As long as I live, I never cease to be amazed that no one produces and does not release simple and obvious things, the existence of which would make life more comfortable.
A simple example. There are no simple and cheap Ethernet “splitters” in nature.
Surveillance cameras that connect via Ethernet, powered by the same cable (POE) are increasingly used now. Very often cameras are in pairs, but now you need to pull separate wires to them, which can be very long.
Why hasn't anyone released a "tee", which is a three-port POE switch? All the components for this are there, they cost a penny. Anyone who has installed cameras would be happy with such a device, but it is not.
Of course, you can take any 5-port switch, attach a StepDown card to it for powering from POE, make short wires to the cameras, but it will be cumbersome and "on snot".
I searched on Aliexpress and found only four more or less suitable options:
1. 8-port switch with 6-55V power and 6 ports with passive POE (brown and blue pair just connected to power) for $ 10.
2. 8-port switch without chassis for $ 12.88. There is a passive POE on all ports and a 12-48 V power supply.
3. 6-port switch without chassis for $ 9.43 with four POE ports.
4. 3-port switch without chassis for $ 10.41, but the power supply is not higher than 30 V.
It's a shame that a scarf with three ports and worse parameters is more expensive than a large device in a case.
And yet I do not understand why the same Chinese have not yet made a device that many need and would look like what I put on the title photo.
However, this is so in all spheres of life. At least once a month, I am faced with the fact that I need some obvious thing that is easy to do, but it does not exist. Is it wrong with you? :)
© 2020, Alexey Nadezhin
The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.