Radxa Launches Rock Pi S Power Over Ethernet HAT, Bundles Speaker and Microphone Support Too
$13 add-on provides both PoE at 10W with a 12V output header plus analog audio out and a microphone input — but only for the top-end SBC.
Radxa has launched an add-on for its small-footprint Rock Pi S single-board computer, designed to make it better-suited to Internet of Things (IoT) projects: a Power over Ethernet (PoE) HAT.
One of the smaller models in the Rock Pi family, the Rock Pi S is a tiny single-board computer built around Rockchip's RK3308 system-on-chip. Costing just $9.90 in single quantities in the lowest-specification version, with 256MB of RAM, the board has proven popular with those building edge-device IoT projects — but lacks one major feature: Power over Ethernet (PoE), which would allow it to receive power and network connectivity through a single Ethernet cable.
That lack has now been address with the launch of the Rock Pi S PoE HAT, a Hardware Attached on Top (HAT) add-on which offers 802.3af-compliant Power over Ethernet support at up to 10W — while providing a 12V output on a two-pin connector for powering external devices.
Interestingly, Radxa hasn't stopped there: As well as adding PoE compatibility to the Rock Pi S' on-board Ethernet port, the HAT also includes a headphone jack and an FPC connector for an optional microphone array — giving the Rock Pi S analog audio support for the first time.
There is one small catch, however, as highlighted by CNX Software which drew the launch to our attention: For reasons unspecified, the PoE HAT is compatible only with the top-end Rock Pi S model, with 512MB of RAM and 1GB of on-board NAND flash storage.
The Rock Pi S PoE HAT is now available on Seeed Studio, priced at $13.