Five GigaBit Ports. Unprecedented Size.

GigaBlox is a tiny form factor GigaBit ethernet switch with five 10/100/1000M ports, designed for space, weight and power (SWaP) limited applications.

We developed it specifically to address the need for high data throughput inside small internal volumes, a common problem for drones and robots.

GigaBlox has an footprint of 45mm x 45mm, and runs from a very wide input voltage from 5 to 60V (tolerant up to 65V). All ports are galvanically isolated from each other, and the input voltage.

Plug and play GigaBit Connectivity

GigaBlox is an unmanaged switch and works straight out the box with zero setup required. All you need to do is:

Apply a 6-60V DC supply.
Connect your devices using the included cable set.
GigaBlox will perform auto-negotiation to select the fastest speed for each connected device, then automatically begin switching.

GigaBlox’s switching engine uses a non-blocking fabric, meaning that all five ports are capable of 1Gbps simultaneously. This is crucial for applications with multiple streams of data, typical in camera-based systems.

LED Breakout

Revision C of GigaBlox now has an external LED breakout header, which allows you to access the onboard port activity indicators on GigaBlox.

The Molex PicoBlade connector consists of seven pins, five anode/cathode LED signals, 3.3V and GND. This allows five external LEDs to be connected to GigaBlox to indicate port activity on all of the board. This is very useful for when GigaBlox is integrated into a housing but the port activity LEDs are still required to be seen.

Please see the datasheet for more information.

Dimensions

We’ve squeezed all necessary Ethernet circuitry into GigaBlox without making performance compromises. We use magnetics for improved signal integrity and electrical isolation between each ethernet bus.

Dimensional drawing of GigaBlox, the five port small gigabit network switch

INCLUDED CABLES

We include everything you need to make this board work out of the box. Each board ships with:

5 x Molex PicoBlade to RJ-45, 8 way, 0.3 meter (Data cables)
SKU: BB-PBRJ1-8-0.3

1 x Molex PicoBlade to Tinned Leads, 4 way, 0.3 meter (Power cables)
SKU: BB-PBTL1-4-0.3

Ethernet Pinout

Below is a handy graphic that shows how we transition from a Molex Picoblade pinout to the standard RJ-45 ethernet cables. Gigabit ethernet uses four differential channels, for a total of eight total conductors.

GigaBlox Pinout

Covered under the BotBlox Supply Guarantee Program

This board is covered by our supply guarantee, which guarantees availability and low lead times until at least 2028. Read more about the BotBlox Supply Guarantee Program.

Need NDAA compliance?

We offer a fully NDAA compliant version of this hardware, simply select the option at the top of the product page.
Our NDAA version has the same design as the base product, but uses a supply chain based outside of the four adversary countries listed in Executive Order EO13981 (these are Iran, Russian, China and North Korea).

The NDAA compliant version is part of our first stage to move away from a Chinese based supply chain, to meet the needs of our customers who must ensure NDAA and EO13981 compliance in their UAS systems. Read more about our efforts here.

The boards are manufactured in Thailand
The active chips are sourced from either Digi-Key, Mouser, or directly from our European distributors
The passive chips are sourced only from Digi-Key or Mouser
All passive components are sourced from Digi-Key or Mouser.

This allows our customers to build NDAA and EO13981 compliant UAS systems with no extra work. We are able to provide full Certificate of Conformities, Bill of Materials and Traceability statements to ensure this. Please note, there is no design difference between this board, and our standard SwitchBlox.

The NDAA compliant version can be used to build BlueUAS compliant UAS systems. Read more about this here.

Custom Cables

All our boards are shipped with the required 0.3 meter power and data cables included, so you do not need to purchase extra cables. However if you need custom cable lengths for your application, you can order those here.