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USB power out with PoE?

I'm considering Tally lights that can be powered via .5V micro-USB.


When a PTZOptics 20X-NDI camera is running on PoE, does it provide any power on the USB port?


Yup!  The USB 2.0 port on the cameras do nothing but provide 5 volts of power for use with external hardware. 

Awsome! Thanks. i'm considering using it to power Cubie tally lights.

Does any have experience with that?

I don't have experience with those Tally Lights no, but they look like they just need a 5V power supply so it should work. 

For documentation purposes for posterity these Tally lights worked beautifully powered off the cameras USB port. Still only one CAT6 cable connected to the NDI-HX camera.


You need:


Although the software is open source and free for download, please consider making a donation. It is a really nice package that makes tally lights work with PTZOptics cameras and OBS Studio. Neither of which directly support tally lights.

I used this particular Raspberry Pi because it was in stock during pandemic supply shortages and it contains a nice black case that you can discretely mount next to a grey camera. You won't use some of the components, but it's only $40.

Once I had all the parts it took a couple of hours to:
  • install the software on the Raspberry Pi.
  •  Plug one USB micro port on the Pi into the cameras 5V USB A for power (cable comes with the kit)
  • Plug the Blink(1) light into the other micro USB port (this is the second cable)
  • Configure the TallyArbiter on your production machine

You make one of these for each camera. They are really small, about 1/2 the size of a pack of cigarettes and with the black case very discrete. Pair each camera with a Source in OBS (it also works with vMix, wirecast, etc.) and voila! Green light in preview, Red light in program.

tally light




 How many mA does the USB port deliver? I'm considering to power up a raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with it.


The USB 2.0 output should have up to 5 volts, 1 amp of power available. 

I've used this with the RaspberryPi Zero, Blink(1) light and TallyAribiter. Works Great!

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