. The heat losses at the fixture are minimal.

Where are we getting "fancy" fixtures? Seems like we only see flat panels & strips.

Joe: We do fancy fixtures as well as plain jane light bulbs and grid lighting. We support almost any type of fixture.

Tyler: If it’s LED, you can likely make it PoE powered. If you’d like ideas on cool light fixtures already PoE approved, we recommend visiting our friends at LED Industries who make some really cool fixtures.

Where do I find cut sheets for all of this?

Joe: Contact me jherbst@poetexas.com

Tyler: We have a full package we share on all of our products.

Do you know of a rack mounted UPS brand/model that is UL rated for emergency lighting?

Joe: We resell a UL924 EM battery backup system

Tyler: Unfortunately, no one yet has a rack mounted UPS system with a UL 924 rating. We have to go off rack for now. But we’re working hard to make that a reality.

Can four 20W fixtures on a single 90W port be controlled individually or must a home run to each fixture be required to control separately?

Joe: Each can be controlled individually

Tyler: The LINC has 4x outputs, so you can control each output independently if you’d like.

Do the fixtures come with a POE driver or are they field installed?

Joe: The LINC is the PoE driver and you can retrofit 98% of the lights today by bypassing the AC driver and connecting the LINC output to the LED +/LED- of the fixture.

Tyler: Some brands will pre-install the driver into a light fixture. Our experience has been, though, that no matter what fixture we install a driver into, it will not be the fixture the architect, designer, or owner wants. It also reduces the efficiency in field wiring because then every fixture needs a homerun CAT cable. So, we opted to allow for field wiring.

How easy is it to swap out the main displays on wallstations should it be damaged, and what (if any) set up would be required to return the system to full functionality?

Answer:

Joe: If you had a spare wallstation it is literally plug in the new one and it auto updates. That is the beauty of making it a web page and putting it into kiosk mode. It has one job and it does that one job in a “plug and play” way.

Do you provide 90W PoE switches?

Answer:

Joe: We provide one that does 90W per port and we have a 24 port version and an 8 port version (so 2.1kW and 720W respectively) Cisco, transition networks also offer switches but may not support all 24 ports at 90W.

Installation

May have missed it, however for the Project did you utilize licensed electricians to complete the install or structured cabling technicians? If you used the cabling techs, did they have a license or certified in structured cabling, and what license or certificate did they have?

Answer:

Joe: No electricians needed! Anyone can install it but structured cabling folks with experience with cat cable are ideal. No certification needed because it is all class 2 power. But we recommend and refer people with certifications so they can install and quote with minimal challenges or oversights.

Tyler:

I've seen systems in the past in which you effectivly have to chop off one end of the Category cable to terminate onto a Phoenix connector or some other type of connector. Is all of this now actually just RJ45 plug and play?

Answer:

Joe: The cat6 is IEEE802.3bt compliant – it is not just a RJ45 connection to 8 wires. It is standard compliant. The LINC driver has PoE input and 18AWG-2 wires out to the LED and performs the driver function of the LED.

Tyler: It depends on the manufacturer, however, we have made all of our devices to accept RJ-45 connectors where they connect using the CAT cable.

Do you run into cases where the CAT cable for the lighting has to be installed in conduit for physical security or protection?

Joe: No. Outside of Cook County IL a cable tray or JHOOK is acceptable.

Tyler: While it’s always best to check the local code standards – by the way, this can easily be done with a quick visit to the city to simply ask what you need to know – we’ve found 99% of municipalities are excited to see PoE lighting. However, you and the owner may decide that in certain key areas potentially exposed to weather or vandalism do require conduit.

Can contractors do commissionings and field functional changes?

Joe: yes – if you can navigate a web page – I will train anyone interested.

Tyler: Yes, Joe is serious. He has a one hour online tutorial you can do through Zoom which will show you all the major steps in wiring, commissioning, and programming a system. Click in the link at the bottom of the page to schedule your own training.

Is the Best Practice to restrict length of run to 100m due to voltage drop or balancing properly spaced Telecom rooms?

Joe: yes cat6 < 100m to conform to standard.

Tyler: I would extend that answer to “it depends”. Our 8 port PoE++ switches accept Fiber data and are designed to be installed in enclosed spaces like ceilings. So you can either choose to have telecom rooms spaced around the facility or you can choose a distributed network system where switches are mounted in the ceilings. The Sinclair Marriot has a distributed network system like that. It’s a design preference.

Does each switch and light fixture require a home run cable?

Tyler: No. Most manufacturers, including us, allow you to control multiple fixtures from one node. For example, in our case, the LINC has four output channels. You can control anywhere from one to ten fixtures depending on type and functionality.

Can this system be installed by Data Technicians and Electricians? All copper cabling, correct?

Answer:

Joe: Anyone can install it. Since it is class 2 you do not need a license to install it. AWG 18-2 and cat6 are all you need.

What is the typical rack space PoE light consumes? Maybe in a patch panels/sq ft?

Answer:

Joe: ROUGH estimates: 0.5W/SF each 2U rack space hosts 2.1kW of power or ~ 4k SF.

Integration

How many SPOG interfaces can you have on the system and can you limit the level of access?

Answer:

Joe: We can restrict access and no limit to the number of interfaces. We believe in a layered UI approach allowing you to delve down the “rabbit hole” as far as you want.

Is the SPOG similar or does it interface with building automation systems (BAS)?

Answer:

Joe: The SPOG can take information from the BAS and be a UIX point for that. BAS systems vary wildly so I have yet to see a consistant interface that crosses manufacturers and they are typically tied to a proprietary agenda (ex Lutron, Honeywell, JCI etc).

Can you list some of the more prevalent open standards you integrate around? BACnet? MODBUS? MQTT/REST/JSON?

Answer:

Joe: REST/JSON are our basis of design. We have done integration with BACNET via IP calls and relay closures. MQTT is on the Q1 roadmap. MODBUS is a VERY old standard. We could interface to it if the business case made sense but when you have 1Gbs available on PoE it is hard to go back to buad rates that have k in them 🙂 We also interface to DALI (Also slow), DMX, enocean, zigbee, BLE and wifi.

What integrations are common with security/access control systems? What are on the horizon?

Answer:

Joe: A common integration is FOB, keypad or App (bluetooth) entry via a reciever. The acesss event is matched against a database and the point of access (ie door number). If an affirmative match is found then the door is opened via a mag lock, door strike or bar for some time (ex 10 seconds) and then the lock is reapplied. The lock can also have a manual “request button” that can connect with a human (local or remote) and a camera to then support manual opening of the door (local or remote). These are all available today. We can also do other actions like setting lights to a specific level in a specific room or set the temp on the thermostat to a desired level (ex weekend entry).

What is a common open standard for the SPOG?

Answer:

Joe: REST API – it is the standard that runs on every web page on the planet.

Is the SPOG just software operating a typical wall screen?

Answer:

Joe: SPOG in our paradim is a touch interactive web page put into kiosk mode (so single purpose). The content for the web page is served up by our cortap server who is responsible for the controls and data collection of all the components for the building. Part of this is integration with other systems, part of this is direct control over devices but all tied together in one UI.

