One more PoE question

[jnelsoninjax]

I am just about ready to order 2 PoE camera's and I need a little clarification. Standard ethernet cables are fine for PoE, correct? It just needs an adapter?  Since I will not be plugging directly into the router, will any standard switch work with PoE?

Thank you for any and all assistance!

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Where is your PoE power coming from? It's not just connecting it to a switch.

 

You need a PoE router, like this:

 

But I'll let BudMan spill his jargon...

[jnelsoninjax]

The router supplies the power, the switch is plugged into the router...

[Brandon H Supervisor]

from my understanding as well is you'll either need a switch that supports PoE as shown above or an injector in between your camera and switch. if you're hooking up multiple then it may be more efficient to have a PoE switch rather than multiple injectors.

 

Here's an example injector from amazon https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Injector-Adapter-Compliant/dp/B001PS9E5I

1 minute ago, jnelsoninjax said:

The router supplies the power, the switch is plugged into the router...

a normal switch will not pass that through from my understanding. you'd still need a supported switch like pictured above or an injector between the switch and camera.

[jnelsoninjax]

2 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

from my understanding as well is you'll either need a switch that supports PoE as shown above or an injector in between your camera and switch. if you're hooking up multiple then it may be more efficient to have a PoE switch rather than multiple injectors.

 

Here's an example injector from amazon https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Injector-Adapter-Compliant/dp/B001PS9E5I

a normal switch will not pass that through from my understanding. you'd still need a supported switch like pictured above or an injector between the switch and camera.

I just realized that as well. I am going to order a PoE switch, will I need an injector between the router and the switch?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

2 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

I just realized that as well. I am going to order a PoE switch, will I need an injector between the router and the switch?

you'd just need one or the other. as long as you have a switch that supports PoE out then an injector is not needed.

 

[jnelsoninjax]

Just now, Brandon H said:

you'd just need one or the other. as long as you have a switch that support PoE out then an injector is not needed.

OK, thanks! This is all new to me, but is going to be so much better in the long run, WiFi cameras are nice, but have limitations.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

1 minute ago, jnelsoninjax said:

OK, thanks! This is all new to me, but is going to be so much better in the long run, WiFi cameras are nice, but have limitations.

yeah I've never used it either personally but definitely sounds like the way to go for projects like you're doing  

[jnelsoninjax]

1 minute ago, Brandon H said:

yeah I've never used it either personally but definitely sounds like the way to go for projects like you're doing  

What has prompted me to tackle this is the one Reolink WiFi camera I have watching the driveway lost the network, and the only way I can fix it is go borrow a ladder and reset it, with PoE I should not have any problems like that.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

Just now, jnelsoninjax said:

What has prompted me to tackle this is the one Reolink WiFi camera I have watching the driveway lost the network, and the only way I can fix it is go borrow a ladder and reset it, with PoE I should not have any problems like that.

yep that's the risk with WiFi cameras. best to hardwire when able. both for reliability and bandwidth.

[jnelsoninjax]

9 minutes ago, Brandon H said:

yep that's the risk with WiFi cameras. best to hardwire when able. both for reliability and bandwidth.

Honestly right now, I am simply going to replace the 2 that watch our doors, I can get 2 for ~$80, and I ordered cable and a switch for ~$30

[+BudMan MVC]

Just make sure the poe switch your getting supports what your camera's use.  There are different poe specs, there is poe (802.3af) and poe+ (802.3at) and now poe++ (802.3bt) with type 3 or 4.

 

There is also devices that use what is called passive poe.  Which could be 24 or 48v, etc.

 

And if your going to plug in multiple poe devices into switch, you also need to make sure the switch can handle the full power budget of all the devices going to be used - and prob want to allow for growth, etc.

 

And it seems like you want to be able to reset, you might have to unplug the cable, since some lower end poe switches do not allow for just turning off power via cli or web gui of the switch.  But yeah pulling the wire at the switch would be easier than climbing up a ladder

[jnelsoninjax]

22 hours ago, BudMan said:

Just make sure the poe switch your getting supports what your camera's use.  There are different poe specs, there is poe (802.3af) and poe+ (802.3at) and now poe++ (802.3bt) with type 3 or 4.

 

There is also devices that use what is called passive poe.  Which could be 24 or 48v, etc.

 

And if your going to plug in multiple poe devices into switch, you also need to make sure the switch can handle the full power budget of all the devices going to be used - and prob want to allow for growth, etc.

 

And it seems like you want to be able to reset, you might have to unplug the cable, since some lower end poe switches do not allow for just turning off power via cli or web gui of the switch.  But yeah pulling the wire at the switch would be easier than climbing up a ladder

I'm not seeing anything on the camera about power requirement, can you look and see if I missed something?

https://reolink.com/product/rlc-410/?attribute_pa_version=2-pack#specifications

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

According to this: https://reolink.com/files/docs/specs/RLC-410-5MP-IP-Camera-Specifications.pdf

 

"DC12V & PoE (IEEE 802.3af)"

 

Had to hunt down for that one, lol.

