Long-distance USB connectivity

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CaseyStelken

New Member
Hi, I have a small office upstairs in which my PC resides, and I'm working on getting it connected to my flatscreen TV downstairs so I can use the PC from the comfort of my couch when I feel like it. It's not very far if I were to draw a straight line from the back of the TV to the PC ... but obviously things can't be that simple, so it ends up running just under 75ft through walls to make the connection.

I already have the TV screen hooked up as a monitor via 75ft of HDMI cable, which to my surprise works great.

Now I need to get USB access downstairs. I don't expect to run any high-power devices of course, like a portable HDD, or even to charge my iPod. All I want to do is hook up my wireless battery-powered mouse and keyboard, and every now-and-then I'd like to hook up an adapter for 2-3 Nintendo 64 controllers for running an emulator off my computer.

I know that running 75ft of plain old USB cable simply wont work. But does anyone have any experience with USB over Cat5/Cat6 adapters? I have plenty of room in my already established wall chase for that, even if I have to run four separate cables (one for the keyboard, one for the mouse, and one for each N64 controller adapter). But obviously I would prefer to run just one for everything, IF it would work. I'm also wondering if it would help my chances at all to purchase an AC-powered USB hub for the far end.

What do you guys think? And thanks for ANY suggestions!
Casey
 
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billabong27

New Member
Not positive about anything but I'm guessing that a usb over cat 5 and a powered usb hub next to your tv would help. I'm not positive about how much lag or loss of signal you might have if you just run a usb cable though. They make pretty long extension usb cords, I think if you get an active one you'd be ok.
 
broccollipie

broccollipie

New Member
Sounds like you have quite the cabling system.
I'm fairly sure USB has shorter connectivity than Cat5E cables, which I think is around 112'.

A Cat5E or Cat6E cable to the destination, then a USB hub would be the most obvious solution, yes. But what about the loss of signal? Sometimes you have to take the less sightly road and cut the distance.

I reckon you'll be fine. =)
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
broccollipie said:
Sounds like you have quite the cabling system.
I'm fairly sure USB has shorter connectivity than Cat5E cables, which I think is around 112'.

A Cat5E or Cat6E cable to the destination, then a USB hub would be the most obvious solution, yes. But what about the loss of signal? Sometimes you have to take the less sightly road and cut the distance.

I reckon you'll be fine. =)
Click to expand...
Ethernet has a limit of 100m (300')
 
wolfeking

wolfeking

banned
cabinfever1977 said:
drill a hole threw the floor and you can use a shorter cable
Click to expand...
That can be dangerous if running from a 2nd floor to the first floor because of electrical and possible plumbing running in the floor. He should get a blueprint/draft of the house to be sure that he does not drill through these.

WRXGuy1 said:
Ethernet has a limit of 100m (300')
Click to expand...
What I got from the first post was he only needs 75' of cable. From that, I would probably trust ethernet over USB @ 75foot.
 
antl0007

antl0007

New Member
wolfeking said:
That can be dangerous if running from a 2nd floor to the first floor because of electrical and possible plumbing running in the floor. He should get a blueprint/draft of the house to be sure that he does not drill through these.
Click to expand...


In my house i have the luxury of half my basement still being unfinished/used for storage. As such I'm able to see between the floor/ceiling of my basement living room, i used a broom with a hook on the end and just fished my ethernet/tv connections as your doing with my broom.
 
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