Lab network
The lab wired like a small office: structured cabling, a patch panel, PoE cameras, VLANs and a VPN for getting in from outside.
Sketch of the plan, not a photo. Not built yet.
What it is
Cable runs back to one patch panel. A switch that can power cameras over the same cable that carries their data. Separate network segments for cameras, sensors and everything else.
Remote access goes through a VPN, so nothing in the lab is exposed straight to the internet.
Why build it
Every later build talks to something. A sensor node, a camera, a control panel. A tidy, labelled network is what makes those builds debuggable instead of mysterious.
Keeping gadgets on their own segment also means a misbehaving experiment cannot take the rest of the network down with it.
The plan, step by step
This is the plan as it stands. Steps get rewritten as the build teaches us things.
- 01
Draw the map first
Every drop, every device, where the panel lives. On paper, before any cable is cut.
- 02
Run and label the cable
Pull the runs, terminate at the patch panel, label both ends the same way. Test each run before closing anything up.
- 03
Plan the segments
Decide which VLANs exist and what is allowed to talk to what. Start strict, loosen on purpose.
- 04
Add the cameras
PoE cameras for overhead and wide shots of the bench. Hands and hardware only in frame.
- 05
Set up the VPN
One way in from outside. Test it from a phone on mobile data before trusting it.
- 06
Document it
A port map and a plain-language “how to add a device” note, published with the build.