[jnelsoninjax]

1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

According to this: https://reolink.com/files/docs/specs/RLC-410-5MP-IP-Camera-Specifications.pdf

 

"DC12V & PoE (IEEE 802.3af)"

 

Had to hunt down for that one, lol.

Thanks for finding that, the switch I got shows IEE 802.3af, so I guess that means it works!

[+BudMan MVC]

What switch did you get?

[jnelsoninjax]

2 hours ago, BudMan said:

What switch did you get?

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B091DHMPNH

One other question: can I use standard Ethernet cable for PoE, or is there specific cabling that I need to use?

[+BudMan MVC]

Any cable will work, there are not special poe cables.

 

Never heard of that brand of switch before, but doesn't seem to have any sort of gui or smart/managed features.  So yeah prob have to pull the wire at the switch to reset the camera.

 

Very reasonable price for sure.. And your camera only lists 10/100 interface, so no need spending extra for a gig poe switch for your cameras.  Camera specs show less than 10w, so looks like that switch could do 4 cameras..

 

Let us know how it turns out after you get everything up and running.

 

edit:  Only concern, maybe?  Not sure on the bandwidth requirements for your video feeds.. But all the camera's on that switch are going to have to share the 100mbps to the rest of your network, where NVR sits?  Which I would assume would have gig connection.  As long as the total combined bandwidth required for your video doesn't exceed the 100mbps this switch is going to limit you too should be fine.

 

ah, just looked and bandwidth is pretty low

Bitrate

Main Stream: 1024Kbps ~ 8192Kbps, Sub Stream: 64Kbps ~ 512Kbps

 

So that 100mbps shouldn't be an issue..

[jnelsoninjax]

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

Any cable will work, there are not special poe cables.

 

Never heard of that brand of switch before, but doesn't seem to have any sort of gui or smart/managed features.  So yeah prob have to pull the wire at the switch to reset the camera.

 

Very reasonable price for sure.. And your camera only lists 10/100 interface, so no need spending extra for a gig poe switch for your cameras.  Camera specs show less than 10w, so looks like that switch could do 4 cameras..

 

Let us know how it turns out after you get everything up and running.

 

edit:  Only concern, maybe?  Not sure on the bandwidth requirements for your video feeds.. But all the camera's on that switch are going to have to share the 100mbps to the rest of your network, where NVR sits?  Which I would assume would have gig connection.  As long as the total combined bandwidth required for your video doesn't exceed the 100mbps this switch is going to limit you too should be fine.

 

ah, just looked and bandwidth is pretty low

Bitrate

Main Stream: 1024Kbps ~ 8192Kbps, Sub Stream: 64Kbps ~ 512Kbps

 

So that 100mbps shouldn't be an issue..

The camera's are scheduled to be here this weekend, so I hope to get everything up and running then. You mentioned that the switch has no GUI, are there any reason I would need something like that?

[+BudMan MVC]

1 hour ago, jnelsoninjax said:

You mentioned that the switch has no GUI

Well from your link to amazon sure looks like just a dumb switch.. A smart switch would have some sort of interface be web based or cli.. Which could allow for lots of things, like hard coding interface speed/duplex, toggle power on or off.  View power utilization, view mac address table so you could tell which camera plugged into which port by mac address, etc.

 

Do you "need" a smart/managed switch - no not really. 

 

I would just suggest you label which camera is plugged into which port - so you know which one to unplug if you need to reset..

[jnelsoninjax]

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

Well from your link to amazon sure looks like just a dumb switch.. A smart switch would have some sort of interface be web based or cli.. Which could allow for lots of things, like hard coding interface speed/duplex, toggle power on or off.  View power utilization, view mac address table so you could tell which camera plugged into which port by mac address, etc.

 

Do you "need" a smart/managed switch - no not really. 

 

I would just suggest you label which camera is plugged into which port - so you know which one to unplug if you need to reset..

Yes, that is very good advise to label the cables.

[jnelsoninjax]

@BudManI just noticed on the switch that of the 4 ports, only one is labeled PoE /LAN, the others are just PoE. Does this mean that only one camera will work?

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

A lot of switches/routers are like that. they just have extra LAN ports if you should ever need it. But they can either do PoE or LAN.

[+BudMan MVC]

from the description that on amazon.. I was not able to find actual manual for the switch.

 

",The fourth port can be used as a poe port or an uplink port"

 

I prob wouldn't use it until such time that your looking to add your 4th camera, etc.  And just use the uplink port to connect to your network.  Let me guess it didn't come with a manual?

 

Where did all the dust come from - that is a new switch right?

 

[jnelsoninjax]

16 minutes ago, BudMan said:

from the description that on amazon.. I was not able to find actual manual for the switch.

 

",The fourth port can be used as a poe port or an uplink port"

 

I prob wouldn't use it until such time that your looking to add your 4th camera, etc.  And just use the uplink port to connect to your network.  Let me guess it didn't come with a manual?

 

Where did all the dust come from - that is a new switch right?

 

The switch is new, it is sitting on the corner stand where the router and modem are located which is why it is dusty we also have 4 cats, so it is very challenging to keep everything dust free! It does come with a manual, but it does not really say anything about the ports.

Here is the manual: