Our team recently purchased a Limelight and we plan to use PoE to power the camera. It has been brought to our attention that due to the number of Ethernet ports on the wireless bridge, there is no way to tether to the robot at competitions. I read that Limelight recommends using a network switch to make tethering possible, however my question is if we want to power the Limelight via PoE, what type of network switch do we need (PoE switch or a normal switch) and where does it go in the network layout to insure easy removal? Also if your team does this another way please feel free to respond, curious how other teams solve this problem.
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I don’t believe it’s possible to power the Limelight via PoE. EDIT: I stand corrected. You’ll need to run two wires from your PDP to the ports on the Limelight. And with regards to switches, generally you would run an Ethernet cable from the port on your router not connected to the RoboRIO to the network switch, then the switch can have additional cables going to the limelight as well as empty ports that you can plug into to tether.
You can power both limelight 1 and limelight 2 using PoE. The PoE injector cable from REV Robotics will allow you to power it, so you only need a normal switch to have more ethernet ports available during competition.
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Where would you recommend putting this switch in the wiring system? We also power our bridge with PoE.
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We typically wire it with the switch connecting directly to the roborio, then the radio and limelight are connected to ports on the switch, and when tethering at competition, we connect the tether to an open port on the radio. When you power the limelight using PoE, make sure you connecting the injectors wires directly to the pdb with any breaker, not to the vrm.
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