Connection Dropouts

[AlistairW]

Hello,

I had a lot of connection dropouts last night, with EQMOD and BYEOS freezing, - however I don't think it was the apps. I have been running cables from the camera, mount and guider (1m) to a powered USB device, and then from the USB device to a PC (5m). It has worked in the past, but last night I had a lot of issues. This morning I connected the camera, mount and guider directly to the PC USB ports (so only 1m of cable), and all seems to be ok from what I can tell. Do you think that these long cables are the source of my issues last night ?

Thanks

Alistair

[Coastliner]

I would probably go for a single point of failure, in this case the powered hub or the 5m cable.. It is less likely that you have problems with all of the cables.

[malc-c]

Are you using an active 5m cable between the hub and the laptop ?

[AlistairW]

Not sure what you mean by "active" - so I wouldn't be surprised if not - could you enlighten me ?

[malc-c]

Not sure what you mean by "active" - so I wouldn't be surprised if not - could you enlighten me ?

Basically they have amplification components in the cable that boost the signals so that packets of data are not lost.  All cables used for data (network, USB, serial etc) have their own maximum length, after which there is no guarantee that the integrety of the data will be 100%.  For USB this is typically 3m, so whilst a passive 5m cable may work there is no gurantee that it will work 100% of the time, therefore it's recommended that any time you need a USB cable over 3m that an active cable be used

[Coastliner]

E.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/CSL-Repeater--amplification-expandable-gold-plated/dp/B00S7SCNKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442006925&sr=8-1&keywords=5m+usb+cable+active

[AlistairW]

Understood - thanks - i need to look in to this some more .

[michael8554]

Hi Alistair

I'm assuming your "powered USB device" is a "powered USB Hub".

If it's a USB 2.0 device, and your PC/laptop has USB 2.0 ports, then 5M is the maximum run - for USB 1.0 it's 3M. 

5M being the maximum, a boost at the end of the run is a Good Thing.

And your powered hub will do just that.

With the proviso that it's a good quality item - I've had your issues with cheap eBay 7-port hubs, particularly with EOS cameras.

One possible problem would be if your 5M cable is already an Active Cable - in that case that would be a double boost, which may not be a Good Thing.

Michael