ePaper PoE Planner

Pick the screens, the switch and the cable runs. You get the bill of materials, the power each port needs, and whether the switch is the right one.

Power path

PoE+ port (802.3at, Class 4 · 30 W) PoE++ port (802.3bt, Class 6 · 60 W) Data-only uplink

Is this the right switch?

    Bill of materials

    Prices are indicative street prices in € excl. VAT. Edit them to match your quote. Displays and in-wall cabling are not priced.

    Power and running cost per port

    Switches that fit this project

    Every switch in the list, checked against the same screens and cabling. Click a row to select it.

    How it's calculated

    The adapter decides the power class, not the panel

    EM32DX and EM13DX have no RJ45 port. PoE reaches them through a PoE → USB-C adapter. HQ approves one adapter: Procet PT-PTC-D-BT (60 W, 802.3at/bt input, 100 Mbps). Other Procet models tested by Samsung failed or are not validated, so don't substitute them.

    The adapter, not the panel, announces the PoE class to the switch. On a PoE++ port it takes Class 6, and the switch reserves 60 W for that port. On a PoE+ port it falls back to Class 4, and the switch reserves 30 W. Unmanaged switches reserve by class, so this is what counts against the budget, however little the panel actually uses.

    Why HQ recommends PoE++, and why PoE+ works in practice

    The in-box charger is rated 25 W. Delivering 25 W at USB-C through an adapter that is about 85 % efficient needs about 29 W at the adapter. PoE+ only guarantees 25.5 W at the far end of a 100 m cable (30 W at the switch, up to 4.5 W lost in the cable). PoE++ guarantees 51 W. That is the HQ design basis.

    In field measurements the EM32DX never drew more than about 10 W at USB-C, so a PoE+ port has more than twice the power the panel was seen to use. The planner marks PoE+ as amber: it works, but it is below the HQ recommendation.

    Formulas
    • Reserved per port (by class): 30 W on PoE+, 60 W on PoE++. By actual draw: peak ÷ efficiency ÷ (1 − cable loss), capped at the class limit.
    • Cable loss: up to 15 % of the port power over 100 m (802.3at: 30 → 25.5 W, 802.3bt: 60 → 51 W), scaled by run length.
    • Budget check: Σ reserved × (1 + headroom) ≤ switch PoE budget.
    • Ports: one PoE port per screen, plus one port for the uplink to the router. If the switch has no data-only RJ45 port, the uplink takes a PoE port.
    • Energy per update: 4600 mAh × 3.7 V = 17 Wh battery. EM32DX ≈ 120 updates per charge (0.14 Wh each), EM13DX ≈ 320 (0.05 Wh each). Charging losses are counted as adapter efficiency × 90 %.
    • Annual energy per screen: (updates/day × Wh/update ÷ (eff × 0.9) + standby W × 24 ÷ eff) × 365.
    Install notes
    • No remote wake from Sleep over PoE. With PoE as the only network path, real-time wake from Sleep Mode does not work. Set Sleep Mode Off on PoE-powered screens. See the Setup Wizard for wired / PoE+ provisioning (FW 1130.7+).
    • Mount the adapter close to the screen. The USB-C lead between the adapter and the panel is short (about 20 cm). The long run is the Ethernet cable.
    • Use solid-copper cable. CCA (copper-clad aluminium) cable heats up and drops voltage under PoE load. Cat5e works, Cat6 is preferred. The PoE limit is 100 m per run.
    • Spec sheets differ between hardware versions. Check the PoE budget printed on the switch label, or in its datasheet, before you order.