PCB Based Ethernet Splitter

Community PCB Design
1

Hello All,

I am new to Sparkfun and the boards, however I have been working with components and related technology for many years.

Here is my question. How would one go about designing a simple little board which would act as a ethernet splitter. I would like a single ethernet cable to connect to the board which in turn would split to two ethernet connections for a couple of devices. My use for this would be basically allowing me to trunk a single line back to a router and connect two independant devices. The unused pairs should be available for communcations and I know this is acheivable with a cheap standard splitter, so the same should be doable via a small PCB - or so I think :slight_smile:

Please let me know your thoughts and thanks!

Xenocide

2

er - if you’re just doing 100baseTX; there are two free pairs. Just make a board that has 3 jacks on it, with the pairs wired as necessary. If you’re doing 1000baseT; you’re outta luck. All pairs are used.

–David Carne

3

David,

Thanks for the reply, that’s what I was thinking too. I don’t need to worry about Gig speeds so the 100Base solution will work fine for me. Can you please give me your thoughts on one other item. Do you think I can use basic PCB mount Ethernet jacks or do I need to use a specialized jack of any sort?

Cheers,

Xenocide

4

Why not buy a commercial product that does this? You can probably find one cheaper else where, but here is a link to one:

http://www.amazon.com/Cables-Go-2-Port- … 308&sr=8-2