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Comment by XorNot | Hacker News Reader

The utility of these chips just make me a little sad we don't quite have the same thing for hard-wired ethernet. The size you can hit with these is so small that the bigger component is always getting power to them - which is something which a similar cost/performance marker would be able to hit if you could hardwire them and run PoE.

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Like the ESP32-POE?

https://www.mouser.ca/ProductDetail/Olimex-Ltd/ESP32-POE-ISO...

This is interesting, thanks for posting.

cnlohr managed to add Ethernet to a esp8266 module (1) using the i2s signals also present in the esp32-c3 and a driver plus magnetics. Once the transformer is in place, passive PoE can be added with a regulator connected to the relevant transformer pins, probably 2 and 7 in the schematic at (2), but yeah, the size grows significantly.

1- https://github.com/cnlohr/espthernet

2- https://github.com/cnlohr/espthernet/blob/gh-pages/hardware/...

Something like 10BASE-T1S (802.3cg) would be nice. Single-pair Ethernet with PoE (PoDL) and bus-like connectivity (from what I've read, I haven't had the opportunity to try it in practice).

https://www.ieee802.org/3/cg/public/Jan2019/Tutorial_cg_0119...

yeah, my ESP32 hacking keeps getting thwarted by power supply concerns, I haven't found any solutions that I like

What kind of power supply concerns? I've used quite a few of them and never had a problem.

For USB-powered development boards IMO the best option is the raspberry pi power supplies -- they are cheap, high quality, and can supply plenty of current. It's sometimes necessary to bridge over the input diode if you want to draw any significant current from the 5v pin.

If making your own boards the maximum 3.3v current is higher than you might expect (0.5A), but it's perfectly doable.

Piggy-backing them on mains USB chargers has got me a long way, but what I want right now is something I can strap an 18650 to, wake the thing out of deep sleep once every five minutes to squirt a reading over MQTT, and recharge once a month (or whatever. As long as it's better than once a week). I haven't seen a board with the lipo management onboard to make it easy, but I also can't imagine it's that rare a use case.

My smart home is also my home security solution, so I wanted it to work through a (short) power failure.

Getting a UPS for my Home Assistant node was the easy part. Like you, I was worried about the many nodes scattered throughout the house that needed power.

The solution I've come to for now is using a USB plug for mains power, that goes through a DIY USB battery bank charging board (that I got off AliExpress) that's plugged into an 18650 cell. Most of these boards can either charge or provide a 5v out, but some are happy to do both at the same time, and can act as a mini-UPS.

The Xiao BLE nRF52840 might be worth a look.

https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/XIAO_BLE/

The Adafruit Feather boards usually have built-in LiPo support.

I use feathers a lot in hobby level projects. I wish they could use a 2s battery instead of 1s only. Other parts of my projects sometimes need the extra voltage and it would simplify things if the feather could handle (and charge) a 2s.

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