GigaBlox Nano does not with sonar where GigaBlox does

BotBlox Hardware
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1

– Copied from customer question –

We use a range of your products in our systems and have noticed a difference between the behaviour of the Gigablox Nano Switch and the Small Gibabit Switch. We are using it with a sonar device from Impact Subsea: ISS360 AUV & ROV Sonar - The worlds fastest and most compact scanning, Imaging sonar for ROV and AUV.

Trying to connect to the sonar with the Nano switch is very difficult – it rarely connects, but we have no problem with the Small Gigabit switch.

We are now looking to use the Gigablox SFP unit and want to know if it uses the same hardware as the Nano switch. If it does we need to understand why there is a difference between the two systems (small and nano) and how we overcome this problem of unreliable connectivity.

2

The difference between GigaBlox and GigaBlox Nano is that GigaBlox Nano uses transformerless ethernet. Transformerless ethernet is a great way to reduce spacing but it does reduce compatibility with some other devices. Most crucially, transformerless ethernet requires that any link partner contains transformers. It’s likely that sonar does not contain transformers, so the two devices aren’t playing nice together.

GigaBlox Nano and SPEBlox are the only devices we sell that are transformerless. GigaBlox SFP has transformers and so the same issue shouldn’t occur.