Join for quick access. Enter your email below and we'll send confirmation plus sign you up to our newsletter.
By submitting your information, you confirm you are aged 16 or over,
have read our
Privacy Policy
and agree to the
Terms & Conditions. Geographical rules apply.
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Join the club
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Raspberry Pi's new PoE+ Injector supports all generations of PoE HATs
Power over Ethernet (PoE) is nothing new to the Raspberry Pi. Introduced with the Raspberry Pi 3B+, PoE provides power over a network connection and is handy for installing a Raspberry Pi in a remote or awkward location. The new $25 Raspberry Pi PoE+ Injector may not be the PoE HAT+ that we have been waiting for since the launch of the Raspberry Pi 5, but it is a step on the journey towards it.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Raspberry Pi PoE Injector Specifications
Supported Data Rates
10/100/1000 Mbps
Input Voltage
100 - 240V AC via IEC cable
Output Power
30W
Nominal Output Voltage
55V DC
Dimensions
159 x 51.8 x 33.5mm
The Raspberry Pi PoE Injector is a Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) device that injects power into a non-PoE switch, to a Powered Device (PD) such as any model of Raspberry Pi since 2018 (not including the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W).
Supporting IEEE 802.3af (PoE 13W) and IEEE 802.11at (PoE+ 25W) standards, the Raspberry Pi PoE Injector has enough power for the Raspberry Pi 3B+, 4. With 25W it could also power the Raspberry Pi 5 as it up to the necessary 30W of power.
But all of this power is nothing without a PoE or PoE+ HAT and while the Raspberry Pi 3B+ and Raspberry Pi 4 may have their own PoE HATs, they are not compatible with the Raspberry Pi 5 due to the relocation of the PoE pins. On the Raspberry Pi 4 they are in the top right of the board, next to the Ethernet port. But, with the Raspberry Pi 5 relocating the Ethernet port to the bottom right, the PoE pins have also migrated.
(Image credit: Raspberry Pi Ltd)
The Raspberry Pi 5 is currently bereft of a PoE board, something that Raspberry Pi co-founder and CEO mentions in the official blog post. Upton claims that the Raspberry Pi 5 compatible PoE+ HAT+ is in the "final stages of development" and is claimed to be "our smallest, most efficient PD accessory" and based on the early prototypes. We eagerly wait for it to be launched.
If you can't wait, and you have a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, then Pineboards already has a PoE enabled board. The Modulo5 IO PoE+ just needs PoE power (perhaps from the Raspberry Pi PoE+ Injector?) and you are ready to go! There are also other third-party PoE HATs for the Raspberry Pi 5 including boards from Waveshare and Uctronics.
Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".