Is there a specific software that is easier to integrate or can any access control system be integrated to it?

Answer:

Joe: Any access control system can be integrated into our system that hosts a dry contact relay closure. More sophisticated ones we can connect to through an API and a commmunication medium (wired or wireless) Our PoE LINC devices control 12/24/36/48 V devices including door locks and can be tied to any stimulus event (ex relay closure or REST API call).

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Click here to schedule some quality one-on-one time with our CTO, Joe

Converting Your Favorite At-Home Devices Into PoE

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If you’ve had an interest in what Power over Ethernet can do, or how it can be used for your everyday devices, then look no further. In this page, you’ll see how accessible it can be to turn your home into a POE powered living space. So many commonly used devices such as TV streaming sticks, speakers, smart watch chargers, and even lights can be powered by POE. You don’t need a licensed electrician to install Power Over Ethernet so the projects you can do are endless.

*Click the image to watch the video tutorial

Why Did We Create This Page for You?

To some of you, the idea of PoE might seem intimidating, or considered for commercial use only. Some of you may not have even heard of this technology at all until you landed on this page. As someone who did not have an infrastructure or networking background, I’m here to tell you that Power over Ethernet is for everybody! PoE is user friendly and makes network technology more accessible than you might think.

Our goal in building out this page is to offer a resource that encourages you to try POE. Whether it’s your first venture with this technology, or if you’re looking for new ways to implement these solutions, we hope this guide provides new ideas for you.

How Can You Utilize POE Technology in a Residential Setting?

Other online guides will likely reference Voice Over IP (VOIP) phones, Wireless Access Points (WAPs), or security cameras as the go-to devices to use with Power over Ethernet. While these devices are very common installations with this technology, that’s not all you can do. With the help of this guide, you’ll see how we were able to power six, non-POE devices from one power source, at various distances and power requirements. Keep reading to find out how you can, too!

Powered Devices Mentioned in This Guide:

Google Nest IQ camera
Apple Watch charger
Amazon Fire TV stick
Anker Bluetooth peaker
LED light strips
Google Home

PoE Equipment Used:

GAF-USB (similar option(s): GAT-USB-IW; GAF-USB2)
GAT-12V25W
GAT-USBC-REV2
GAT-5V20W
GATS-10-8-51v120w (similar option(s): GATS-6-4-52V65W)
Cat5e cable
2.1-USBC cable

*Power + data converter options: GAT-USBC-PD-R2V2; GAF-LIGHTNING-PD; AF-USBC-PD; AT-USBC-JB

*Single port injector options can be found here.

Getting Started

Do you have an existing router, or network switch that provides your data? Then you’ve already got step 1 covered! This router is going to be the data source for POE equipment. The “E” in POE does stand for Ethernet, after all. Step 2 is to get your hands on some ethernet, or category, cable. We’ll say to get cat5e or higher, but odds are you have some spare patch cables in your home that can be used. The ethernet cable will pass data traffic from your router to the POE injector. A POE injector will then add power to the data cable that allows you to power your POE compatible device, and provide wired data over the same line. _{Be sure to check out our PoE Basics page for further reference into the industry standards and benefits.}

*_{Ethernet cable with RJ45 connection}*

Most of the devices you charge or use every day are likely not designed to be POE enabled, but that’s not a problem. Welcome to the world of POE converters. POE converters are available in lower, non-POE voltage options such as 5V, 12V, or 15V with various connector types (DC, USB-A, Lightning, USB-C, MicroUSB, etc.) for your DC or USB devices. Though one main benefit of POE is power + data cable on one cable, please note that devices 1-5 listed below will only need power; not wired data. These devices either use WiFi, or don’t need data at all. Device 6 will use wired data, though.

Device 1: Nest IQ Camera

A Nest IQ camera takes 15v15w of power via USB-C to operate. It is also a WiFi camera, so we don’t need to bring in a data connection for this port on our injector. Once your POE switch or injector is setup, run a cat5e cable from one POE port into the input RJ45 connection of the GAT-USBC-REV2 converter (splitter). Two LED indicators on the splitter will turn on, indicating the splitter is receiving power from the injector and ready to connect to your Nest IQ. You’ll now connect the USB-C to USB-C cable (included with Nest) from the splitter to the back of the camera. Wait a few seconds for the camera to display a blue LED ring and your ready to go!

Device 2: Charging an Apple Watch

The smart watch charger we used pushes out 5V10W over a USB-A connection. You’ll run a cat5e cable from one POE port into the input RJ45 connection of our GAF-USB converter. Once you see those two LED lights turn on, you can connect your device. Simply plug the watch charger (USB-A male) into the 1.35mm-USB-A (female) cable adapter that’s provided with the GAF-USB. The charging plate for the watch should now have 5v10w of available power.

Device 3: Amazon Fire TV Stick

Using the same splitter as above, we will only need to swap out the DC cable connector on the GAF-USB. Instead of the USB-A option, we will use the 1.35mm-MicroUSB. The Gen1 Fire TV Stick takes 5V5W so the splitter has enough power for this device.

Device 4: Anker Bluetooth Speaker

Follow steps for device 3.

Device 5: LED Strip Lights

The LED strip lights in this tutorial are rated for 12V DC, less than 25W of power. Still using the same POE injector/switch, connect the GAT-12V25W splitter to an open port. Similar to the previous converters, power light indicators should turn once connected. The sensor for the lights has an integrated cable that fits into the splitter, so no additional cable was needed. After you plug the sensor into the 2.1mm female DC on the converter, your lights can be adjusted to your liking.

Device 6: Google Home

The final device we’ll use in this tutorial is the Google Home. The Google Home version we used is powered by 5V9W over USB-C. For this application we used the GAT-5V20W with a 2.1-USBC cable. The GAT-5v20w has the same input design as the previous splitters, so you’ll want to watch for those power LEDs to turn on after you bring in power from your injector. The 2.1-USBC cable will then connect the splitter to the Google Home for power. The Home will actually accept wired data from a separate RJ45 connection so we can utilize the output data port on the splitter. On the output side of the splitter, run a patch cable from the female RJ45 to the LAN port on the router. You’re all set!

Congratulations! You just walked through how to power six, non-POE devices using your existing infrastructure. Other devices you can add to your network are tablets, laptops, monitors, and even lighting fixtures.

Ready to Go A Step Further?

You can install smart blinds, lighting fixtures, wall station controls, and so much more with the newest standard 802.3bt (POE++). Learn more about using POE for building automation through our Denton Digital Building Intelligence (DBI) catalog. Schedule a call or send us a question to get in touch with an expert!

More Resources

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512.479.0317 / success@poetxas.com

Presenting and Selling a PoE Based Lighting and Automation System

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Presenting and Selling a PoE Based Lighting and Automation System

When you’re ready to start seeing your business grow through PoE lighting and automation, join us as we show you the in’s and out’s of how to sell PoE based lighting and automation.

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Are You Ready to Expand Your Business by Offering a New Level of Technology to Your Customers?

If you’re here, I’m guessing you’ve seen PoE lighting and you’re convinced that it’s the right choice. But frankly that’s simply not enough, is it? Unless you have customers paying you to install it, a PoE lighting and automation system remains an interesting technology that will happen someday in the future, but it’s not making you money today. You need to know how to earn valuable PoE lighting customers today.

