TL;DR - recommendations for a PoE injector + splitter pair, that can provide reliable 12VDC 2A at 200 feet? The splitter should totally remove the voltage from the CAT6 connection, and down-convert a higher voltage down to steady 12V, and put it on a barrel connector (or on a terminal where I can wire a barrel). The injector should accept 12VDC input (not AC input) and boost it to 24VDC or higher, to be down-converted back to 12VDC by the splitter - 24V or 48V travel to reduce voltage drop on a 200ft 23AWG CAT6.
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I have an ONT (optical network terminal) made by iPhotonix, which I lease from my ISP for $3/month. I understand the iPhotonix company is gone; I guess my ISP has a stock of these ONTs and they work pretty well. The ONT wants 12VDC 2A power, although it typically only uses 0.5A. I think it is better to have 2A available since that shouldn’t be too terribly difficult or inefficient.
The ONT is inside a NEMA enclosure, quite far (180 ft) from my router. Long story short, that’s not changing anytime soon.
My current power connection to the ONT is a bit sketch. I’m running an extension cord outdoors where I’d rather not be running one, to provide an AC outlet for the iPhotonix AC adapter, which converts 120VAC to 12VDC. I need to have backup power for grid outages lasting 24 hours or more, and I don’t have that for the ONT. I would prefer to run a low-voltage DC connection (probably 24VDC or 48VDC) from the location where the router is (and where I have 12VDC backup power, but not running an inverter).
It would be nice if I could run PoE (power over ethernet) over the 200ft CAT6 cable, from the router to the ONT, and use a PoE splitter to pull the power off the CAT6 cable and feed it to the ONT through its barrel connector. I’m having trouble finding the right products to do this though.
Another option would be to run a 200ft power cord to carry low voltage DC. But it seems like PoE ought to be possible, and why have two cables when I could have one. If I can’t find reliable recommended PoE products though, the separate power cable might be the better choice - interested to hear thoughts on that.
I have found Tycon Power’s website which has some nice products, which I may order directly or on Amazon. One such product is a 48V PoE splitter that down-converts to 12VDC which seems optimal. However this splitter keeps 48VDC on the output, allowing an extension, and I would be concerned about applying that voltage to the ONT RJ-45 connector that wasn’t designed for that 48V PoE voltage.
Looking for product recommendations. I know there is stuff out there, but most products on Amazon are hard to filter for and have some bad reviews. Also, looking for 1 Gbps; numerous products only support 100Mbps, I am currently using 300 Mbps and want to keep it that way and have room to upgrade to 1Gbps if that ever makes sense. And curious if folks have thoughts about applying that 48V PoE to the iPhotonox? I think it’s a bad idea, probably not going to try it.
Another question, do I need to switch my ungrounded CAT6 cable for a grounded one? Lightning isn’t really a concern here, but maybe some PoE devices require a grounded connection for some reason?
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