Replacement for this?

[geekfather]

Cisco Air-PWRINJ3 - any other replacement for this? Can the newer PWRINJ 4 or 5 be used instead? It is powering an Cisco AIR-AP1231G-A-K9. We thought the access point was crapping out but been monitoring and found the power injector itself was the culprit.


Thanks

 

[kanewolf]

Is it the injector or the transformer? A POE injector is a pretty basic device. My guess is the transformer. You can buy a couple of the Air-PWRINJ3 on E-Bay for $20. Or 10 for about $50 ....

 

[bill001g]

That is old equipment they end of life that more than 10 years ago so it has to be even older.

You have to be very careful about power injectors everything years ago was proprietary. Now we use 802.3af based poe in most cases.

These old ones are what are called passive PoE. They simply provide power on certain pins. You can use anything that put the correct voltages on the correct pins and has total wattage to power the end device.

The nasty problem with these units is they are using 48volts and you can easily fry equipment if you put the power on the wrong pins. This is why 802.3af is nice it only puts out power when it is requested so a non compatible device will never get power sent to it.

This is a dig around the old documentation pile and see what the pins the power is used on for all the different power injectors you want to use. Cisco has massive amounts of information it is just a matter of digging around to find it.

At some point though you have to ask is it really worth the effort for a device that uses 802.11g

 

[geekfather]

That is old equipment they end of life that more than 10 years ago so it has to be even older.

You have to be very careful about power injectors everything years ago was proprietary. Now we use 802.3af based poe in most cases.

These old ones are what are called passive PoE. They simply provide power on certain pins. You can use anything that put the correct voltages on the correct pins and has total wattage to power the end device.

The nasty problem with these units is they are using 48volts and you can easily fry equipment if you put the power on the wrong pins. This is why 802.3af is nice it only puts out power when it is requested so a non compatible device will never get power sent to it.

This is a dig around the old documentation pile and see what the pins the power is used on for all the different power injectors you want to use. Cisco has massive amounts of information it is just a matter of digging around to find it.

At some point though you have to ask is it really worth the effort for a device that uses 802.11g

I am assuming it would be more ideal to replace the access point with something a bit more updated? It would need to be powered by the network cable as there is no power available where it is located. Any thoughts?

 

[geekfather]

Is it the injector or the transformer? A POE injector is a pretty basic device. My guess is the transformer. You can buy a couple of the Air-PWRINJ3 on E-Bay for $20. Or 10 for about $50 ....

I replaced both units 3 years ago when they failed. I am assuming at the time the power supply failed and most probable this time also. Currently looking into a new Access point where the parts are more easily found and replaced

 

[kanewolf]

If it doesn't HAVE to be Cisco, the Ubiquiti are very good.

 

[geekfather]

If it doesn't HAVE to be Cisco, the Ubiquiti are very good.

Sorry for being a network idiot- Can the Ubiquiti be powered through network cable?

 

[bill001g]

Not with the power injectors you have. Ubiquiti has 2 types. They use 24 volt passive power injectors, these like the cisco ones are proprietary.

The other kind are the standard 802.3af/at models. These you can hook to any standard PoE switch without a special power injector. They of course sell power injectors that run 802.3 standards if you want separate units.

You have to look through their line of device they actually have some that can both their proprietary and 802.3 based ones...not sure how they did that. It very clearly tells in the product description how it is powered.

It is pretty common for any device that is called a AP to be powered via ethernet somehow. That really is the only main difference between a actual AP and running a router in AP mode.

 

[geekfather]

Not with the power injectors you have. Ubiquiti has 2 types. They use 24 volt passive power injectors, these like the cisco ones are proprietary.

The other kind are the standard 802.3af/at models. These you can hook to any standard PoE switch without a special power injector. They of course sell power injectors that run 802.3 standards if you want separate units.

You have to look through their line of device they actually have some that can both their proprietary and 802.3 based ones...not sure how they did that. It very clearly tells in the product description how it is powered.

It is pretty common for any device that is called a AP to be powered via ethernet somehow. That really is the only main difference between a actual AP and running a router in AP mode.