I’m Tyler Andrews, CEO and Owner of PoE Texas, and I spend a good share of any given day selling PoE lighting and automation as a concept to owners and developers. I’m going to share how I help owners agree that PoE Lighting and Automation is the right solution for them today. Let me show you how.

You can watch the video training . . . or just download the presentation at the link below.

Click Here for Presentation Slides

PoE Lighting and Automation

Visit our PoE Lighting and Automation section to learn more, download the product catalog, or download the designer tool kit with template drawings and technical information you need to get started.

Let’s start where every good business starts, with the opportunity and why you should take the risk of trying to sell PoE Lighting and automation systems. The reality of COVID and 2020 has highlighted that the purpose and function of offices and buildings is evolving.

In a recent EC&M report, industry experts highlight that Integrated Building Management Systems are going to grow by 12% year over year with the overall industry growing by almost 11 billion dollars in the next four years.

Despite the growth potential, the market is still highly fragmented leaving room for innovation to enter and drive the market.

And most interestingly of all, industry experts agree that the key driver is the advent of IoT which brings the intelligence of the internet to our daily experience with the world around us. It is clear that the market has a pent up demand, so who is demanding this automation? Is it restricted to the Apples or MIT’s of the world? Let’s talk about who you’re looking for.

Who is this huge potential market? Our assessment shows you’re looking for buildings and spaces less than 200 thousand square feet and that need to attract occupants or satisfy regulatory requirements through technology. Who are they?

They are bars, restaurants, legal offices, insurance agencies, doctors offices, and the industries serving larger technology companies. They are schools and training centers. They are new builds, tenant finish outs, and renovations.

And intuitively for every new $5B Apple campus, there are thousands and thousands of these smaller projects happening every year in the US alone.

And they’re not finding the solutions they need. Why?

The reality is that existing building technology has developed into siloed islands making the adoption of integrated systems too costly for most businesses and institutions.

For example, your blinds can’t inherently communicate with your lights which in turn can’t communicate with your access control or HVAC. You have to pay a premium to have one technology silo communicate with another.

Even if you invest in the proprietary intelligent systems available, you end up with scattered, unorganized analytics of the data you’re paying to collect.

The only way to overcome these barriers is through another layer of costly, complicated systems that are perpetually out of date as more new siloed technology comes out.

However, even with this in-efficient, costly approach using technology from the last century, the integrated building market is one of the fastest growing market segments in construction. All of this leaves the door open for a technology and business model that can become a game changer in the market.

That’s where you come in. Power Over Ethernet offers the integrated level of technology users and organizations like LEED, WELL, and municipalities are expecting at a cost businesses can finally afford. You can integrate powered systems and offer facilities a 36 month RoI by bringing down the capital expenditure for such a system by 30% and driving down utility and labor costs by up to 40%. The right PoE partner makes IoT available and the obvious choice from a business perspective.

So who are you targeting with this information? And where do you find them?

You’re looking for owners and operators who need lighting and automation controls and want to differentiate themselves through technology.

To be clear, you’re not looking for someone trying to find a cheaper alternative to existing simple function light switches. PoE Lighting and automation packs far too much intelligence to compete with a $5 light switch and $50 light fixture.

Yes, do look for schools and campuses. However, broaden your net to include your current customers doing restaurants, physicians offices, retail stores, lawyers offices, insurance agents, and high-end homes. Done right PoE lighting and automation should benefit all businesses.

A quick note here about finding and helping someone decide to test out PoE lighting and automation. All decisions are emotional. Scientific studies have found that people make decisions based on emotion after they’ve considered a situation analytically. So . . .

Come ready to sell them an experience and an idea of what their life and business will be like after they’ve installed their PoE lighting system. We have found that videos and real life experiences make the biggest impact on potential customers. Bring them either to a live or virtual demonstration where they can touch and feel the experience of interacting with automated lighting. For example, we have a quick demo intro video used to drive that initial interest in the products.

Then, you bring up questions of how PoE automation helps with code compliance, LEED points, WELL points, Energy Efficiency, and most importantly style.

And, timing is everything. So let’s talk about the best time to talk to potential customers about PoE lighting and automation. Your goal is to have a conversation with them as early as possible. In project management terms this is often called the Concept or Planning phase. The goal is to have them considering a PoE automation system before they’ve staffed a lot of consultants. Why? Because early on you only have to sell to a couple people. Once a project gets architects, consultants, designers, and contractors, you basically have to sell to everyone on the project including electricians whose scope you’re likely taking. At that point, it’s a lot of work with a low likelihood of success.

Speaking of decision makers, getting in front of the owner and decision makers is where smaller projects and your position as the ICT installer becomes most valuable. It’s a little known secret that owners rarely bid out their ICT installations more than once. When an owner finds an installer they feel comfortable with, they call that installer back time and time again. So as ICT installers, you have a unique advantage to get in front of customers.

Now let’s cover the steps you can use to introduce and sell a PoE lighting system to a customer. First, and foremost, I’m assuming you already know or have met this person before. If not, you’ll need to do basic discovery on the customer. However, for this exercise, let’s assume you’ve met this person before and you have an idea they’re interested in a PoE based lighting and automation system.

Your first step is to request a meeting with them to learn more about the potential project they may have. You may be tempted to come to this meeting loaded for bear with every bit of potential information the customer may potentially have. You’re ready to stand up and shout from the rooftops about why they should do PoE lighting.

DON’T

Do come with a short introduction slide deck ready in case they sit back and ask to see what you have. That deck should have some higher level benefits for the customers on why PoE makes sense. For example you could crib the first part of this presentation.

However, your main goal for the first meeting is to understand their project needs. If they’re willing to tell you what the project is, what the customer needs, and what they hope to get out of it, that’s 24 karat gold. You ask questions, you listen, you give them the floor to tell you what they need.

Then at the end, you ask if you can schedule a follow up meeting to demonstrate how you can provide them what they need. For example, you could offer to do a preliminary design or you could ask to meet again for you to present some concepts that would hit their needs. Your goal is for this next meeting to demonstrate to the potential customer that you’ve really understood their needs.

You may need to redo meetings one and two a couple of times, however, at each meeting you should ask if now is the right time to get a preliminary quote. Let’s discuss quotes for a minute. Customers may ask for quotes right up front, usually without even having shared the design with you. What they really want to know is whether they can afford all of this before they invest a lot of their time and effort to help you put together a detailed proposal.

The answer is, yes, you can help them create a “budgetary quote” with very little design. In order to get a final quote, however, you’ll need design material such as a reflected ceiling plan, electrical plans, and any specifications including division 25, 26, and 28. If your customer is small enough, they may not have any of that. At which point, I recommend you download an app like MagicPlan, take the dimensions of their space, and use that to make a quote.

You do need to get a quote to them because no client has ever installed something that wasn’t quoted first.

Finally, expect to do a lot of follow up. Don’t be bashful about it. Any good customer is usually so busy they appreciate someone who will help them not miss an opportunity. Simply be pleasant and consistent when you reach out. And, don’t hesitate to be upfront in asking if they’d rather you stopped reaching out to them after the first time or two. It will save you time and reduce their hassle.

