Extreme Power Over Ethernet

If you’ve been reading hereabouts for some time, you likely know that I am an advocate for power-over-ethernet. In it’s earliest days, almost twenty (!) years ago, I started blogging in order to share my experience combining working from a home office full-time, leveraging broadband-over-DSL and IP telephones.

SIP/IP telephones and Wi-Fi access points are natural gateways into P.O.E. That’s certainly how I got started. At first, I used POE insertors. As the number of POE-capable devices mounted, I migrated to Ubiquiti Unifi POE switches.

Further, I adopted POE-splitters as a means of powering non-poe-capable devices from the network. For example, many of the Raspberry Pi that I used a points of music playback are powered from the network. Also, little IoT hubs like those from Hue and Lutron. It makes sense that these should be on the reliable power provided by Mr. Eaton, the dual conversion UPS in the network core.

Given all the above, I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to leverage POE. For a time I was interested in POE lighting, but that doesn’t seem to have caught on for residential or SOHO applications. It seems limited to enterprises and schools.

However, I recently stumbled upon an application of POE that I thought very creative. Well worth sharing. Chris over at the Silver Cymbal Workshop YouTube channel offers a detailed description of a project involving a remote driveway gate. Installed quite a distance from the house, this automated gate with accompanying surveillance cameras, is entirely powered by way of the equivalent of power-over-ethernet.

In truth, it’s located further than Ethernet will allow, so the author used a combination of fiber and low-voltage wiring deliver power and connectivity over the distance. Nonetheless, to his network it’s just one power-over-ethernet drop. The power from the network is used to trickle charge the batteries that operate the gate. I think the approach is novel and well thought-out.