PoE Ethernet Board discontinued Alternative?

Development Boards MicroMod
1

Hi Sparkfun,

we are working on a huge project in the past few months. A must-required core component is the Micromod PoE Ethernet board: SparkFun MicroMod Ethernet Function Board - W5500 - SparkFun Electronics

Now I read that the product was discontinued by the end of October 2025, right as we now wanted to move on to production stage (at least 50 devices are needed, maybe even more in the next years).

I cannot find a single supplier (Digikey etc. only have 2-3 more in stock).

This of course is very bad in several ways for our project/company as it would basically mean to discard all current development and start again from scratch.

I see no alternative for the component too (Micromod Slot + PoE functionality + Ethernet).

Sparkfun, please help! What can we do to save our project?

2

I found 6 total across 3 vendors (2 mouser, 3 here, 1 DK) and a maybe from a Canadian amazon seller COM-18708 MicroMod Ethernet Function Board - W5500 : Amazon.ca: Industrial & Scientific and finally it might be worth asking this alibaba seller how many they have https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/COM-18708-Ethernet-Development-Tools-MicroMod_1601291541041.html

As an alternative you could use our open-source files to reverse engineer/build a BoM and get some ordered from an online vendor like JCLPCB or similar that make and populate boards. You also might be able to order the components and bake them DIY too!

3

Hi @TS-Russell

thanks for your suggestions.

“build a BoM” - I do not understand what you mean by that (I am not a hardware engineer). Could you explain a bit more please? So in general you mean to take the Hardware design files from Github Repo and let a company like JCLPCB manufacture it? Is that possible with the material provided by Sparkfun? Or are there things we would need to “reinvent” by ourselves (we have a very tight deadline). Where does Sparkfun produce the devices?

In general - since this is a really bad situation for us and the company - and since we need quite a lot of those devices (at least 100-200) - would it be possible that this order is forwarded by Sparkfun (or us connnected to that company) to where Sparkfun let these devices produce, since all the required data is already there? Or Sparkfun orders more and we buy them from you?

Yes I found a few parts online here and there, but all in all around 25. Even too few for our first darkride (44 devices).

The price in the Amazon link is ridiculously high (125 per part).

I already contacted the Alibaba seller.

But all those sellers (even if I get my hands on 50 parts) are not a sustainable solution for years, since we plan to produce 100s of the devices. If we cannot find that sustainable solution, we need to start over from scratch because the whole system design relies on the controller being connected to the (already built) darkride via Ethernet and PoE to the Micromod/ESP32-based controller.

4

We assemble some in-house in CO and sub-contract others.

A BoM is a Bill of Materials…if you open the .brd files in KiCAD you can see the values of the components (resistors, capacitors, etc) and the trace routing. You could build a list of those items and export the board’s gerber files to an online PCB assembler and have some made-to-order that way. This is likely the most viable option; if you don’t have someone on staff who can interpret such it might be worth finding someone on fiverr or similar to consult or hire to help. In theory they could be ordered in 1-2 days

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Hi Russell,

thanks, I will try to find someone to consult.

2 more questions please:

  1. In case we manage to manufacture it by ourselves/contractor: I do not see a “custom” firmware file for it on Github. Is it because the assembly does not need a Sparkfun-Micromod-compatible firmware (with other words, its "enough” to put the hardware components and the W5500 together) ?
  2. In case we cannot find a viable solution to manufacture by ourselvers: could you please connect us with the company that Sparkfun sub-contracted so we can let it manufacture there? (Or transact via Sparkfun)
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1: Your Arduino IDE compatible processor of choice and the Arduino sketch in the Github should be all you need to get the device up and running. Some code modifications may be needed.

2: We don’t give supplier/contractor information out like this. My apologies.

Let me know if I can do anything else.

7

It’s not plug compatible but your path of least resistance could be to use something like the PoE Featherwing mounted to a micromod<>Featherwing adapter. I don’t know of such an adapter board but it wouldn’t need any active components and so would be easy to build.

It would have been nice if Sparkfun had made a lifetime buy offer rather than just announcing discontinuance.

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Hi @PKeller34 and thanks for your suggestion, I had the PoE Featherwing in mind too (actually it sits here on my table in a previous setup, but I ran into Brownout issues), but since we already designed and manufactured the controller casing, I see another hardware layout using the Featherwing only as a last resort. I keep it in mind though.

@TS-John firmware - OK good to know, thanks.

As suggested by @TS-Russell we found someone externally that supports us along the process to let the item manufacture by an online vendor. I will post an update once I have a working sample.

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