Power Supplies: What are they?

What are power supplies? What is the difference between internal and external? Why do I need them?

Well, power supplies are important because they are how your devices receive power to function. From laptops and desktops, cell phone charging bases, and even our bridges, they serve the important function of taking the power from your AC outlet and converting it into the proper voltage/amperage for your devices that you use every day. Here at Eagle Eye Networks, we use several different types of power supplies to power the bridges that connect your cameras to our cloud services.

On our downloads page, you can find the datasheets that detail our bridge and CMVR specs as far as how many power supplies and how many volts and watts are needed to power the device. If you view these PDF files, you will notice that the power supply category has different types listed: external, single, and dual.

Currently, the only bridges that utilize the external power supplies are the 302 and 304 models. External power supplies are similar to the charger for your laptop, with the power supply built into the power cord.

Single and dual power supplies are both internal, that is they are built into the device itself. In this case, the internal supply is built into bridge and the AC power cord is plugged into the device itself, with no power supply on the line. The main difference between our single and dual power supplies is that dual power supplies provide a redundant power supply in the case of a failure of one power supply on our CMVRs (currently we only use dual power supplies on our 620 and 820 model CMVRs and not in any of our regular bridges).

Now you have a basic idea of the function of power supplies and their role in our business, and how they affect you as a user. Of course, if you have questions and need to talk to one of us here at Eagle Eye Networks, you can always reach out to us.