I’ve been lately looking for a small 10/100M Ethernet switch with a USB and both PoE input and output port (Power over Ethernet). The MikroTik RouterBOARD hAP (RB951Ui-2nD) looked pretty good, so I ordered one. The 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi interface was unnecessary, but the price was acceptable anyway, as I found a used device in excellent condition at just $25 including shipping.
As usually, the first thing I did after receiving the package was the teardown. The PoE ports are usually dedicated for some remote devices connected with long Ethernet cables and located outdoors. Therefore, a special protection should be included in the front of the controller (QCA9531 SoC in hAP). Unfortunately, this is not the case of RB951Ui-2nD. Although the engineers designed the PCB of this device with TVS diodes on both PoE input and output ports, the final product does not contain them. Protection for other ports was not planned at all.
It’s very sad that MikroTik is cutting the costs of some essential things like the ESD protection in their RouterBOARD devices.
