What is not acceptable is full sized switches inside of a robot: they're way too bulky. You may be looking into installing a switch inside a humanoid upper arm or inside pelvis. Regular switches and hubs don't fit there.
This product solves that specific robotics packaging problem. Electrically it's a switch/hub, physically it's much smaller than that, that's the point.
This is something I might test myself. I have a couple of audio devices that will never be both "active" at the same time. In my current layout I need to run either two cables or just another switch and it just seems a waste. I wonder if I can buy daisy chained cable so I don't have to make one...
The other issue is that there is at least 2 competing industrial connector standards for SPE, the main ones being from Harting[2] and Phoenix Contact[3]. I think this could be a great option for the future and ultimately lead to lower cost cabling and smaller products.
[1] https://www.single-pair-ethernet.com/en
This reminds me of a funny conversation I had in a small town stationers when looking for an item.
‘No, we don’t stock it. People keep asking, and I keep having to explain that there is no demand.’
Though this wasn’t for an obscure Ethernet variant.
Hubs are no-no because of various performance issues, including how more and more gear supports gigabit on the daisy chaining.
A 1G switch from Ali with a case, power supply, and the RJ45 connectors is also under $10.
But there is always room to hope. :)
Keep in mind that you'd be supplying 71W to every single downstream port. That's an insane amount of power. Something like a Cisco Catalyst 9136I Access Point only comes up to 47W, and that's assuming 16 radios, double 5Gbit uplinks, and a USB device drawing 9W.
Adding a sound requirement is stupid and ridiculous. You're wanting to take the power supplies from 48 90W devices and put them all in one dense little box and then complaining that it needs to be cool.
If you have room for 48 PoE devices, you have room for a properly cooled and sound isoloated IDF.
The only thing is it doesn't address a new or existing market as-is because it competes with what already exists. For example, a TrendNet 10/100 compact switch (not a hub) goes for $7.31 including shipping on eBay and it comes with a case and a power supply. Decommodifying a product requires finding niches where there is demand like automotive, aerospace, military, or marine applications. Until roughly 2020, 2.88 MB 3.5" floppy drives were in-use primarily in industrial and turnkey commercial systems long after they disappeared from desktop computers. Dinosaur technologies can live on for a very long time, often in critical systems deemed too expensive to replace.
Keep pushing forward, learning, and getting better.
Btw, if someone made a:
- 48 port 10GBASE-T (802.3an-2006) POE++ (IEEE 802.3bt-2018) 960W-1600W+ (3422W would be the upper limit for type 4)
- L2 (at least) switch
- unmanaged to fully-managed (but no cloud features)
- 4 100GBASE QSFP28 uplinks (unpopulated)
- dual, hot-swappable PSUs
- 2 models: Ports facing either forward or reverse
- 19" 1U half rack depth, and wall mountable
- Most importantly: doesn't sound like a jet engine under full load by leveraging better engineering, such as using some industrial-rated parts, heatpipes, and moving hotter air but less volume
I'd throw down in the $6K price-point neighborhood.
Comparables:
$4800 FS S5860-48XMG-U is close but sounds like a jet engine with dual 1U screaming PSUs and 3 hot swap chassis fans, but only available in conventional top-of-rack forward facing, leading to longer, messier wire management unnecessarily.