Continuous voltage with a switch

Thread Starter

blacklockdown

Joined Oct 5, 2011
5
(I hope this is the right section for this)
I need to keep continuous voltage in a specific ethernet wire on a three pronged toggle switch. One way will connect the ethernet normally, while the other way will only provide the same voltage, but nothing else. Now I am sort of a newbie with this kind of stuff, but I'm guessing I will need either a capacitor or a voltage regulator to accomplish this. Another problem I have is I dont know for sure the voltage, my voltage reader wont tell me how many volts when I set it at 2v, and when I set it to 20v, it goes to -0.01? Online I see it goes from 3v to 1 micro volt. Hope someone can help. And if you wanted to know I'm bypassing a voltage detector that disconnects me if the voltage drops.
thanks
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
(I hope this is the right section for this)
General Electronics Chat is the forum to post when you are not certain where it goes. If there is a more suitable forum, a Moderator will move your topic. I suggest that you subscribe to your topic(s) so that you can find them again easily if they get moved.

I need to keep continuous voltage in a specific ethernet wire on a three pronged toggle switch.
That would be a SPDT (single-pole, double-throw) toggle switch. It has three connections; one common, one NC, one NO.

One way will connect the ethernet normally, while the other way will only provide the same voltage, but nothing else.
What do you mean by "the same voltage"? A constant voltage level, or the last voltage that was applied to a specific wire?

And are you speaking of CAT-5 or CAT-6 cables, 10base-T ?

In case you are not aware of it, these kinds of cables have four twisted pairs of wires. There are typically only two pairs in use; one for transmit, and one receive. The pairs carry differential signals, meaning that when one wire in a pair goes high, the other wire goes low, and vice-versa. This has the effect of cancelling out noise/interference that may be picked up on the wires, and also eliminates EM radiation of signals.

However, you may be talking about using one of the unused pairs?

Now I am sort of a newbie with this kind of stuff, but I'm guessing I will need either a capacitor or a voltage regulator to accomplish this. Another problem I have is I dont know for sure the voltage, my voltage reader wont tell me how many volts when I set it at 2v, and when I set it to 20v, it goes to -0.01? Online I see it goes from 3v to 1 micro volt. Hope someone can help. And if you wanted to know I'm bypassing a voltage detector that disconnects me if the voltage drops.
thanks
Here are some abbreviated notes on various types of Ethernet connections:
http://ckp.made-it.com/ieee8023.html
You might find them helpful.

You mention that you are bypassing a voltage detector, but don't indicate where that's coming from. I'm suspecting that you have a UPS that is communicating via Ethernet to a computer which is telling the computer to shut down. If that's the case, your plan won't work.
 

Thread Starter

blacklockdown

Joined Oct 5, 2011
5
well, I am using a cat5 type b ethernet cable, so I guess its classified as 10BASE-T or 10BASE-Tx and its for the connection of a xbox and computer. By continuous voltage, well I don't know if the voltage in the wire changes, so I guess I'd just do a constant voltage level. I am currently using the orange wire in my own toggle switch circuit, its just I need to keep the voltage level from going down when its activated. By one wire going up and the other going down, do you mean this happens in the voltage levels? If so, I suppose I would need to keep the last voltage that was applied to the orange wire when the switch is activated. the voltage detector itself is in the xbox.
thanks
 

Thread Starter

blacklockdown

Joined Oct 5, 2011
5
I'm cutting the connection with other players off of xbox live (online gaming community) with a toggle switch. When that happens, the voltage of the specific wire im using drops, and the xbox's (gaming system) voltage detector detects it and instantly disconnects me. Obviously I dont want that, so I am looking for a way to keep the voltage. I tried hooking the toggle switch between the modem and router, so that the router wouldn't have any voltage change to the xbox, but i had problems with that. Only way I see fit is either a capacitor or voltage detector. Hopefully that helps.
 

kubeek

Joined Sep 20, 2005
5,794
Ok I´m starting to understand. IIRC this is a kind of cheat created by making your connection lag for a while and you need your box not notice the ethernet doesn´t work.

Anyway, the connection your Xbox uses is either 100base-TX or 1000base-X ethernet connection, also known as 100Mbit and 1000Mbit ethernet. The problem is that ethernet has a form of carrier signal which is allways present even when there are no data transmitted.

If I were you I would just google how others do it and not try to re-invent the wheel.
 

Thread Starter

blacklockdown

Joined Oct 5, 2011
5
there are two websites who claim they can bypass the detector, yet I dont want to buy it, I already have my own build, and I like building my own stuff. I've exhausted google and as far as I know, noeone else has built something like this.

im confused, are you saying I need the carrier signal to bypass the detector as well? I thought it was only a voltage detector. I know that I can also accomplish what Im trying to do by putting the switch between the router and modem, instead of the router and xbox. modem---switch--router---xbox. This method allows the router to give its signal/voltage to the xbox, so the xbox cant detect it, but for other reasons im not doing this method.


thanks for the responses guys
 

Thread Starter

blacklockdown

Joined Oct 5, 2011
5
nevermind I have found that occasionally using the switch every 3-5 when connecting to xbox live, i guess the tolerance of the voltage spikes rises because it never disconnects when I do that, so I found a solution!
 
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