Tried to install a Force 180 that had an Ethernet cable run (CAT5) of about 299ft. The Force 180 was unreachable via IP. The Force 180 was reachable from just where the cable entered the building. That cable distance from outdoor to indoor cabling was about 45ft in total. The indoor CAT5 cabling is good and was tested. Shortened the indoor CAT5 cabling to about 250ft. But no still success with the Force 180 being reachable. There were four (4) sets of indoor cabling which were available to use.
The question is, what are some of the practical limits of the cable lengths to be used with the standard ePMP Force 180 and/or ePMP integrated SMs for which the standard POE will work?
If there is a practical distance limitation, for example "150ft or so", then is there a recommended POE adapter that can be used with ePMP series to achieve longer CAT5 cabling runs/lengths?
Both Force 180 and 200 designs have been tested with ethernet cable lengths up to 100 meters, using the standard PoE adapter. The use of STP CAT5e cabling is recommended.
Tried to install a Force 180 that had an Ethernet cable run (CAT5) of about 299ft. The Force 180 was unreachable via IP. The Force 180 was reachable from just where the cable entered the building. That cable distance from outdoor to indoor cabling was about 45ft in total. The indoor CAT5 cabling is good and was tested. Shortened the indoor CAT5 cabling to about 250ft. But no still success with the Force 180 being reachable. There were four (4) sets of indoor cabling which were available to use.
The question is, what are some of the practical limits of the cable lengths to be used with the standard ePMP Force 180 and/or ePMP integrated SMs for which the standard POE will work?
If there is a practical distance limitation, for example "150ft or so", then is there a recommended POE adapter that can be used with ePMP series to achieve longer CAT5 cabling runs/lengths?
you've likely pushed pass the 100 meter mark, force your device in 10/m half duplex on both ends, you'll likely get a link from it then, the 10/m HD doesn't always fallow the distance rules, but 1g ethernet will definitely stop at the 100M mark. 328' if your guessing your close, and tally in insertion loss between your connections, you'll probably be outside of your link requirements.
you can use a switch inbetween to shrink your run, if you can't put power in for a switch in the middle, netonix makes a poe powered POE switch you can use to break your distance rules, place a switch every 300' and reply the POE. or in a case like you discribed, put the switch at your exit point, leaving the home run 250' and your outdoor run 50' and your entire path can still be powered via POE block. you can also power other devices from the netonix sitch. total POE budget down is Appox 50 watts.
It provides an extra 100m in 10/100/1000 connections and you can connect up to 4 in series for a maximum of 500m.
For me, the thing is that the ePMP1000 input voltage is 10-30VDC and the power consumption is 7W, and this device's output voltage is 52 ~ 56 VDC with a consumption of 3.5W.
You could check out whether the ePMP Force 180 allows an input voltage of 52-56VDC and this might work for you.
When I first posted my question, I hadn't seen Chris_Bay's response. However, there were two issues we had found with the length and the standard PoE that accompanied the Force 180. The customer ran CAT5 cable which they had extras of. Replaced with a good quality CAT5. I even think we installed CAT6. Still had no communication to the SM at our furthest distance from the SM. Fortunately we had the opportunity to move the PoE closer by about 30-50ft or so. It worked at that point.
Note, we originally wanted the PoE to be installed on a different floor and rack cabinet with the network equipment they had (trying to keep everything nicely together). Fortunately, on the floor above they also had a closet / rack which is where we left the PoE and then connected the data side to where we originally wanted to leave the PoE. But at that distance, only a quality cable worked (or CAT6).
If you have an opportunity, make sure use a good grade quality cable and if it is at all possible to shorten the distance. Cambium supports feels and are confident that the ePMP Force 180 will work up to the distance limitation of an Ethernet run using their standard PoE brick. So I am sure that they tested this.
A problem I think that you may encounter with using that StarTech PoE extender on a Force 180 is that the Force 180 is not 802.3af/at compliant. If you check and search for the ePMP_Portfolio guide, you will see a nice chart / table of all the ePMP products and their powering methods. It has the Force 180 at 30V and the ePMP 1000 (integrated and connectorize) also at 30V. All being "Cambium Proprietary".
However you did not say if you were using an ePMP 1000 AP GPS synch model. If so, then this model is 802.3af compatible and most likely will work with the StarTech PoE without any modifications.
I've seen and recall that there is also a website calculator that allows you to calculate your voltage drop on CAT5 cabling so you can pick the correct PoE for your projects. Maybe that can also help you out here.