[Slide]

So, where does PoE Texas help with all of this? Most importantly, you should know that you’re not alone. At PoE Texas, we’re set up to support installers and contractors like you to be successful.

We will help provide you with proposal and marketing materials from Power Point slides to YouTube videos to offers to visit existing or demo facilities

We can support you in creating preliminary designs for an automation system for customers and specification information they could use as needed.

Most importantly, we dedicate a resource to you so you know who you can turn to when you need information or support.

And the kind of support you can expect is rapid quote turn around time. You can expect preliminary quotes in a matter of hours and detailed quotes with design information in a matter of days.

Let me be clear. You can know we support customers and installers from concept through completion into operations. Because we’re an experienced team with a background in project management, we know what it takes to make a project successful. We’ll be your partner all the way through the process with the right hardware and support.

I’ll end on this point showing you the team behind you in your sales effort. You have a bench of experienced industry professionals who want to see you succeed in your process to become a PoE lighting and automation installer. So, you’re not going into this alone, and you have this team dedicated to your success.

Thank you very much for making time to watch our presentation on how to sell and present PoE lighting and automation. Obviously we can’t pack everything you need to know in a 30 minute presentation, and this is just a starting point for you. However, we’re happy to help you manage this process for your business.

If you’d like to learn more, you can find all of our resources at www.poetexas.com or on our YouTube channel. You can also reach out to us at success@poetexas.com to speak directly with a PoE expert.

We wish you the best with the rest of the show this week and look forward to seeing you at the next BICSI show or catching up after the show. We’ll see y’all next time!

Ready to Talk to Someone to Learn More?

Drop Us a Line to Schedule a One-on-One Consultation

Maximize Your Enterprise Network with PoE

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Maximize Your Network with the New IEEE 802.3bt Power Over Ethernet

Learn what the new PoE Standards mean and how to take advantage of them to maximize your enterprise network design.

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Are You Ready to Get the Most Out of Your Enterprise Network?

Maybe you’ve heard something about the new PoE standard that offers 90 watts of Power Over Ethernet. But what does that really do for you and your network? Is it just interesting or is there something you can do with all that power? Read on while I show you how to take full advantage of IEEE 802.3bt PoE on your Enterprise Network.

Or watch the video training . . . or just download the presentation at the link below.

Click Here for Presentation Slides

I discuss interesting products in this post that change fundamentally how you layout and design networks. As you read or watch, you can use the links below to find those products.

PoE Lighting and Automation

Convert PoE to USB-C for iPad, Surface, and More

PoE In-wall Devices for Enterprise

Convert POE for NUC, Raspberry Pi, and More

See the Datasheet for the Desk Dock for Education

Let’s start by discussing what is IEEE 802.3bt PoE in practical terms. If you’d like, you can read the full standard with all of its details, however, spoiler alert, power and data get together in the end. In all seriousness, when you’re considering IEEE 802.3bt, here’s what you really need to know:

It was ratified in 2018 meaning it is a fairly new technology so not every manufacturer will have integrated this into their product line
It also hasn’t figured out what to call itself yet. You’ll find companies call it PoE++, UPOE, UPOE+, 4PairPoE, and more.
It also comes in two types:

Type 3 means it was based on Pre-standard PoE, gives you 60 watts of power, and requires dual signature which means it will not necessarily work with Type 4 PoE devices
Which is the new standard, Type 4, gives you 90 watts of power, and does a single signature

Since we’re at BICSI, you’ll want to know about the cables. Standards typically call for CAT 6 or a CAT 5e that has been designed for 4PairPoE. Check the cable specs on this.
A quick note, though, there is some planned power loss on even the bigger cables meaning you should only plan on 72 watts at a device even if you get 90 watts at the PoE switch.

So, let’s answer the question of why you would choose to maximize your network with PoE. Or in other words, why would you or your customers invest in upgrading to IEEE 802.3bt? Simply put, it’s all about saving money. PoE projects normally save 30% on any given project compared to conventional technology and give you a 36 month RoI.

How do you get that savings? With IEEE 802.3bt what you get above the savings in manpower and wiring you already know about, you’re able to move processing to the edge using more powerful intelligent devices, which I’ll get into shortly. It also allows you to integrate more modern technology with some very cool features. Let’s look at what those kinds of things are.

First let’s add in some new tech important for this discussion. You’ve likely seen the new USB-C connector on phones or tablets. However, you may not be as familiar with what it means from a functional perspective especially in buildings. Did you know USB-C can charge and do data up to 100 watts with the right cables? And it can role swap so a charging device can flip to be charged by something connected to it.

But if it’s so cool, why don’t we see it everywhere? Frankly, it just costs too much to run over 3-5 ft and cannot run longer than 15 ft maximum with extremely expensive cables. That’s where PoE comes in.

PoE Texas’ patent pending technology converges USB Type C and PoE onto one network. You can use our new our PoE+ to USB-C converter to charge and send wired data to tablets and phones. Designed to fit into US and EU wall boxes to allow you to use this for room schedulers, kiosks, digital signage, return to work and school solutions, and more. With our selection of cables, we can provide power and data to most modern tablets including Microsoft, Apple, Google, Samsung, and more.

We’re also doing pilot testing of an IEEE 802.3bt USB-C dock for enterprise and educational applications. You can find the cut sheet for it at our BICSI Booth. It has a USB-C charging and data port that will charge laptops that operate at less than 70 watts, which covers most laptops. Right now schools are handing out laptops to all their students, but they don’t have plans on how to keep those laptops charged at student’s desks. At best the student remembers their charger which has to plug into power strips and extension cords strewn around the classroom. This device takes the data load off the wireless network while at the same time charging off inherently safe class 2 power. [I8]

Speaking of charging, our new enterprise grade inwall devices allow you to convert a simple network drop into useful building elements. We recently launched our PoE+ to USB charging port. It takes PoE+ in and outputs a dual orientation USB charger and PoE output port. Now, your network drop becomes a useful IoT device for your customers.

Or, you can use IEEE 802.3bt PoE to power our miniaturized PoE switch that basically gives you 4 PoE ports for the price of one cable. In situations where you can’t run more cables and need more ports, you can use this device to get 4x PoE+ capable ports for the price of one cable.

Finally, let’s talk about how you use PoE with your edge processors. Now you can use PoE++ and PoE to provide power and data to your favorite edge devices including the Intel NUC mini PC, Raspberry Pi, and any DC driven device like thin clients and more.

Whew! We’ve covered a lot of technology and opportunities with PoE. As you can see, the new, more powerful PoE and USB-C standards are offering some very new, exciting opportunities for your enterprise network at a device level.

If you’d like to learn more, you can find all of these devices above. You can also reach out to us at success@poetexas.com to speak directly with a PoE expert.

Finally, I’ll wrap with a teaser for our other posts. Are you ready to take your ICT and installation business to the next level? Are you ready to differentiate yourself as a market leader? Join us later as we talk to you about PoE based lighting and automation and see how to significantly expand what you can offer your customers. Visit our other posts here in the learning center!

