Netonix Forums

New to the forum but a long time user of the Netonix switchs. I deployed a ws-12-250 about a week ago and just had a BH Antenna, a camera, as well as 1 LTU sector running on it. Today i went to the tower to finish the installation and upon plugging in everything and powering it on, the switch blew. I'm guessing that its something I did as I've never heard of nor have i experienced many issues with these switches, I'm not here for a blame game! I'm simply here to understand what I did wrong and how I can prevent the issue going forward. Being semi new to the WISP area, our funds are limited and blowing equipment isnt something id like to partake in on a regular basis. Here is what i did:

I set the switch up at the office with 24VH on ports 1-2 and 48VH on ports 3-4. Ports 5 & 6 were set up for 24v, im powering 5 LTU rockets at this site. Port 8 was a simply 24v to power a camera. For about a week i had the items listed earlier running without an issue, I then went to install the rest of the sectors. I plugged each sector in individually then turned on the switch to configure the antennas the way i wanted. The problem came with the last antenna. Since the switch only has 24/48vh on the first 4 ports i used 24v on ports 5/6 and ran dual power to the radio using the data and the mgmt port to ensure enough wattage. When I turned the switch on, it immediately started crackling and smelt of burnt electronics. I knew immediately that I had toasted it. I killed the power and disconnected everything. The power light on the switch still comes on but i have no coms with it. Im not super familiar with the LTU radios and after alot of reading about other users running dual power, decided that id give it a shot.

What did I do wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated! Also, a place to get 2-3 of these switches overnighted would be greatly appreciated as well lol

hmmm..never heard of this issue before, but also didn't realize some people are using two 24 volt ports to power up a single radio....i can see a possible issue with that, as our software staggers POE on each port on power up..ie...1/2 second or 1 second (can't remember)...ie...it turns on Port 1, waits 1/2 a second, turns on port 2, etc....so in reality you will be powering that radio with a single port until the other port's power is enabled...I have no idea if this was the issue, just pointing it out....

Unfortunately this is a systemic issue with Netonix switches. They are unable to handle any kind of short or back current. My guess:

Data and Management ports are tied together on the radio, so when you sent 24 volts up to the radio it probably sent it right back down to the other port on the switch and fried it.

Again -- this is an issue with Netonix. There should not be a way to fry the switch by shorting a cable, back feeding PoE, or transient voltage surges between pins on the Ethernet connectors.

Unfortunately, to date Netonix has been the best option out there, but newer options are coming on the market. Netonix needs to get their act together regarding voltage issue mitigation.

I bought 2 WS-12-250-DC for my very first solar tower site last year but haven't setup or used them until today.

I setup a WS-12-250-DC in the office on our workbench and upgraded firmware to 1.5.8 and programmed all VLANs, IP config etc.
ALL seemed fine and switch worked properly.

I took the unit out to the tower and connected it to battery only 12V DC power to test and it ran fine for about 10 minutes then just turned off.

I brought the switch back to the workbench at the office and it won't power up at all.

Not sure what's wrong.

Please advise troubleshooting and/or return procedures.