questions about getting both the energy required to power a device, and also data in one direction or the other or both, through a single cable.
Here at the Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange, the "power-line-communication" tag covers all questions about getting both the energy required to power a device, and also data in one direction or the other or both, through a single cable.
This tag is idea for questions that involve sending power and data through one cable, but the exact technique has yet to be decided on, such as Safe Powering Methods - Working with Children .
Other sites define "power-line-communication" as systems for sending data on the same conductors as 50 Hz or 60 Hz AC mains power.
On this site, because we so far have been unable to come up with a more generic term, (please comment on http://meta.electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/535/how-should-we-tag-questions-that-deal-with-power-and-data-through-the-same-cable if you have any suggestions) we are currently also using this tag to also cover other systems for carrying power and data in the same cable, including:
- power on one pair of wires, data on a separate pair of wires, with all 4 (or more) conductors bundled together in a single cable -- as used in some implementations of power-over-ethernet. Such questions may also use the much more specific tags usb, NMEA 2000 or poe.
- non-mains power on exactly the same conductors as the data -- as used in other implementations of power-over-ethernet. Such questions may also use the much more specific tags one-wire, telephone, bias-T, or poe tags.
- AC mains power on exactly the same conductors as the data -- as used in HomePlug AV ("Ethernet over power lines") and X10. Such questions may also use the much more specific tags powerline, HomePlug, x-10, or home-automation tags.
