USB 3 - Longer cable or USB Extender?

[souls33k3r]

Hi All,

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and bought many astro presents. Sure you did, look at the beautiful British weather

I am now going to be using a powered USB 3 hub and the USB cable from the hub to my laptop is ok if both my laptop and scope are at the same side of the mount. If they are on the opposite sides, i might have a problem. 

The current one that i have is about 2m long, i guess a 3m minimum will be better. So am looking for USB 3 cable, what should i be looking at when purchasing one?

Or perhaps a USB extender? Not sure which is a better option.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance

Regards,

[LightBucket]

Hi, and hope you had a good Christmas too..

i would go for something like this, a USB 3, 5m repaetaer cable..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5m-16-Feet-USB-3-0-Active-Repeater-Male-to-Female-M-F-Extension-Cable-Lead-Wire/292366346417?hash=item44126468b1:g:vs4AAOSwLdBaLgZV

[souls33k3r]

2 minutes ago, LightBucket said:

Hi, and hope you had a good Christmas too..

i would go for something like this, a USB 3, 5m repaetaer cable..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5m-16-Feet-USB-3-0-Active-Repeater-Male-to-Female-M-F-Extension-Cable-Lead-Wire/292366346417?hash=item44126468b1:g:vs4AAOSwLdBaLgZV

Cheers light bucket. But this i believe is an A to A, USB 3 cable that i have is a A to B. Anything for that?

[Charic]

If you have any issues after purchasing a new cable, re-check or re-route the cables?
I say this as I used to use a 3mtr cable on my iPhone ( USB to Lightning )  and it never connected without issues to my cars infotainment/navigation? Turns out the cable was too long, yet works in all other respects! To fix the car issue, I have to use a standard cable which I think is 1 mtr.

[symmetal]

I had trouble with the USB camera connection dropping out using a standard Lindy cable and tried one of these instead and it's worked fine since. I did try going via a hub, which worked but the top speed was about 60% the speed without the hub. I thought the metallic chrome shell was just to make it look pretty but the cable is thicker than the standard types and the connection seems nice and solid. Using any repeater cables will drop the maximum speed significantly as all they do is boost and clip the signal level which introduces signal timing errors. I've tried a 5m 'standard' USB3 cable from the camera to the PC and it wouldn't work reliably although the 3m ones did. Whether the Lindy Chrome ones work at 5m I don't know.

Alan

[souls33k3r]

Cheers Alan, while i was looking at these cables i did come across the Lindy make you speak of. They do indeed look well made but then i'm looking at pictures on the internet. Someone wise said, the most expensive is not always the best and that is why i do question these prices at times. I'm glad lindy worked for you. I guess even a 3 meter cable will suffice because my laptop isn't really that far from my scope.

[LightBucket]

19 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Cheers light bucket. But this i believe is an A to A, USB 3 cable that i have is a A to B. Anything for that?

Well you use the USB hub A to B cable and plug the A end into the repeater, and the other end of repeater to your PC

[souls33k3r]

1 minute ago, LightBucket said:

Well you use the USB hub A to B cable and plug the A end into the repeater, and the other end of repeater to your PC

Ah, got it. 

 

14 minutes ago, Charic said:

If you have any issues after purchasing a new cable, re-check or re-route the cables?
I say this as I used to use a 3mtr cable on my iPhone ( USB to Lightning )  and it never connected without issues to my cars infotainment/navigation? Turns out the cable was too long, yet works in all other respects! To fix the car issue, I have to use a standard cable which I think is 1 mtr.

Cheers mate, i guess 1/2 meter cables are pretty much the norm because they will work all the time.

[symmetal]

18 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Cheers Alan, while i was looking at these cables i did come across the Lindy make you speak of. They do indeed look well made but then i'm looking at pictures on the internet. Someone wise said, the most expensive is not always the best and that is why i do question these prices at times. I'm glad lindy worked for you. I guess even a 3 meter cable will suffice because my laptop isn't really that far from my scope.

Yes, I'm sure the 3m version would work OK for you. (Famous last words ). As the USB3 cables are much thicker than USB2 (9 cores instead of 4 and more heavily shielded) they are not very flexible so you really need to anchor the cable to the mount or scope or there will be quite a strain on the USB3 connector when things move. At the PC end I often just 'clamped' the cable to the desk top with a heavy weight to avoid any pull on the connector going into the laptop.

Alan

[souls33k3r]

Yeah Alan and if it doesn't work, i know where to find you

Yes these bad boys are much thicker. There will be no strain on the cables when going from one bit of kit to the hub (measured them all to size) so the only cable strain that may be present is the USB 3 cable from the HUB to the laptop. 

I suppose i'm just picky on where i sit (on the left hand side of the mount), i can actually sit where you look through the polar scope which will then compensate for any extra movements on either side.

Saying that, i do like sitting on the left hand side, hence the question for the cable