Soekris net4521

[Bossman]

Can someone tell me the input for the power on this board, I'm assuming that it is negative on the outside of the plug, but want to make sure.

Also, what are the settings for the serial port?

Soekris has no doc's for the 4521 and so far have not responded to my email. Any info, or am I missing something?

[butchkemper]

The default console speed for the 4521 is 19,200 and StarOS uses 9600.

Hook up the console at 19,200 and do a control P to enter the ROM monitor. There you can set the console speed to 9600.

Butch

[Bossman]

Thanks butch,

So 19,200 and 8-N-1?

Now how about the power?

[georgew]

Soekris is slow to properly document anything.

The specs for the 4501 (they claim this is THE product, everything else is a variant, so they only have one detailed spec sheet in the download section) say 6 to 12vdc with the center pin positive (+). However elsewhere I have seen them say they work with 12 to 60vdc. I am powering a test unit with a 48v wall-wart with good success.

I have seen power problems where using high-powered radio cards, there was not quite enough current available. Using a higher voltage supply seemed to help slightly, but only slightly.


George

[lonnie]

A 48V wall wart? I didn't know they had such a beast. Be careful as 48V can give quite a good tickle.

[dkii]

Yup, center+, I believe anything over about 7.5volts will do the trick, The board runs on a +5v supply, and to get through the diodes and regulators and still have 5v will take around 7.5 volts. There is a header on the board that you can directly feed a regulated 5v to, if you have a reason not to use the onboard stuff. The voltage regulator on board will take a max of 60v according to the specs from the mfg's website. I believe this was done to accomodate PoE solutions, since the small conductors in cat5 won't carry much current at low voltages. 48v seems like a good number to me also, but it will let you know it's there. If you're not runnin poe, or in a test setup, 12v 1000ma supplies have worked fine for me, I loaded a soekris up with 2 lucent cards and a linksys wmp11, and it handled the load just fine. The higher in voltage you go, the lower in ampreage you can go. a 30v 500ma would probably do the trick. For the PoE, I believe the center(blue, pins 4+5) pair is used for the +, and the brown(pins 7+8) are used for the negative.

[georgew]

48 volts will give you a jolt, but the NEC safety code (somewhat stricter than the NEC electrical code on safety issues) shows 48v (nominal) power systems are safe to work on live with uninsulated tools. This is related to the reasoin all telephone systems are based on 48v power. There are lots of 48v wall warts out there... back in the early ISDN days, everything had an ST interface, and you had to use a NT1 to have a U interface. Since the ISDN line is a 48v link, the normal NT1 power supply was 48v.

Also, WISP suppliers, such as hyperlink, sell 48v power supplies as a increasingly common item.


George