New and highly affordable PoE tester for installers and maintenance technicians

RS Components is shipping the MicroScanner PoE from Fluke Networks. The new low-cost tester gives a complete set of tools for maintenance engineers and technicians, facilitating the fast installation and troubleshooting of PoE devices.

The device verifies and troubleshoots Ethernet cabling and illustrates the level of power available. Consequently, installation engineers are promptly informed if there is adequate power available for new PoE devices to be installed on a network.

A major issue is there is no absolute standard today for PoE; currently, there are several varying ‘standardised’ implementations. It can, hence, be challenging even for highly experienced engineers to be sure that specific devices will operate together. This has resulted in the launch of a certification programme by the Ethernet Alliance to assist in addressing this problem – power levels and demands are assigned on a scale from zero to eight, which shows the amount of power sourced or needed.

The tester facilitates cable wire mapping and provides distance-to-fault indicators to enable cable problems to be traced quickly. Upon connection to a live switch port, the tester illustrates the speed of a port up to 10Gbps, which is particularly helpful in troubleshooting slow access points.