Switch for harsh environment ...
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Does anyone have recommendation on a good network switch to use that will be located in a harsh environment. The location will be extremely dusty and very hot especially during summer months. Plan to put in a NEMA enclosure that will have little air flow inside.
Minimum of 12 RJ45 ports with POE capability and 1 SFP port for link back to server room but 16 or 24 RJ45 POE would be better for expected future needs.
Thanks.
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SunMax is the right hardware, but not big enough (yet) for your needs...
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Ubiquiti has the Toughswitch Carrier as well. It's older tech not sure if they still actively sell it.
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-TS-16-CARRIER-ToughSwitch-Rackmount-Controllers/dp/B00CXU9ZOC
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@BraswellJay What kind of environment and how hot is very hot? How much power over PoE? Managed or unmanaged? L2 or L3? What type of mounting - rack, DIN rail or wall? Do the switches need support for any type of fieldbus (like Ethernet/IP, etherCAT, Profinet)?
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@Pete-S said in Switch for harsh environment ...:
@BraswellJay What kind of environment and how hot is very hot? How much power over PoE? Managed or unmanaged? L2 or L3? What type of mounting - rack, DIN rail or wall? Do the switches need support for any type of fieldbus (like Ethernet/IP, etherCAT, Profinet)?
It's a farm area as a general description. Ambient temperature in the summer will be 100-110 degrees F. PoE will be to drive a typical camera, that's what the new installation is for, to support cameras in our farm area. Would prefer managed, L3 as our intent is to VLAN these cameras in a separate subnet.
Mounting I can be flexible at the moment. It will be inside an enclosure so we can adjust the enclosure size to match the switch we get. No extra support beyond standard TCP/UDP/IP type applications.
All we are aiming to accomplish is to add additional security cameras to cover an area that is currently not monitored.
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@BraswellJay said in Switch for harsh environment ...:
@Pete-S said in Switch for harsh environment ...:
@BraswellJay What kind of environment and how hot is very hot? How much power over PoE? Managed or unmanaged? L2 or L3? What type of mounting - rack, DIN rail or wall? Do the switches need support for any type of fieldbus (like Ethernet/IP, etherCAT, Profinet)?
It's a farm area as a general description. Ambient temperature in the summer will be 100-110 degrees F. PoE will be to drive a typical camera, that's what the new installation is for, to support cameras in our farm area. Would prefer managed, L3 as our intent is to VLAN these cameras in a separate subnet.
Mounting I can be flexible at the moment. It will be inside an enclosure so we can adjust the enclosure size to match the switch we get. No extra support beyond standard TCP/UDP/IP type applications.
All we are aiming to accomplish is to add additional security cameras to cover an area that is currently not monitored.
OK, thanks for clarifying the application. From this I assume budget is a big concern. I think you are best off looking for smaller wall mounted switches to put inside the enclosure.
If ambient can hit 110 degrees, you'll probably have at least 120 inside the enclosure. 120F (50C) is roughly the limit for "rugged" gear. If you go over that you need extended temperature range switches.
So option number two is a little more professional, and it's to use industrial DIN rail mounted switches. If you go for an unmanaged switch and define the vlan on the port that feeds the uplink you have many options.
For instance something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/BV-Tech-Industrial-Switch-Gigabit-Ethernet/dp/B075FZQX14It's 100Mbit to each camera and 8 port per switch and 1 Gig uplink and it extended range so it can handle up to 150F. Use two enclosures or put two switches in the same enclosure. Usually industrial switches don't have many ports because it's less cabling overall to decentralize them and put them close to where they are needed.
No fans or anything in these and you don't put openings or anything on the enclosure. Just let it cool by convection.
Obviously it's a no name switch but I wouldn't worry much about that in a pure unmanaged L2 switch because they are built on standard switch chips.
The real deal would be industrial switches from brands like for instance Moxa, Phoenix, Siemens. Cisco also have industrial switches. But prices would be from maybe $800 and up.
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@coliver said in Switch for harsh environment ...:
Ubiquiti has the Toughswitch Carrier as well. It's older tech not sure if they still actively sell it.
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-TS-16-CARRIER-ToughSwitch-Rackmount-Controllers/dp/B00CXU9ZOC
They still sell it but they get very hot. However they are fan-less so that might be good.
