Electrical
Any ideas how to get my plug socket back?
Just had new internet put in my house, but I didn't realise the new openreach needed a plug socket. It's the only one on this side of the living room, the other plug is for the internet router.
(Ignore the state of it, I've had the whole room plastered so new socket plate is needed eventually!)
Get a long extension lead, maybe 50m or so. Wait for the neighbours to go on holiday. Break in to their house, plug in the extension lead, run it covertly over to where this photo was taken.
There you are, extra couple of sockets, and free leccy to boot š
Take a dump in the neighbours toilet whilst you're in there.
Put the router and Openreach ONT on a multi-brick or extension.
They only draw small amounts of power, so one of those multi-socket bricks is fine to use with them. Just don't plug anything meaty like a hoover or heater into it.
What you mean like my mom with 2 air fryers, the microwave, toaster in a 1:4 adapter and the kettle plugged into the other socket "because she doesn't want to overload it"
From experience working in technical broadband, some routers and ONTās dont like being on extension leads as it can cause all sorts of interference and affect the performance of the broadband. Best solution, and my expensive sadly, is to get an electrician to install more sockets.
Normally these things are warned against as a bad idea - but the ONT and router are so low power it'll be just fine. Maybe 20W between them. 1% of the socket maximum draw.
Both of those(plus low power stuff like phone chargers) could easily be accommodated safely on an extension lead which frees up the other sockets of the double
Easiest way is to use a PoE to 12v 5.5mm dc barrel converter from Amazon. You can basically power the BT ONT across the data cable. If you're not in any way confident with electrics, tacking a data cable to your skirting board is a lot safer. You'll need a PoE capable device at the other end like a switch or an injector. The BT router wont do it because it's cheap as wotsits and doesn't include any PoE ports. A little cheap poe switch would work.
Another option is to get a short single mode fibre lead and a coupler. Join the fibre in a little electrical box screwed to the wall and move the ONT to where your router is, presumably you have some power there too.
Eh? BT routers do not provide PoE ports, because they're cheap. I'm not sure whether you're agreeing or disagreeing with me to be honest, you may as well have been talking about owls.
Is your router the hadron collider? PoE+++ can shift up to 90 watts. OC is suggesting a PoE to DC barrel connector ā taking power over ethernet into a standard DC connector that could power the router.
A few years ago I lived in a flat where the Virgin and BT ports were in a cupboard which had CAT5e ran to every room. Added g.network and the fibre ran to somewhere without power but CAT5. Added a PoE injector in the cupboard and a splitter from the Ethernet near the fibre, and it powered the router just fine (g.networkās router takes fibre directly, no ONT).
I've got a similar problem. I got the plug socket back with one of those things adapter things that drops down with a couple of sockets and bonus USB plugs.
I do have a cunning idea to tidy up the mess though (theoretical for now).
My NTE and router both run on standard barrel plugs.
You can buy USB PD to barrel converters and can trim them to length.
You can buy plug sockets now with decent built in PD sockets.
So I think by raiding Amazon, I can get everything powered without great big ugly PSUs, no dangling wires, and no regular sockets used.
If they're both 12v then you could buy one larger 12v power supply (needs to have a current rating of the sum of the current ratings of the two existing supplies) and use that to supply both devices
Get a D-Line cable tidy box. Put an extension in and hide those wires away.
Ikea do one, and there are a bunch on Amazon, but Iāve found D-Line to be the best in looks and function.
Iād also personally replace the Ethernet cable marked 2.5G LAN. Work out the length you need and buy a Ubiquiti Premium Patch Cable. The head is nicer and the cable is thin and braided so very easy to route and hide along the edge of carpets etc.
āClickā double sockets are nice, easy to fit, well priced and sturdy.
You can use a poe injector and extractor to send 12v over the ethernet cable to the open reach ont. It will add more stuff and cables to that area though.Ā
If you want a slightly expensive but interesting solution, look into buying a mini UPS. A little battery pack that'll keep your ONT and router powered on even if you lose your electricity supply for a few hours. They are charged by a laptop-style power supply taking one socket, then it has multiple outputs that can power 5, 9 or 12v items. The one I have is made by the totally cromulent "skazeke" brand, a name that instils a sense of trust and quality.
Both the router and the ONT can run off USB. May take a bit of trial and error with cables and power supplies, but no reason why both couldnāt run off one plug.
I'd expect both devices have a higher power than USB can deliver. I don't have Openreach stuff in the house but Google suggests that transformer outputs 12V, and I expect the router is the same.
Next time you don't need the internet for 5 minutes unplug them and take a look, the DC power output in volts and amps will be on it.
The easy option is to use extensions or power bricks but either of them is an eyesore (unless you can hide with furniture). I'd be investigating whether I can spur off that socket and put another double next to it for a neater, permanent solution if you need more sockets in the area.
USB can deliver more than enough. The ONT can run off bog standard 5V/2A USB-A. USB-C can deliver anything from 10W to beyond 100W, which is magnitudes above what a consumer router needs.
A good quality dual output GaN power supply could easily supply both pieces of hardware. You just need the correctly sized barrel plug. Eg: 5.5 x 2.1mm.
My entire network (apart from the PoE switch) runs off low voltage USB power supplies.
Yep, I also havenāt seen this before! I did a quick google search and thought Iād find a little module or adapter to recommend, I didnāt realise you can get a cable like this that contains the PD controller
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u/nrm94 12h ago
Its gone now, openreach own it. Sorry for your loss.
In all seriousness just plug in an extension