Ready to Talk to Someone to Learn More?

Drop Us a Line to Schedule a One-on-One Consultation

PoE Smart Mirror

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Chances are, if you’re at this page, you’ve seen at least one part of the PoE Smart Mirror project on YouTube. If you haven’t this might not make sense yet, so be sure to go back and watch the videos to see the mirror come together. Maria has been wanting to build this smart mirror for some time now and it was great to see the final product. We hope everyone enjoyed watching the process and liked how the mirror turned out. It might not be the most high-end option out there, but it was a great project that any new, or experienced hobbyist can tackle. If you want to learn more about the process, or see what specific steps we took, read through this page and maybe it’ll inspire you to build one for yourself!

See how it all came together!

Background

Hi, ya’ll! Maria here to give some background about this project before we dive into specifics. Now that it’s complete, I can say that it was such a great project to take on. I was definitely nervous at first because I have never built a project like this, let alone built anything with coding involved. Thankfully I was able to recruit Jeremy who was excited about the process and became a huge help. The concept came about because we wanted to find a cool project to do for our YouTube channel using a Raspberry Pi. We wanted to show build/application options you can do with an R-Pi and have it POE powered using our GAF-PiHAT accessory. We had an old laptop screen at the office and thought it’d be great for a first video project concept. Seeing the mirror come together was so rewarding. It made the ups-and-downs of coding worth it. I’m excited to provide you with this guide for those who want to build one of their own.

Materials and Tools You’ll Need

Materials Used:

2-Way Mirror
Pi Case
Raspberry Pi (we used a 3B+)
GAF-PiHAT (POE powered application)
Cat5e cable
802.3af POE injector
GAT-12v25w PoE splitter
MircoSD Memory Card
LED strip lights
Mounting adhesive strips
Hobby Board/wooden planks
Upcycled laptop screen/Pi Screen
Software of choice
Black foam to block out negative space

Tools:

Nails (wood glue is an option as well)
Zip ties
Screws
Nail gun
Saw and Sandpaper (used to make the wooden frame)
Scissors
Marker
Measuring tape

Software:

Win32 or other imaging software
MagicMirror
Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit with Desktop worked for us)

Part 1: The Build Process

Step 1: Measure for your frame. Whether you’re using hobby board or wooden planks, it’s important to get your frame measurements correct since this is the base for the mirror. You’ll want to make sure it fits the screen size you’re using.

Step 2. Cut. Once you’ve measured the dimensions needed for your frame, cut the pieces out and sand them down. This is where you can paint your frame, too. We went with a neutral, blonde finish.

Step 3: Assemble. The three main pieces to assemble as the base for your frame are the rods (hidden underneath) to hold the screen in place, the outside cover piece, and the frame itself.

Step 4: Mounting. This is when we mounted the screen to the inner, hidden rods and find the right position for your screen. The right position for our build was right in the middle. Cut the foam to hide the excess space, and place it around the screen to create blackout effect.

Step 5: Add your Mirror. Put the mirror in place and attach the ‘lid’ part of frame to hold it in place. The way ours was measured and cut, you could hear a physical ‘snap’ sound when the two pieces connected. We secured ours a step further with latches and screws.

Step 6: Cable management. Time to add your connections. This is when we connected our Raspberry Pi, GAF-PiHAT, HDMI cable running to the screen console, and the LED lights. The LED lights were powered from an open USB port on the R-Pi and attached to the sides of the frame with the included adhesive strips.

At this point your build should look like a regular mirror. The next steps will bring the smart mirror aspect into it as you begin to program the software.

Part 2: The Programming Process

Download Raspberry Pi OS, your smart mirror software of choice, and image/re-image your SD card. MagicMirror provided us with a set of commands for the basic configuration, but a small knowledge of basic terminal commands is definitely helpful in this process.

Your Raspberry Pi is only the computer. The “brain” is going to be the SD card since that is where the operating system is downloaded. If you try to connect the blank SD card to the brand new Raspberry Pi, nothing will happen. This is why you have to download the Raspberry Pi OS. There are different versions to choose from so find the one that fits your application You will have to download the file and image your SD card. Once it’s imaged it will be able to run your operating system. Now you can move forward with downloading and installing the smart mirror software of choice. In our case, we used MagicMirror. This will be downloaded to your Raspberry Pi.

Open the terminal and run shells commands to start the process of bringing the smart mirror to life. There are different versions of this MagicMirror software so your commands might be different. This is why I decided to not list the specific commands we used. You can find updated versions on MagicMirror.builders, or even google MagicMirror terminal commands.

MagicMirror Software:

https://magicmirror.builders/

Follow the basic steps on the site to download and install the most updated version. At the time of our build it was Node.js

https://docs.magicmirror.builders/getting-started/installation.html#manual-installation

Modules:

Once we had the basic commands set up, we were able to choose which MagicMirror modules to customize our mirror interface with.

https://github.com/MichMich/MagicMirror/wiki/3rd-party-modules

Module 1: Weather

https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/12703/weather-forecast-and-current-weather-modules/3

Module 2: MMM – Astrology

https://github.com/cowboysdude/MMM-Astrology

Module 3: Holidays

This module is stock, so we just had to find and code our region — Austin, TX.

Module 4: Compliments

We decided to disable this module because of the default wording it uses. In the video, you’ll get an example of the compliments this stock module greets you with. Instead, we replaced it with a standard text module to say “Hello, world.”

Module 5: Date/time

This module was another stock feature. To make it accurate for our region, we simply had to set it to CST.

Would You Like to Know More? We’re happy to discuss it with you.

Drop Us a Line to Schedule a One-on-One Consultation

success@poetexas.com

512.479.0317

PoE Specifier’s Guide

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Power Over Ethernet Specifier's Guide

A Rapid Reference Guide for Technical Sales and Design Professionals

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How to Use This Planning Guide

You can follow along online using this guide to gather and process the information you need to specify your PoE application. Or you can download our handy PDF guide that follows the same process. Our goal is to get your PoE identified and specified as quickly and conveniently as possible.

PROJECT TYPE

Select the Type of Project You Have

I need to install . . .

Non-PoE Device like a Tablet, Signage, or Computer Display
Automated Lighting or Blinds
IP Cameras
IP Phones
Wifi Access Points
Other

Next, and this is the HARDEST PART, pick the product or device you’d like to use. So many options! Then, once you know, collect the datasheet for the product. Trust us, you’ll want it.

Reading the Datasheets

Once you have your trusty datasheet handy, we’ve highlighted the specs your looking for in these two examples:

Data rate
Input port type – you do need RJ-45 or LAN ports
PoE type

POE TYPE

Select the Right Type of Power Over Ethernet for the Project

Let’s confirm a few details to make sure you’re picking the right Power Over Ethernet for Your Application.

Let’s check your end product datasheet to find out what you need in terms of data throughput. Can’t find it? Here are some tips for you.

10/100 (Half Duplex)

If it’s not called out on your spec sheet, PoE Lighting, kiosks, IP phones, IP cameras, and non-PoE applications typically work fine with 10/100 or Fast Ethernet.

