SparkFun Goals for Simpler 10BASE-T1L Experimentation with Its MicroMod Single-Pair Ethernet Package

SparkFun has launched a brand new entry in its MicroMod household, geared toward those that wish to experiment with long-distance wired communication utilizing the 10BASE-T1L Two-Wire Ethernet normal: the MicroMod Single Pair Ethernet Package.

“The SparkFun MicroMod Single Pair Ethernet Package demonstrates 10BASE-T1L Two-Wire Ethernet protocol inside the SparkFun MicroMod ecosystem through the use of two SparkFun MicroMod Single Pair Ethernet Operate Boards,” SparkFun’s Chris McCarty writes of the brand new bundle, “together with all of the equipment to run a proof of idea instance over 0.5 meters [around 1.6 feet] of cable, which will be useful earlier than putting in utility nodes 1,700 meters [around 5,600 feet] aside to observe distant tools.”

Single-pair Ethernet, because the identify implies, runs on a only a single two-wire pair of an Ethernet cable. Developed for industrial and automotive communications, the usual permits for wired connections to succeed in effectively over a kilometer (round 0.6 miles) — albeit at 10Mbps, moderately than the sooner throughput of recent multi-pair Ethernet.

Designed as an almost-all-in-one package for single-pair Ethernet experiments, SparkFun’s newest MicroMod bundle contains two MicroMod Most important Boards and a matched pair of MicroMod Single Pair Ethernet Operate Boards primarily based across the Analog Gadgets ADIN1110 10BASE-T1L transceiver. Whereas there’s an Ethernet cable within the bundle too, there’s a few items lacking: the MicroMod Processor Boards, that are left as much as the consumer to select from a range together with Espressif ESP32 and Raspberry Pi RP2040 variations.

There are a few different caveats to notice, too. The primary is a query of energy: the single-pair Ethernet normal permits for each information and energy to be carried throughout the cable to distant gadgets, however within the case of this bundle every MicroMod Most important Board needs to be powered individually because the connection is data-only. The opposite is that the community cable is terminated for an industrial connector which, SparkFun warns, “is not the principle medium for Ethernet of the 10BASE-T1L selection.”

The bundle is now obtainable on the SparkFun retailer at $89.95 earlier than quantity reductions, with MicroMod Processor Boards beginning at $12.95.