Can you offer me ideas for a Access point replacement as well the power over network equipment?

 

[kanewolf]

If you have more than one AP that needs to be replaced, then a POE switch which can handle all the APs is a convenient option.
The Unifi UAP‑AC‑PRO -- https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/
One of their switches -- https://www.ubnt.com/unifi-switching/unifi-switch-8-150w/ to power the units
AND to simplify management a cloud key -- https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-cloud-key/

 

[bill001g]

It depends what feature you want almost everything is going to be a massive upgrade compared to what you have. The first choice is do you want 802.11ac. They still sell the older 802.11n models. Your current AP is using the even older 802.11g.

You then must decide which form of PoE you want. You have to read closely. The difference between the older "lite" and "pro" models was if it used 802.3at power. The newer ones I think all support 802.3at but some also support passive. Some come with the power injectors.

I would look at the 802.11ac devices. From what I can tell the main difference is the output radio power between the lite and pro models. It depends on your current spacing. Many times lower power is actually better but ubiquiti lets you turn down the power.

Any PoE switch will power 802.3at devices. Ubiquiti sell fairly nice ones, you could save a small amount going to linksys.

The key thing that ubiquiti has over say using netgear or other similar brands is they have a central controller software. Unlike cisco they do not charge extra for it. It does not do everything the cisco one does but a lot of what the cisco one does is only for enterprise installs that can load ciscos special device drivers to all the end devices.

 

[geekfather]

It depends what feature you want almost everything is going to be a massive upgrade compared to what you have. The first choice is do you want 802.11ac. They still sell the older 802.11n models. Your current AP is using the even older 802.11g.

You then must decide which form of PoE you want. You have to read closely. The difference between the older "lite" and "pro" models was if it used 802.3at power. The newer ones I think all support 802.3at but some also support passive. Some come with the power injectors.

I would look at the 802.11ac devices. From what I can tell the main difference is the output radio power between the lite and pro models. It depends on your current spacing. Many times lower power is actually better but ubiquiti lets you turn down the power.

Any PoE switch will power 802.3at devices. Ubiquiti sell fairly nice ones, you could save a small amount going to linksys.

The key thing that ubiquiti has over say using netgear or other similar brands is they have a central controller software. Unlike cisco they do not charge extra for it. It does not do everything the cisco one does but a lot of what the cisco one does is only for enterprise installs that can load ciscos special device drivers to all the end devices.

We have a 12 bay shop. The access point sits in the dead center beam. Ceiling is approx 25-30 feet high. We have 10 techs who need to hook into this access point in order to do software updates- diagnosis etc without the need to plug into a network jack. So we are in the market for some serious newer updates as we are very wireless intensive. So thoughts/recs on an access point and the hardware required to power it up would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kanewolf]

In your OTHER thread -- http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3767124/replacement-access-point.html You were also recommended to use a Ubiquiti unit. The AC-Pro unit that I linked to above is also weather resistant (as I recommended in the other thread).

A single AP will probably cover the entire shop. With a single unit, I would probably get a stand-along Ubiquiti POE injector rather than a switch.

 

[bill001g]

I see with only a single AP that make it a little different. Unless about $80 is too much I would look at the UAP-AC-LITE. I would use the passive power injector that comes with the unit. If you had mulitple AP then there would be other considerations.

You could look at the older 802.11n models they have similar names, not sure how much cheaper they are.

This is night and day compared to what you currently have. This unit will have no issues running 10 people. I will assume your end equipment is newer. That means you can put say 5 users on the 5g radio and 5 on the 2.4g radio. Then again you likely do not even need to go to that trouble.

You can still load their controller software on any pc you like and run utilization reports to see how much you use and if you need to do anything.

 

[geekfather]

We just use this access point for the shop only so only one access point period. Sorry Kane for the multiple posts. Sort of lost focus as to what I was asking for. It also seems like the Ubiquiti Power injector might be the easiest due to the fact that we only need to power up one access point. Again sorry for the confusing posts. And thank you for the good information. I believe I know which way we need to go. I really appreciate all the feedback and info.