Gigabit (Full Duplex)

Protocols like Newtek’s NDI, streaming cameras, Dante, data transmission like Wifi, or other high bandwidth applications usually require gigabit data rates.

Wireless

Wireless communication rates will depend on your device. Any more most IEEE 802.3ac device are gigabit.

We will also check your device for the type of PoE you need. If it’s not clearly specified, you can use the tips below as a rough guide:

IEEE 802.3af - PoE

Requires 12.9 watts of power or less:

10″ Tablets and smaller – iPad 10.2, iPad Mini, Amazon Fire

IP Cameras that are not Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ)

IP Phones

Raspberry Pi – unless you’re really using the Raspberry Pi 4 hard

IEEE 802.3at - PoE+

Requires 25.5 watt of power or less:

Any tablet with a USB-C port using our GAT-USBC-PD or GAT-USBC converters

iPad Pro 12.9″, Surface Go, Samsung Tab

Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) cameras or cameras with some heaters

Dual radio Wifi Access Points

Smaller Point to Point Radios

IEEE 802.3bt - PoE++ or 4PairPoE

This breaks into two categories:

Type 3 – 60 watts or less

Type 4 – 72 watts or less

Signage including most Intel NUC’s

Lighting or Automation

30″ Displays and Above

Long Distance Extenders

Passive PoE - 24 or 56 Volt

You know if you fall into this category if you’re working with Point-to-Point or Point-to-Multipoint Wireless Radio Communication. Are you a WISP? Then you need to know whether your device requires passive PoE.

What do the PoE Standards Mean?

POWER SOURCE TYPE (PSE)

Once you know the PoE type, now you can can pick the power sourcing equipment (PSE)

In general, you have two options when selecting PoE Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE): PoE switch or PoE midspan. The decision really comes down to three key factors.

Why a PoE Switch?

You have a new installation where you can set it up from scratch
You don’t require any “non-standard” features from the switch
You can afford the higher prices for the higher PoE standards

Why a PoE Midspan?

You have an existing installation with settings you don’t want to change
You require special networking features that drive up the cost of the switch and PoE combined
You need a more cost effective approach to the higher PoE standards

PoE FOR A NON-PoE DEVICE

If your device has integrated PoE, you can skip this section. Otherwise, we should talk about connectors to make non-PoE devices PoE powered.

This usually can be solved by the type of connector your device has, which will be a surprisingly important feature. You use the connector type to select the PoE splitter or adapter for your application.

PoE Total Power Budget

Now you need to calculate to total power budget for your poe switch or midspan.

Isn’t there a calculator for things like this?

Why, yes, there is.

Download our free PoE Calculator app from the App or Google Play Store by clicking the links below.

Or visit us online at:

https://www.poetexas.com/poe-calculator

PREPARE TO DO THE PROJECT

You already have all the information you need to select and source your PoE devices, these next steps are just some best practices we hope you will find helpful.

PREPARE A BILL OF MATERIALS (BOM)

Now that you’ve answered a lot of questions, you’re ready to prepare your Bill of Materials to help you source all of your products!

DON’T FORGET

While you’re at it, don’t forget to make sure you have all the tools you’ll need for the installation. There’s nothing worse than having to go back for more tools!

YOUR POWER OVER ETHERNET PROS

WOULD YOU LIKE MORE HELP?

We pride ourselves in the level of customer support we’re able to offer our customers. If you’d like more support on your project, feel free to contact us to speak with a PoE expert who can help you build your project.

Check Out Our Other Helpful Blogs and Videos

Configuring Cisco Enterprise for PoE to USB-C

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Configuring Your Cisco 9300 or 9400 Switch for PoE+

To Include PoE+ Devices Like the PoE to USB-C Converter for Surface Go, iPad Pro, Samsung Tab, or Any USB-C device

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Running Into Charging Issues with Your PoE+ to USB-C Converter or Other PoE Devices?

There’s a little known default feature in your Cisco enterprise switch that prevents you from getting the most out of your PoE+ devices, especially when using a PoE+ to USB-C converter for iPad Pro, Surface Go, Samsung Tab, and other devices.

While your Cisco 9400 or 9300 model switches are rated for PoE+ and capable of negotiating PoE+ class 4 devices, they will default to only negotiating 15.4 watts with your PoE converter unless you configure your switch for 2 event classification. USB-C devices, including the Surface Go and Surface Go 2, require 18 watts or more to charge properly and communicate. You can see why below

In that case, you’ll know the default setting is wrong because:

1 – You’ll see the port only negotiates 15.4 watts of power

2 – Your USB-C device will either not charge properly or will begin to lose battery charge even if it shows it is charging

Click Here to See the Cisco Instructions

Configuring Your Enterprise Switch for 2 Event Classification

Fortunately, it’s a quick, well-documented setting you just need to update for the ports you’re planning to use for your PoE+ device. You can find the instructions from Cisco here:

2 EVENT CLASSIFICATION

Or just go to your switch terminal and follow these steps:

Switch> enable

Switch# configure terminal

Switch(config)# interface gigabitethernet2/0/1

You can also configure multiple ports on a switch at one time by choosing a range like

“gigabitethernet2/0/1-24”

Switch(config-if)# power inline port 2-event

Switch(config-if)# end

Why Doesn’t PoE Texas Just Make Their Devices LLDP Compatible?

You can read our white paper on why PoE LLDP is not compatible with the IEEE 802.3 PoE devices and USB.

Simply put, LLDP and USB are not compatible power standards. They simply work differently.

While we recognize the huge benefits to our customers to not require them to reconfigure their switches, the challenge comes down to what LLDP is and how USB works. LLDP is designed for computers and processors to share vital information with each other at the lowest level possible which works great for an end device like a computer or a phone with a processor on-board and its MAC address, in particular for our case one that can boot and start communicating in a low power mode.

Unfortunately, USB-C devices and the USB protocol doesn’t behave that way. Take a Microsoft Surface Go or an iPad Pro, for example. Their default initial power demands are 18-22 watt PD profiles. If you connect a USB-C hub or dock that offers to provide power to the device without the correct power delivery profiles sufficient to charge the battery, it will reject the device and disable the USB-C port which protects your device from defective or improperly built USB devices. You want that.

On the other hand, it is the end device like the PC or tablet that does LLDP communication with the network once it is connected. So it will not connect to the network through the USB-C port until it has received a correct power profile from the hub. So in this case, the iPad Pro or Surface Go cannot communicate its power requirements back to the network switch until after it has received sufficient power to make the connection.

And, since you’ll likely point out that the LLDP can happen before you connect the power by disabling the USB-C PD, yes, you can conceivably start with a charged tablet negotiating power then turning on the Power Delivery charging. There are two challenges there as well:

1 – We would need to customize the LLDP drivers on all devices which is considered basically a change to the kernal level programming since this communication works at the lowest levels. Device manufacturers control that very carefully and will be slow to consider that change.

2 – Even if we did achieve that level of change, if the device drains the battery for any number of reasons including power outages or being disconnected for a time, the tablet or PC would be unable to charge, boot up, connect LLDP, and start battery charging without the PD profile. Experience has shown customers cannot guarantee that only charged devices will connect to the network.

