Author Topic: Which powerline ethernet adapter looks better built?  (Read 2161 times)

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Offline StonentTopic starter

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Which powerline ethernet adapter looks better built?
« on: December 19, 2015, 04:32:30 am »
I was looking at getting some powerline ethernet adapters to cut down on the wifi in my house. Right now I'm bridging two access points over wifi and I'd rather hard wire them together.

On the left is made by ActionTec, the one on the right is made by TrendNet.  (Pictures from here: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/lanwan-reviews/31875-actiontec-pwr500-and-trendnet-tpl-406e2k-powerline-adapters-reviewed?limitstart=0)

Which looks better made to you?  They both use the same chipset, so the differences are in the rest of the design.
The left has more capacitors and second transformer but I suspect the one on the right is using a switching regulator and eliminates the need for the second transformer. (Higher resolution picture attached)
The left one seems to have more protection, but I wonder if that's just because of the design that it is needed?  Unfortunately there weren't any pictures that showed the components from any other angles so I can't tell what kind of caps they are using.


« Last Edit: December 19, 2015, 04:36:51 am by Stonent »
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Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: Which powerline ethernet adapter looks better built?
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2015, 04:55:19 am »
I don't have that Actiontec, but I do have that Trendnet, a set of TP-Link, and a set of Zyxel. Of the three, the Zyxel performs the best because it has gigabit (and is much newer), but the TP-Link did much better than the Trendnet despite having basically the same specifications.

Teardown of the TP-Link:

Teardown of the Zyxel (modded):

BTW, if you have phone wiring that is not being used for DSL, you can hack the adapters to run on it and get very good performance. Using the Zyxel adapters, I managed to get as much as 600Mbps over some old phone line.

I wouldn't recommend the Trendnet since in addition to not performing as well as the TP-Link of the same specs, it uses a nonisolated power supply design that makes it extra work to hack for running over phone line.
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