Ethos Lite

Ethos Lite is intended for use in applications where even the weight or size of an RJ45 connector is too much. This very small ethernet switch has 5 ports, supports 10/100mb data rates, and is intended for use in situations where size, weight and power are precious commodities. Simple Molex connectors are used to replace standard RJ45 connectors in an effort to save both board space and component weight.

Gadgetsmyth Advantage

The parent design for Ethos-Lite was originally designed with Size Weight and Power (SWaP) constraints for an aerospace application. The project required a tiny ethernet switch in order to allow multiple network devices on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sharing one data link. We searched for something that was small enough, light enough, and rugged enough. Nothing that we could find met our requirements for the application, so we decided to make our own. We settled on 10/100mb because this is typically more than fast enough for supplying data to radio systems on UAV’s which are usually limited on the order of the 10’s of Mbits. This enabled us to put more than one ip capable sensor onto a single UAV and communicate with all of them through one data link. Knowing how hard it had been for us to find a switch this size we decided to take our original rugged design and create a commercial version of it, and the Ethos-Lite was born.