RouterCore / RouterCore Nano : availability and additionnal hardware information

BotBlox Hardware
1

Hi,
I have just seen your product pages for the RouterCore and RouterCore Nano, which seem quite interesting, and that I might use in future products.

As the product pages are not very complete yet, I have a few question (hopping you already have the answers).

RouterCore :

  1. do you know when it will be available?
  2. and at what cost?
  3. When you say 90W PoE on 4 ports, does it mean that it has 90W available split over the 4 PoE capable ports (what is the max power per port?)? Or does it mean that each port can provide 90W (is there a global limit, or can they supply 360W together?)?
  4. is the PoE power generated by an internal DC/DC converter (so available when powering the Router core with 24Vdc), or do I have to supply it with PoE voltage at the input (so 52-57V for PoE++ 90W)?
  5. Can the interfaces (1x I2C, 2x UART, 1x CAN) be controled from ethernet for “user dependent use” (ie to connect external sensors or actuators), or are they only to configure the Router?
  6. Are there any GPIO (or digital output) pins that can be commanded through Ethernet (the RouterCore Nano seem to have 4, but none is mentioned for the RouterCore)? NB : if the 6 breakout LED signals can be used as digital outputs, it’s also interesting

RouterCore Nano:
7) When will it be available
8) has it 2 or 3 XFI ports (at many places it indicates 3, but technical specification says 2)
9) are there 1 or 2 CAN?
10) are there 1 or 2 UART?
11) can you confirm CAN and UART ports enable external sensors/actuators to be controlled over Ethernet?
12) can the 4 GPIOs be controlled over Ethernet?

Thanks a lot in advance
Best regards,
Felix

PS : sorry for the wrong tag, the forum don’t allows untaged messages, and there is no RouterCore tag yet.

2

Hi thanks for your interest, below are my responses.

RouterCore

  1. do you know when it will be available?

Working hardware samples are shipping to initial customers already. These work as unmanaged ethernet switches and don’t run any software yet, but work for initial evaluation of fit, function and form.

By late october, we estimate that the production units will be shipping with initial OpenWRT software but no PTP ability.

We estimate that PTP will be added by mid December.

  1. and at what cost?

We’re keeping the price on this private until we’ve scaled up production, so we fully understand our manufacture costs, it’s a fairly complex assembly to get it so small. Happy to discuss on email.

  1. When you say 90W PoE on 4 ports, does it mean that it has 90W available split over the 4 PoE capable ports (what is the max power per port?)? Or does it mean that each port can provide 90W (is there a global limit, or can they supply 360W together?)?

It’s 90W per port, so 360W total across all four ports.

  1. is the PoE power generated by an internal DC/DC converter (so available when powering the Router core with 24Vdc), or do I have to supply it with PoE voltage at the input (so 52-57V for PoE++ 90W)?

There is no internal DC/DC converter, so if you want to use PoE you’ll need to power RouterCore from a voltage above 50V.

  1. Can the interfaces (1x I2C, 2x UART, 1x CAN) be controled from ethernet for “user dependent use” (ie to connect external sensors or actuators), or are they only to configure the Router?

The CAN, UART and I2C can be bridged into the ethernet network, that’s certainly possible from a hardware perspective. It would be implemented in software/firmware, and we don’t have a timeline to do this yet. Eventually I do see us implementing this feature but it’s not yet on the roadmap.

  1. Are there any GPIO (or digital output) pins that can be commanded through Ethernet (the RouterCore Nano seem to have 4, but none is mentioned for the RouterCore)? NB : if the 6 breakout LED signals can be used as digital outputs, it’s also interesting

The UART and I2C pins can also be configured in GPIO mode.

RouterCore Nano

  1. When will it be available

The timeline on this is a bit more fuzzy because we’re still in the early design phases. I’d estimate around April 2027

  1. has it 2 or 3 XFI ports (at many places it indicates 3, but technical specification says 2)

We’re not yet decided, there’s a key design decision to make here. We are aiming for 3 x 10G XFI ports. I presume that is preferable?

  1. are there 1 or 2 CAN?
  2. are there 1 or 2 UART?

Not yet confirmed

  1. can you confirm CAN and UART ports enable external sensors/actuators to be controlled over Ethernet?
  2. can the 4 GPIOs be controlled over Ethernet?

Possible in theory but would need firmware. We can’t really answer these questions yet because RouterCore Nano is still early in development.