Active USB extension cable - How to make it yourself?
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Posted by Jimmy Neutron on September 3, 2008, 5:24 am
Please log in for more thread options I am planning a HTPC systems and need to take USB cable 30-50 ft from the base. Active USD cable extender are sold at stores but cost too much for my project. I tested Cat5e at ridiculous length (60 ft and over) and did momentarily get connected. I am thinking of make the active cables myself. I can do simple electronics but so far haven't found any DIY instructions on making an active cable yourself? Any pointers to instruction over the net? Can't be too difficult since the active cables sold at stores seem to have only little electronics. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Paul on September 3, 2008, 7:18 am
Please log in for more thread options Jimmy Neutron wrote: > tested Cat5e at ridiculous length (60 ft and over) and did momentarily get
active
> connected. > I am thinking of make the active cables myself. I can do simple electronics but > so far haven't found any DIY instructions on making an active cable yourself? > > Any pointers to instruction over the net? Can't be too difficult since the > cables sold at stores seem to have only little electronics.
You can get 15 foot active extension cables for $20 or so. They consist of 15 feet of USB wire, plus a one port hub at the end. To go 75 feet would cost about $100 or thereabouts. You could put a powered USB2 hub at the end of the chain, to provide decent power to the device at the end. Computer -------- one_port_hub --------- powered_hub ---------- USB_Device |<--- 5 meters ---> |
|<- $20.00 or so -> | On Newegg, the reviews for some of the 5 meter active cables, state they weren't able to cascade them. Some of these things, only one will work. This one, at least someone got two to work. It is $11. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=12-224-004 The maximum total wire length is 30 meters, according to this. I guess that would be five active cables, plus a passive cable at the end. The limitation is the number of hubs (which add significantly to the propagation delay). http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=31116 Using two 5 meter active cables, a 5 meter passive cable, a powered hub, gives a bit more than 45 feet or so. The last cable from the powered hub could be up to 5 meters also, which then covers the 50 foot mark. The purpose of the powered hub, is to prevent the DC power coming down the wire, from being an issue. The one port hub at the end, apparently draws about 5 milliamps, so the drop in the cable may not affect it. If you had a 500mA USB_Device at the end of the cable, you want a powered hub, with its own wall wart, to do the powering. The above scheme doesn't break any rules, but there could be some propagation delay and effect on the maximum transfer rate in megabytes/sec. If a USB hard drive managed 30MB/sec when plugged directly into the computer, you'd expect a lesser benchmark with the usage of the additional hubs. Paul | |||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on September 3, 2008, 10:03 am
Please log in for more thread options
On Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:24:14 +0300, Jimmy Neutron >I am planning a HTPC systems and need to take USB cable 30-50 ft from the base.
>Active USD cable extender are sold at stores but cost too much for my project. Then you're out of luck, you can't just wish something was cheaper and that it still does what you require. Search online for a better price, brick and mortar stores are almost always more expensive for cabling. Further, I doubt that you actually need a 30-50 ft USB cable, there's bound to be other ways to get the job done but not necessarily dirt cheap. >I
>tested Cat5e at ridiculous length (60 ft and over) and did momentarily get >connected. >I am thinking of make the active cables myself. It will cost at least as much as you could find one for online. > I can do simple electronics but
>so far haven't found any DIY instructions on making an active cable yourself? > If you have the skill you need to get the job done, you'll be able to search a website like Digikey and find the microchip with the functionality you need, be able to consult it's datasheet and all that then remains is making the PCB layout you need in a program like Eagle. In other words, if you are otherwise capable you won't need a DIY instruction to do it. If you want to try this still, if you find more than one microchip capable then look at the datasheets for all of them as sometimes the manufacturer will provide a reference/prototype PCB layout than you can just copy and/or slightly adapt without having to design that yourself, though it is almost always a much larger layout than a professionially finished product (like a store bought active cable) uses. >Any pointers to instruction over the net? Can't be too difficult since the
active
>cables sold at stores seem to have only little electronics.
They're compact because it saves money to do it like that, meaning it will take you more time, not less, to accomplish the same compactness when you DIY. | |||||||||||||
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> Active USD cable extender are sold at stores but cost too much for my