So, yes, making switch changes does drive an added layer of configuration, the change provides more reliable and consistent performance in all situations with your USB-C device.

Haven’t Found What You Need? We’re Happy To Help Solve Your Problem.

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PoE Basics

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PoE Fundamentals

Whether You’re a Pro or New to PoE, Build Your Core Knowledge

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I’ll start by saying that I love Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

If it’s so cool, why doesn’t everyone do this all the time? Frankly I’m stumped. However, I blame it on it sounding too technical because it has to do with computers talking to each other.

Let’s start off with a pronunciation guide. This is worth your time. You drop this on your friends and coworkers, and you become the de facto expert on PoE.

PoE – pronounced PEE – OH – EEE. Not like Edgar Allan “Poe”.
IEEE 802.3af – pronounced EYE TRIPLE EEEE EIGHT OH TWO DOT THREE AYE EF.
Okay, so say it with me now . . . EYE TRIPLE EEEE EIGHT OH TWO DOT THREE AYE EF.

Great work!!

So what does that all mean? Working from the ground up (another engineer joke!), PoE means putting electricity onto an ethernet cable along with a data signal. You can use that electricity to power all kinds of things: cameras, lights, wifi access points, iPads, phones, TV’s, computers, media players, Raspberry Pi’s. Warning: once you get into what you can power with PoE, it goes deep, like X-Files deep.

You don’t need to read it, but if you do – SPOILER ALERT – data and power get together by the end.

PoE Type or Standard

Nickname

Power Per Port
(at the device)

Types of Devices

IEEE 802.3af

PoE

12.9 watts

IP Cameras
IP phones
iPads and Tablets (<10″)

IEEE 802.3at

PoE+

25.5 watts

Outdoor PTZ Cameras
Dual Radio Wifi Access Points
USB Type C phones and tablets (>10″)

IEEE 802.3bt

PoE++
4Pair PoE

79 watts

Televisions
Lights
Blinds
Laptops

*Passive PoE

24 Volt PoE
Passive

Up to 55 watts

Ubiquiti or Mikrotik
Wireless Internet PtP or PtMP
(big Wifi Radios)

*Passive PoE can operate anywhere from 12 volts up to 58 volts. You’ll want to check your specifications carefully to make sure they match your device.

Oh no! My Device Doesn’t Have PoE!

Have no fear. You can use a device called a PoE Splitter to change PoE into almost any kind of power you need: USB, 12 volt DC, 19 volt DC, USB Type C. So find out what kind of power you need, then get a splitter for it.

The real difference between the types of PoE is how much power your devices need called out in Watts. What you need to know is that the watts are how much power a device consumes to do its job. The last column shows you the kind of devices each power level can support.

“But how do I do that?” you ask. I’ll break it down bullet point style. Let’s say you’re looking to add a new camera or any device to your network.

First, go find the datasheet. Don’t Panic. Every engineer makes a datasheet because its their way of bragging. It’s like they’re street racers with their tricked-out muscle cars, they want you to know what they’ve got under the hood. Typically, you can find PoE in the Electrical section. You’ll find something like “POE” or “IEEE 802.3 af”. That tells you what kind of PoE your new toy has.

Second, select a type of Power Sourcing Equipment (PoE), that’s your PoE switch or midspan (injector). What’s a switch and what’s a midspan you ask? They look a lot alike, but don’t be fooled. They’re different animals with different purposes like a king snake and a coral snake (Krykie, she’s a beauty! I’m going to pick her up!).

Why use a Midspan when I can just buy a PoE switch?

There are two situations where a midspan injector makes more sense:

1) Let’s say you have your network all set up, and it’s working great. All the ports are forwarding, Quality of Service (QoS) is great, and everything has been working for a while. If you’re like me, the guy who set up the network has gone all Jason Bourne on me which means I’ll never find him again. Then you need to add PoE to it, or you need to add PoE+ to your PoE switch because you just need that little extra power. Do I really want to try to pull out that switch that I paid a lot of money and headache to get configured to add a few PoE+ devices? At this point, it’s not about the money, it’s about the headache of nothing working for a month while we get it all sorted out again. Or do I just add a midspan in a few minutes and forget about it.

2) You don’t want to have to buy a switch that doesn’t have the features you want just because it can do the PoE you want. We see this more often than you’d think. For example, you have an NDI switch that doesn’t have PoE or doesn’t do PoE+. You need that PoE power for your streaming camera. Do you buy an NDI switch that may be way more than you need with PoE+ or just use a midspan to add it to the switch you know and love?

Finally, once you know your switch or midspan is compatible, then make sure you have enough ports and power budget for all your PoE devices on your PSE. Most switches and some midspans don’t have enough total power budget to give you full PoE power on all ports at the same time. Why?! you may ask. It comes down to cost and how much you’ll really use each port. Your Toyota Corolla technically can go to 120 mph, but you really use it to get to work and back. If you really wanted to go 120 mph, you upgrade a Porsche or Corvette or something truly awesome.

There’s a catch . . . this part takes . . . gasp . . . math. I know you swore you would never touch a calculator again when you got out of school. Believe me. It’s not that bad.

Simple Method:

Add up all the rated power consumption of all the devices and compare it to the rated power of your PSE. For example:

2 x PTZ Optics cameras at 12 watts each = 24 watts

2 x Polycom Phones at 6 watts each = 12 watts

1 x High End Wifi Access Point (WAP) = 23 watts

All together: 24 + 12 + 23 = 59 watts

You need at least 5 ports and a total of 60 watts. Oh, and by the way, you need PoE+ for that high end WAP.

Nerdy Method:

I couldn’t leave you with it that simple. If you’d really like to get details, you can use our PoE Calculator to estimate how much you can expect in cable loss as well!

New now, you can find our APP for Apple and Android devices!

If you find yourself saying, I’m not going to remember all that! Don’t. Just remember to come back to your book here to find a link to a handy tool to walk you through your PSE selection process. You can find it in our

PoE Specifier's Guide

I will close with the immortal words of Stan Lee, “With great power comes great responsibility”.

ProTip:

Whatever you do, do not put on a blonde mullet wig, don a furry pair of briefs, and hold up a sword shouting, “I have the POWER!”. It never turns out the way you think it will.

If you find this learning center helpful, like and subscribe on your social channels to learn when we post new guides!

Power and data for iPad

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Power Over Ethernet for iPad

Deliver Power and Data Over an Ethernet Cable

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So you’ve decided to mount an iPad on your conference room or at a kiosk, and now you need power for it. Let us help you spec out the right PoE solution for your iPad.

If you’re concerned about having an iPad always charging, there’s good news. iOS 11.3 now has a feature integrated into the software that protects the iPad battery when it is always charging. Check out their help desk info here!

To pick out the right PoE Texas product for your tablet, we just need to answer a few quick questions:

Do you already have a PoE switch? (Most are IEEE 802.3af or .at)

If so, you just need to pick your splitter form factor based on the type of iPad you have.

