WIP as of 2021-10-06

POE Build

For my third public build, I decided to go another direction from my usual Numato relay based setups, so I choose a POE build. Overall, it accomplishes the same thing as my prior two build, keeps my atv setup running well and without intervention.

Even though it is a simple build, I decided to document it as there is very little done in regards to accomplishing a POE build from start to finish with details covered in one easy to reference location. I searched the discord, but didn't find enough of the specifics to accomplish the task but plenty of generalities that "poe just works". For power cycling the devices, I found very little and in fact it took my allotment of googlefoo for a few days to find a method that worked.

ATVs

The atvs used in the build are s912 based consisting of tx9s and ihomelife (the one I found compatible with MADrom in Sept 2021). For the first two build, I got tired of the mess, so did a build. For this build, my wife got tired of the mess that results from just adding atv upon atv outside of something specifically designed to house atv in a responsible manner. Initially, I had planned on 28 ihomelife and 15 tx9s, but also decided to throw 3 of my rbox s912 in on a shelf to get them out of visible view. I then ordered 20 more ihomelife, so an expansion before it was even finished. And then 20 more ihomelife. And then 3 more ihomelife to have a set of 6 to go in the 3d printed enclosures.

Storing ATVs

Instead of doing some crazy custom machining in order to house the ATVs like I did in my first build, I went with a 3d printed design. Thanks for G3neral for the original x96 version and Ƥ𝐎ᎶόＬĮⒷℝᗴ for the tx9s version for their work. I went with the Arctic P12 fans recommended by Ƥ𝐎ᎶόＬĮⒷℝᗴ as they are solid fans at a reasonable price.

I don't own a 3d printer. If I did, it would probably be just used to make ATV parts and little phallus designs that I put magnets in to attach onto people's vehicles. Or maybe small ones that attach to windshield wipers, can only imagine my friends discovering them when they it rains. Probably even funnier than the chapstick trick one can do on vehicles, draw a design in chapstick, they don't see and drive around picking up dirt, which eventually yields a design from the dust.

Housing all of it

To house the setup, I got an 18u server rack from Amazon. Not much to say, but I did get something to house further expansion versus the size that I needed at the current moment. This rack did come with

Cooling

I utilized the stl files from Pogolore for tx9s, which were based on the original design by G3neral. Typical temps hover around 50c for the devices housed in the 3D printed housings.

Miscellaneous power

To power the fans on the 3d printed setup, I installed a standard 12v power supply and fuse block setup. No need to cover such here as they are covered on my other builds. I just slapped them on the back wall of the rack.

Networking

The heart of the build is the POE switch. Based on what information I could find and recommendation of a few kind folks, I bought a SF300-48PP 48-Port 10/100 PoE+ Managed Switch off of ebay for $67 shipped to the house. Remarkably cheap considering what it offers. Powered it up, checked my router for DHCP assignment and pointed a web browser at it. There is an extensive management console, even though I use SNMP from the command line to power cycle devices. Do note that "cisco"/"cisco" is the default credentials for this device.

To keep things cleaner in the server rack, I also purchased a Netgear 5 port gigabit switch. I had initially figured on running 48 atv and filling all the ports. Since I had planned to set my shiny new ryzen based scanning box on top of the case, I needed more ports. So the Cisco uplink goes into the Netgear, which then uplinks to my Asus AC-GT5300 router.

For cables, I went overkill with CAT8 from Amazon. If I can't do sexy wiring, at least I can buy sexy wires. When I started ordering the, the limit was 10 @ $2.99. The price went up to $3.99 then $4.99 and they dropped the limit to one per order by the time I was done.

After getting things running, I started buying more ATV. Now running 2x of same switch and a mix of tx9s and ihomelife ATVs.

Splitters

For the build, I got the cheapest active ones that would work on Amazon. Not much to them, just make sure they are active, pick the right voltage and right connector, which was 12v and 5.5x2.1mm for these s912 based ATVs. I haven't seen any with less than over an amp rating, which should be good since on 12v.

RebootMadDevice

It took oddly high amount of googling to find how to control the POE portion on the switch. Not much on discord either, but it has been done, so I had expect more.

I prefer to run RMD separate from MAD, so I am on version 1. I will assume you are already familiar with how to setup the config portion of RMD. The IP address for my first setup switch is 192.168.8.4 and the second is 192.168.8.3. You will have to set your community string under SNMP -> Communities and change other options to allow power control over SNMP, so do some googlefoo. The ATV presented here is on port #12 for both switches.

The following are the commands direct from my config file for controlling said devices:

• PowerON_Device_055: /usr/bin/snmpset -v2c -c CommunityString 192.168.8.4 1.3.6.1.2.1.105.1.1.1.3.1.12 i 1
• PowerOFF_Device_055: /usr/bin/snmpset -v2c -c CommunityString 192.168.8.4 1.3.6.1.2.1.105.1.1.1.3.1.12 i 2
• PowerON_Device_081: /usr/bin/snmpset -v2c -c CommunityString 192.168.8.3 1.3.6.1.2.1.105.1.1.1.3.1.12 i 1
• PowerOFF_Device_081: /usr/bin/snmpset -v2c -c CommunityString 192.168.8.3 1.3.6.1.2.1.105.1.1.1.3.1.12 i 2

Update 2021-02-01

Second POE switch I bought used died, hopefully replacement works longer than 3 months.