numberwrong Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Hello. I was looking at the price of those Chauvet 'Net Switches' assuming they would cost something like 100 - 200 quid but they're more like £800! (list price). I assumed it would be a standard net-gear switch with a few ethercon connectors soldered on to it but the price would suggest otherwise. It got me thinking, professional DMX buffers are all optically isolated to stop any mains current faults running down the DMX cable. Do professional touring Ethernet switches do the same? and/or should they be opto isolated? Our Chauvet friend here doesn't mention anything in the literature about isolation. why is it so expensive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 Ethernet is 1kv transformer isolated at every port as part of the ethernet spec. Opto isolation is only used in situations such as linking between buildings where there's risk of lightning strikes etc. I'm not sure why the unit is that price - limited/specialised marketplace maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted March 5, 2018 Share Posted March 5, 2018 As Tim says, there’s isolation in the spec. That’s isolation between the MDI (the socket) and the switch motherboard. Adding POE complicates things though.... Documentation on this stuff is very sparse! You can get additional galvanic isolators, which have uses in medical applications where the level of isolation provided in the switch is not adequate.I have also used them on occasion when connecting up control/monitoring devices housed inside electrical distribution boards. Arguably not needed, but belt and braces... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maeterlinck Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Is this swtich managed or unmanaged? Does it have any theatre type elements in it that would mean a more 'stock' design wouldn't work?Plus a potentially more limited market.List price is still less than others so it might just be priced nicely under the competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gyro_gearloose Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 From the Chauvet website, the switch is unmanaged. It doesn't appear to be anything other than an 8 port 1GBps network hub in a rack/truss mount enclosure. The only difference I can see between the £800 Chauvet unit and a £30 Netgear hub is that the Chauvet unit has Ethercon sockets in place of the usual RJ45 sockets. Edit: Regarding the list price of the Chauvet unit, StageDepot sell a similarly specced Swisson unit for £580. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitlane Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 From the Chauvet website, the switch is unmanaged. It doesn't appear to be anything other than an 8 port 1GBps network hub in a rack/truss mount enclosure. The only difference I can see between the £800 Chauvet unit and a £30 Netgear hub is that the Chauvet unit has Ethercon sockets in place of the usual RJ45 sockets. Edit: Regarding the list price of the Chauvet unit, StageDepot sell a similarly specced Swisson unit for £580. Sorry to be pedantic but a switch and a hub are not the same thing. All the examples linked to here are switches. I'm sure you know that; I just don't want to confuse our younger viewers ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonemorf Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Do hubs even exist anymore - collision domain anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Yes they do, I have a few knocking around for emergencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonemorf Posted March 6, 2018 Share Posted March 6, 2018 Wow. I got shot of all mine years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelgrian Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Yes they do, I have a few knocking around for emergencies. Hubs only exist for up to 100mbit half duplex, full duplex or 1gbit require switches. What emergency did you have in mind where a hub would solve a problem? The only thing I can think of is incredibly old kit that didn't do autonegotiation. why is it so expensive? Captive audience. Almost all switches like this are based on a Broadcom 'switch on a chip' which the vendor either mounts to a PCB themselves or buys a ready integrated board. For the normal market the nearest you get is a 16 port unmanaged switch in a 1u enclosure with a internal PSU as it's not economic to build fewer ports as it saves a tiny amount from the bill of materials. Such things sell for about £80 when mass produced. Adding the cost of 8 ethercons and swapping an IEC inlet for powercon might add £100 to the cost for parts a lower run but off the shelf 1u chassis and more fiddly assembly. If you add in a cost of a decent support service, cost of sales, larger than razer thin profit margin etc I could see getting to the ball park of £400 but £800 and up is ludicrous and gets charged as that is what the market will stand. It's like people selling DMX terminators for £20 when you can make one out of a £5 (if you insist on neutrik) plug and a 2p resistor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Hubs are very useful if you need to connect a packet sniffer since you definitely get all the packets. I design things with embedded ethernet hardware and a hub is invaluable during development. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Hubs are very useful if you need to connect a packet sniffer since you definitely get all the packets. I design things with embedded ethernet hardware and a hub is invaluable during development. Beat me too it. A hub is useful as a completely passive splitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonemorf Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I might be overkilling, but use port mirrors to do sniffs nowadays (but I do have the luxury of arista/cisco hardware). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 I might be overkilling, but use port mirrors to do sniffs nowadays (but I do have the luxury of arista/cisco hardware). Yeah there are other ways, but when chasing down a fault I quite like the simplicity of knowing that I definitely have a straight hardware link to all the packets and not relying on some jiggery pokery in a switch. Also it is sometimes useful to force a device into low speed mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musht Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 From the Swisson page " A typical switch might put itself into sleep mode when no traffic is observed, but the XES-8G stays ready to forward data anytime without a delay." Is this an unusual feature or just marketing twaddle? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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