Place Holder

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.

iPad 10.2

You have a lightning connector, so you will use the

GAF-Lightning-PD

iPad Pro, Air, & Mini

You have a USB Type C connector, so you will use the

GAT-USBC-PD or AT-USBC-JB

Power Only for iPad 10.2

You have a lightning connector, and you only want send power and use wireless data, so you will use the

AF-Lightning

Picking My Splitter

If you want to conceal as much as possible – meaning you tuck it away inside the wall or the ceiling – go for the enclosed form factor like the WT-AF-5v-MicroUSB.

Putting it in the ceiling? Pick the WT-AF-5v-MicroUSB and extend the power down the wall with a quality micro USB extension cable. Don’t go low cost on the cable because it might not send the 12 watts your tablet needs.

If you’re looking for a clean solution to wall mount the splitter, pick the WT-GAF-USB2 mounted on a recessed low voltage wall box.

If you have tight walls or just have more access around the back, you could upgrade to a different low voltage wall box.

GAF-MicroUSB

$22.99

Gigabit microUSB PoE Splitter.

Perfect for conference room and kiosk displays or anywhere else you need power. Power your 5 volt microUSB devices from your existing PoE switch with these 5 volt Power over Ethernet splitter/converters.

Buy

Pick my Power Supplying Equipment (PSE)

By the way, yeah, PSE is the technical acronym for it. So now to power your splitter.

If you’re just doing power or want to isolate your tablets from your other PoE switches or injectors, you can pick any one of our 10/100 injectors.

Quick side note: if you use one of our 10/100 injectors with the WT-GAF-USB2, check our our tech post on making the WT-GAF-USB2 Mode B.

WT-GAF-USB2 Conversion to Mode B

Out of the box our WT-GAF-USB2 is Mode A power only – What does Mode A mean? – and this short blog shows you how to convert your Mode A only WT-GAF-USB2 to Mode B, giving it compatibility with our 10/100 series of PoE injectors.

Learn More

We Can’t Forget 24 Volt Passive!

If you’ve got to do this on a budget, you can find all of these same great options in the 24 Volt Passive line.

*Keep an eye peeled for our new WT-POE-USB2 that will give you the same great features as the WT-GAF-USB2 in a 24 volt passive format!

Accessory	Quantity
Access Control
Powered Blinds
Security Cameras
Wireless access points	Include
7" Touchscreen tablets
10" Touchscreen tablets

I’ll start by saying that I love Power Over Ethernet (PoE).

PoE is Smarter Power

Let’s start off with a pronunciation guide.

This is worth your time. You drop this on your friends and coworkers, and you become the de facto expert on PoE.

Great work!!

So what does that all mean?

The Current PoE Types and Standards

Oh no! My Device Doesn’t Have PoE!

Why use a Midspan when I can just buy a PoE switch?

There are two situations where a midspan injector makes more sense:

Simple Method:

Nerdy Method:

Now you can find our APP for Apple and Android devices!

PoE Specifier's Guide

ProTip:

If you find this learning center helpful, like and subscribe to our social channels to learn when we post new guides!

Resorts World Confirms PoE Lighting Costs Less

Independent Study Confirms PoE Texas’ Denton DBI Costs Less Than Traditional AC

Denton DBI Savings

Bid My Job

click here for a quote

Schedule a One on One with our CTO!

The Comparison

Equivalent Performance

Concluding the Study

Resorts World discovered they could have a fully managed lighting system for less than the cost of their basic lighting package.

PoE Lighting Bootcamp

PoE Lighting and Automation Bootcamp

Ready to Talk to Someone to Learn More?

Drop Us a Line to Schedule a One-on-One Consultation

Frequently Asked Questions about PoE Lighting

Top Questions Answered by CTO, Joe Herbst, and CEO, Tyler Andrews

Topics:

Market Information

What is the largets market, in terms of commercial real estate size, for PoE Lighting and Automation?

Has PoE lighting known to have been installed on any military installations?

Is there any information about residential use?

Do you have any use cases in hospital or clinical environments?

Change is hard. How to leverage the need for PoE professionals for projects? Should I look for professionals with specific Certifications (besides electrician) for this job?

Sales and Marketing

What is the cost per sq ft savings that I can tell my client what percentage of savings they will see in real numbers?

Was the cost savings (60%) in copper based upon comparing a single run of #14/2 vs numerous runs (how many?) of 23awg UTP?

How do you sell a POE ligthing system to a client who has an existing normal lighting system? How do you convince the client to move over to the POE system?

Is the cost savings in copper based upon comparing a single run of #14/2 vs numerous runs (how many?) of 23awg UTP?

Would PoE Lighting be suitiable for residental like houses and condos, for example how about a 2400 sq ft house?

What might a cost comparison be between a traditional lighting system and a SPOG setup for something like a 10,000 sqft office building? Would there be savings over traditional copper conductors? Are NFPA 101 requirements easily met?

It is difficult to provide a good ROI for PoE lighting for new construction, as well as retrofit. Is the PoE Consortium working on accurate cost estimate tools that include ALL the factors to build and maintain the system?

Design

What percentage of space increase in the Telecom rooms/racks are experienced by adding poe lighting?

Who does the design to confirm proper light levels per code?

Is Exit Lighting allowed to be PoE?

How many lights can be supported from one 90 watt switch port?

Can this system also handle security, ie instead of cameras?

What is the recomended CAT cable?

How do you handle emergency lighting? What about potential switch failure? How do you handle emergency lighting with UL924 or UL1008?

In a typical PoE installation, are the back-of-house components typically housed in telecom, or electrical rooms? Who maintains and administers, the electrical dept. or IT dept.?

Will you homerun to each driver and patch cord to each LED?

Is there a sigle line drawing showing how the system is wired?

What is the function of PoE in the SPOG? Do the systems to be controlled or integrated have to be PoE energized?

Are there provisions for ACL-type role assignment? I have diverse users with tiered levels of needed access (think: secretary, building admin, maintenance).

Does the POE powered lighting emergency specification/code match the same duration and as 277VAC emergency lighting uptime?

Is power dissipation in cable is an issue when using PoE?

Is intelligent passive cabling preferable to monitor ports apart from active network?

What is the future of SPOG based on NFPA 70 Article 726 "Class 4 Fault-Managed Power Systems"?

Does each device need a separate license to be purchased? For the end user, as one tenant may have multiple user's at different rooms?

Should we use separate networks or VLANs for all PoE devices?

Hardware

What is the controller with the USB stick? What does it do? Who makes it?

General costs of a high power switch?

What is a rectifier? Who makes it?

How compatible are the lighting systems/software with BMS platforms like Niagara? Can data be shared to allow for lighting occupancy sensors to also control mechanical systems?

Would this have its own application to control the system or could it be integrated into a BMS system such as Jonhson Controls Metasys?

Most heat load happens at the fixture, not at the data switch, correct?

Where are we getting "fancy" fixtures? Seems like we only see flat panels & strips.

Where do I find cut sheets for all of this?

Do you know of a rack mounted UPS brand/model that is UL rated for emergency lighting?

Can four 20W fixtures on a single 90W port be controlled individually or must a home run to each fixture be required to control separately?

Do the fixtures come with a POE driver or are they field installed?

How easy is it to swap out the main displays on wallstations should it be damaged, and what (if any) set up would be required to return the system to full functionality?

Do you provide 90W PoE switches?