While the fairly new 10Base-T1L Ethernet standard might not seem like it was invented this century at first, providing only 10MBit/s (full-duplex) transmission, it intrigued me due to the capability to use extremely long (for copper anyways) cables with just one single twisted pair.
The standard suggests ranges of 1Km are possible, while some manufactures even claim around 2Km+
10Mbit/s is plenty for sensing and control of equipment, especially in industrial settings where this whole thing is targeted at. (But also for a single 1080p Youtube Stream, if everything else can wait 🙂
To get familiar with this new standard, I designed a small pcb, that converts from 10Base-T1L to 10Base-T, which is still supported by most modern 100BaseTX/1000BaseT network interfaces. (Although it may be disabled by default, which I have seen on a Router by Mikrotik)
The main components are:
- TI DP83TD510E (10Base-T1L PHY)
- TI DP83826I (10/100Base-T PHY)
- TI MSP430G2302 MCU
The only job of the MCU right now is to set up some registers for autonegotiation.
It has been used successfully in combination with a 10Base-T1l 5-port switch I designed at a music festival to provide basic internet access to the office area, where there is no cell reception.
