I'm confused about the marketing on the new RPI 4. Here in the tech specs it says "Power over Ethernet (PoE) enabled (requires separate PoE HAT)". What does it mean it's enabled, but it needs a separate hat. The RPI 3 could be powered with POE using a hat, what makes this any different?
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1Only the 3B+ (and now the 4) has the 4 pin ethernet PoE centre tap connector required by the PoE hat.– Mark BoothJun 27, 2019 at 21:47
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4 Answers
It means the hardware with a POE HAT will work without any special software changes needed. That means the support is built-in to Raspbian Buster (which was launched today with the RPi4).
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1So on the RPI 3, special software changes were needed in order to use the POE hat?– dave kJun 25, 2019 at 5:39
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That's because it was new hardware on the RPi3B+. On the 4B it's tried and tested hardware and firmware. @davek– DougieJun 25, 2019 at 21:30
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@gone why not? 99.99% of all RPi owners won't want to pay the extra $5.00 for a Raspberry that has PoE on the main PCB that they won't use.– DougieAug 16, 2021 at 15:38
For earlier models of Pi, up to and including the 3B, there existed third party solutions for PoE, but all of them required the network cable to be looped through the PoE module. This lead to rather bulky soloutions, often effectively doubling the height of the Pi.
On the 3B+ and 4B, the Ethernet jack was replaced with one that supported PoE and the cable side center taps were routed out to a new 4-pin header. This allows a PoE hat to be implemented without needing to loop the cable through the hat and hence allows for a much neater and lower profile solution.
You will find the line about PoE in the specifications for the 3B+ and the 4B, but not for earlier models.
answered Sep 7, 2019 at 15:58
The RPI 4B power specs are 5.1v at 3.0amp. The PoE hat output matches the RPI 3B+ requirements of 5V at 2.5Amps. The PoE hat can and is being successfully with RPI 4B. However, it behooves the user to insure that the draw on the RPI 4B is at the lower rating. Easy on peripherals and such.
The RPI power specs can be seen at https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/specifications/. That page also notes that the older RPI power supplies can be used with some caution.
The PoE hat specs are in a pdf at https://static.raspberrypi.org/files/product-briefs/Raspberry-Pi-PoE_HAT-Product-Brief.pdf
It takes zero software to accomplish POE on the RPI, only breaking out the wiring from the ethernet connector to a 4 pin header, which is done for you already on RPI 3B+ and 4B, sending it through the DC-DC converter of the Hat and then powering the PI through the GPIO connector pins.
On the POE Hat, there is a Fan, this fan will turn on at a certain temperature threshold. This requires software, but most people use these fans without a POE hat, so it's really not because of the POE hat that there is software for the fan.
