LoveRPi Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) HAT for Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (Professional, Isolated (3KV))

These things are great. They do exactly what they say they do with no fuss. I got a few of these for running a few RPi 3B+ outside in a remote enclosure. They fit nicely on the 3B+, nicer than the official HATs. Cheaper too, good value there. They don't interfere with the RPi mounting holes, so they aren't really a HAT, per-se, but more a module. They do prevent using other HATs, which is kind of expected, but for my use case wasn't a big deal. Power came from my Cisco switch, everything worked great together. Very versatile. I would strongly recommend using a fan on the RPi to keep everything cool. I used these with the "MakerFocus Raspberry Pi Case with Fan, Raspberry Pi 3B+ Aluminum Alloy Case with Heatsink and Screw Driver for RPi 3B+, RPi 3/2, RPi B" metal case. That case included a fan, which I was able to connect to the pin headers on this HAT easily.

A couple of things I'd like to mention before going into my opinions of this PoE hat: I've used PoE hats as well as PoE-to-micro-USB power adapters for the past four or five years to power various RasPis. PoE is something I've worked with since about 2003 or so in a wide variety of implementations and environments, so I feel that I have a reasonably decent grip on the subject. With that out of the way: This is hands-down the best PoE hat I've bought for the RasPi. That's not a knock on ones I've used previously by any means - but this one really is just that good at what it does. Granted, at this time it can only be used with the 3B+ and 4B - but that's OK. It means that these units are likely to have a decent usable lifespan, so the cost of the hardware should be able to be spread out over a decently-long period. Get the electrically-isolated version. Even if you're powering this from a switch or PoE injector that's hanging off of a UPS, there's no telling what could happen if either of those upstream devices fail. For the extra $5, it's cheap insurance against frying your RasPi. Once attached to the RasPi, the hat is extremely low-profile. However, there are components on it that stick up (slightly) above the height of the RasPi's Ethernet and USB ports. It does impact airflow and heat escape from the RasPi mainboard, so a fan (sold separately) is pretty much mandatory if you're going to use it with a RasPi that sits in a case or enclosure, and is recommended just for the sake of being safe. It does use the +5V and GND GPIO pins typically used to power a fan. However, there is a separate 8-pin connector on the PoE hat that makes these available. One big advantage to this approach: the 8-pin connector is parallel to the RasPi's mainboard, so fan power connectors can be attached to it without taking up any additional vertical space. One thing to be aware of: the hat only accepts 802.3af or 802.3at PoE input. If your switch, injector, etc. only supports passive PoE, this hat is not what you want to buy. Overall, I'm very impressed: this is an adapter that has been well thought-out and Just Works. Highly recommended (again, get the isolated version!) if your hardware supports it.

I have a UCTRONICS 1U pi rack with 4 raspberry pis' in a home lab. It sits below a large PoE switch. Each pi has this hat and none have failed so far. Plus it cuts down the added wiring necessary to plug them into some power strip buried in the back.

So... I feel a bit silly but worth a word of warning... I had previously installed the standard 3 heat sinks. Installing the PoE hat worked "just fine" seated and seem to be all good. but... no power up. Played with it a number of times and could not figure out what was the issue, thought RPi was toast. Well... you HAVE to remove the rectangular heat sink. Then the PoE hat seats much further down on the header and works as expected. Make sure seat the header properly and it should we very hard to remove. If it is reasonably easy to remove you like do not have it seated. So no docs for this info but in the end my fault. RPi is working great at this point (*** fans will not fit so you have to make some affordance for cooling, my son and I modified a case, installed the fan on the outside and now have good working solution).

Initially bought two of these to test out. I am very pleased with the ease of install and it still fits in the existing case of my Pi 4B. I just left the top open, for better air flow. I will be buying a couple more for other projects. This is at a great price point and eliminates having multiple power supplies. Just wanted to update that everything still works great 👍 I do want to add that I installed fans which keeps the temperature right around 45-48 degrees Celsius. Without the fan I saw temperatures between 65-75 Celsius. So I would definitely recommend using a fan if you plan on using this PoE HAT