– Copied from a customer email –
Is the normal gigablox able to be PCB mounted? Otherwise, is the gigablox nano able to be daisy chained?
It’s possible to mount GigaBlox to a board, but not easy, or suggested. To do so, the Molex PicoBlade connectors need to be replaced with stackable board-to-board connectors. We do this on SwitchBlox Nano and offer it as a product you can purchase (see image below).
However, the same is not possible on GigaBlox. This is because, due to the board’s small size, it has transformers on both sides and thus the pins to make it board mountable would be too long, and the board would be unwieldy.
A better option is GigaBlox Nano, which has a rugged board-to-board connector inbuilt and is designed for this kind of thing. The baseboard files for GigaBlox Nano are open source, so you can use them as the basis for your design, and we offer a free design review service to help you get it right on the first go.
GigaBlox Nanos can be daisy together to get more ports. This does use up a port on each, which isn’t super efficient, but there’s no issue doing this in terms of functionality. The only thing to bear in mind when daisychaining switches is that the daisy-chain connection is a bottle neck.
If you have GigaBlox Nano A with 1Gbps on all three ports and a fourth 1Gbps port connected to GigaBlox Nano B, then the maximum data rate on the daisy chain port would be 1Gbps. This is unlike the internal fabric of the GigaBlox Nano, where it can handle switching 1Gbps on all ports simultaneously.
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Another point… If you’re looking for more than 4 ports in a stackable form factor, UbiSwitch may be your best bet. It has 8 gigabit ports and 3 10G capable ports all on super rugged, stacking headers.
Of course, it’s more expensive and may be overkill for what you need however.
– Copied from a customer email –
Would there be any issue with using RJ45s with built in magnetics in series with the ethernet coupling capacitors?
I assume you’re talking about the ethernet coupling capacitors on GigaBlox Nano? If so, no problem at all using those in addition with transformers. The ethernet coupling capacitors have no effect.