Does the Ethernet Featherwing have the Auto MDI-X software built in? I have a Boron with an ethernet featherwing connected to a weather station over ethernet. The weather station is set to act as a DHCP server. For one of the featherwings, the connection works without any issue. However, with a different ethernet featherwing (and the same Boron), the connection doesn’t work at all, with no indicator lights on the ethernet port, meaning that there is no link. But, when I put an ethernet switch in between the two, it works, and the ethernet link lights come on, etc. My understanding is that when connecting two ethernet devices of the same type, either a crossover cable is needed or something has to have this Auto MDI-X software to handle the transmit and receive lines. It seems odd to me that one of my ethernet featherwings is able to handle the ethernet communication while the other isn’t without the switch.
The Ethernet Featherwing should require an Ethernet switch or a crossover cable, as it does not support Auto MDI-X. The exception is if the other side supports Auto MDI-X, then of course that side will switch and a straight through cable will work.
That’s based on how the WIZnet W5500 on the Ethernet Featherwing works. Here’s a post on the Wiznet forum about it.