this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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476
World's smallest, cheapest network switch developed by US high school robotics team — Murex Robotics makes the hardware fully open-source (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Designed for use in a remotely piloted underwater rover, the mrxSwitch v2.0 supplies five 100 Mbps Ethernet ports at a footprint of only 44.9mm by 42.2mm. Network switches of this form factor are typically reserved for highly embedded systems; the team prioritizes its use in remote-operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), but IoT devices and other consumer devices with space constraints may have use for network switches this small. The mrxSwitch v2.0 represents a 30% size reduction over its predecessor, along with a BOM cost reduction of 15%, even with its smart-looking custom PCB.

Most solutions for network switches of this form factor are priced at a premium due to the narrowness of the use case, with MATE-sponsored options running from $75 to $175 -- hence the decision to engineer an original solution. The mrxSwitch v2.0 stands at a current BOM price of $7. While you might not see it used in our best network switches (at least not yet), the build is a serious triumph for the young team.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

At that size, for that speed, I wonder why wifi was discarded. Depends on the components connecting, I guess, but if each component is custom I imagine adding a small wifi chip to each could be smaller overall?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

While it works Wifi isn't great for control. You need a stable connection without jitter.