Hi,

I am new to Mirkotik stuff so I would like to ask for some help regarding the setup.

I have a new RB4011iGS+RM and I need something else to cover my surveillance system (Unifi Protect 3 cameras + Key Gen2 plus so 4 devices powered via POE)

I am not sure what to chose if Switch MikroTik RB260GSP or Routerboard MikroTik RB960PGS.

1) Should I go with switch or with router and change the setup to switch? Pros / cons?
2) Can I use SFP to connect RB4011iGS+RM with RB260GSP or RB960PGS?
3) If I use router and configure it as switch can I use the USB port still to share data ?


Thank you for all the advices or comments

I am not sure what to chose if Switch MikroTik RB260GSP or Routerboard MikroTik RB960PGS.

1) Should I go with switch or with router and change the setup to switch? Pros / cons?
2) Can I use SFP to connect RB4011iGS+RM with RB260GSP or RB960PGS?
3) If I use router and configure it as switch can I use the USB port still to share data ?


Thank you for all the advices or comments

0) Can you power the cameras and cloud key with proposed Mikrotik hardware ?

- RB260GSP provides only Passive PoE
- RB960PGS can power 802.3af/at devices with optional 48V power supply, but only up to 450mA per port (and it doesn't support PoE classification).

Hi,

to tell the trouth I am not sure what is correct regarding Poe.

The RB4011iGS+RM that I have is supposted be Yes (port 10), passive, up to 57 V but I can power just find these 2 devices: UniFi Cloud Key Gen2 Plus and UVC G3 FLEX (both devices should support only POE (802.3af) but then run just fine on port 10 with my router.

I am getting the switch soon so I will test it.

Thanks

The 802.3af and/or 802.3at PoE allows the devices to negotiate the power requirements and supports multiple modes (powering over unused pairs or working pairs, various polarities); as a rule, 802.3 PoE devices require 48 volts (nominal, the actual voltage may be a few % higher or lower). So if you feed your 4011 with at least 40 V power supply, 802.3 af/at devices may work; the maximum input voltage of the 260GSP is 30V which may not be enough for your 802.3 PoE devices. You can test that by feeding the 4011 with a 30 V supply.

As for the USB use for sharing data, I'm not sure what you mean. If you configure the router solely as a bridge, you can only use an L2-transparent link to connect something remotely to that brigde, but I guess that's not what you actually need. So you'll most likely use the 4011 as a router with an embedded switch, and in such case you can use an LTE/3G USB wireless modem to connect the device to internet.

Regarding the RB4011iGS+RM I have the original power adapter 24 V 1.5 A and I can run camera or Key Gen2plus with hdd inside just fine.

Regarding the RB260GSP it should have also the same adapter adapter 24 V 1.5 A so I suppose that could work?

thanks

If each of your PoE devices runs on ether10 of a 4011 powered by a 24 V adapter, it will run equally good or bad on ether2..ether5 of RB260GSP powered by a 24 V adapter. Watch for the specification of the devices - they may work while powered from 24 V but suffer doing so, and double-check that you don't exceed the current (Ampere) limit of each Mikrotik port and of the whole box and/or adapter. The power required by the device is constant regardless the input voltage, so at 24 V the device will take twice the current it would take from 48 V (plus maybe some extra percentage depending on how the internal DC/DC converter behaves with lower input voltage). I don't think you would be able to power the RB260GSP from the ether10 of the 4011 without exceeding the latter's current limit, so the RB260GSP will likely need its own adapter, and the factory-provided one may not provide enough current for the RB260GSP itself and the devices it powers.

Is it possible to see the current voltage suppied on the port/ports? OR overall voltage being used by the router?

I will tes the swithc first since it is on the way already if that fails I will probably take the RB960PGS hEX PoE with 48V adapter and that should do the trick right?
I want to use the own adapter for it I dont want to feeded from 4011 unit there I will feed UniFi AC Lite from port 10.

Thank you so far for help.

Is it possible to see the current voltage suppied on the port/ports? OR overall voltage being used by the router?

OK, so you are a pure IT guy with no electrician background.

Voltage (in Volts) is more or less constant unless you overload the source (adapter) and you can imagine it as a level of water in the dam relative to the height of the tap (or as a pressure in the pipe which is more or less proportional to the water level in the dam).
Current (in Amperes) you can imagine as water flow in cubic units per second.
The power (the input one in your case) is a product of the two. So if voltage is lower, the current has to be higher to deliver the same power.

In another words, what you ask for is to see the current current or current power, definitely not the current voltage. And I'm not aware whether the RB260GSP in particular can measure and display the current or power. But it if cannot, using an ampere-meter, an extra power cable and some cabling clamps you can measure the current taken by the RB260GSP with and without the device connected. However, the actual current may vary with time (the cameras may use infra-red illumination during the night) whereas the datasheets of the cameras should give you the maximum values.

With RB960PGS and a 48 V power supply, you should be on the safe side if your devices declare 802.3af support.

One more thing if I use the sfp port and connect 4011 and RB960PGS with it can I use all 5 rj45 ports on RB960PGS?

Yes - see the block diagram at Mikrotik's pages:


However, ether1 will nevertheless remain a passive PoE input, so you cannot use it to power a connected PoE device.

Great thank you for your help. I will keep this open and once I test it I will post the results and close it.

3) If I use router and configure it as switch can I use the USB port still to share data ?

If you run ROS on device and configure (at least one) IP address, then you can also run whatever service ROS offers (including file sharing if you will). You don't necessarily need to run routing and configure firewalling for that. Alas, if you configure more than one L3 interface (i.e. with IP address), ROS device will try to route and you will have to set up some firewall rules preventing device from forwarding packets between interfaces (one interface list and one firewall filter rule would do).

Hi,

been a while but here is the conclusion

RB260GSP is able to feed UBNT UniFi G3 AF and UBNT UniFi G3 Flex jsut fine but not the UBNT UniFi G3 Dome (need to use Poe adapter)

Thanks all for help and suggestions