In Part 1 of this review series, I looked at some high-level changes of the new Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT. Sadly this second part is more negative as I fo

Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT Review – Part 2: Problems

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2021-06-08 18:30:09

In Part 1 of this review series, I looked at some high-level changes of the new Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT. Sadly this second part is more negative as I focus on some problems, from the baffling simple to the more complex and possibly fundamental issues.

After the initial problems with the original PoE HAT, and the public admission they’d not tested the HAT sufficiently, you’d expect that the Raspberry Pi Foundation would be darn sure to ensure that the new Raspberry Pi PoE+ HAT met the highest design and quality standards. Afterall they stated clearly:

It’s embarrassing to have released a product with a bug like this, but it’s a lesson well-learned, and we will be improving our internal processes to prevent a recurrence.

I accept we don’t have the same power stability issues as the original PoE HAT, but there are still some problems with this latest offering from the Raspberry Pi team.

As noted by Peter Francis in a comment on the release blog post, one of the bolts securing the fan is too long and hits the camera connector on the Raspberry Pi board. I too experienced this issue with the two HATs I ordered from The Pi Hut. It’s baffling how this problem reached the final release and sold to customers in the first place.