USB - a few questions for the techies

[Imme (Jon)]

Hi guys,

Do we have any USB cabling gurus out there to provide some advice?

I believe the max distance for a USB 2 cable is 5m, USB is 3m.

I'm looking at relocating my control computer to a warmer spot for winter which will mean my USB cable run will need to be somewhere in the vicinity of 6-7m. What are my options????

I've read a USB hub will allow me to extend the run by another 5m. Is that a powered USB hub or just one of those 4-8 port cheapies you can get?
On the hub idea......if I throw say 4 usb cords in to the hub on the scope and then run a single usb lead back to the computer is that going to be an issue with the cables ability to carry the data I need it to carry?

What are other people doing? I currently have 6 x USB cables in the back of my desktop running various components......can I bring them all back in a single cord from a hub that is located closer to the scope to save the spaghetti I currently have?

[skysurfer]

What about wifi for controlling a scope ?
No cables and enough range (30m for 2.4GHz and 10m for 5 GHz).

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by skysurfer

What about wifi for controlling a scope ?
No cables and enough range (30m for 2.4GHz and 10m for 5 GHz).

So you plug in to a hub and all usb traffic comes through a single wifi stream?

Cost?

Sorry.....not my forte at all this stuff!

[Merlin66 (Ken)]

Jon,
I use a powered USB hub 6 port located on the mount and powered by a 12V to 6V convertor. Max I think 5A.
All the USB cables go to this hub and only one back to my local laptop.

I don't know the max distance for this PC to hub link....I use Teamviewer to "talk" to the local laptop from my warm and mozzie free office.
Hope this helps.

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by Merlin66

Jon,
I use a powered USB hub 6 port located on the mount and powered by a 12V to 6V convertor. Max I think 5A.
All the USB cables go to this hub and only one back to my local laptop.

I don't know the max distance for this PC to hub link....I use Teamviewer to "talk" to the local laptop from my warm and mozzie free office.
Hope this helps.

Perfect Merlin.....that’s exactly the information I was hoping for.

Seems what I want to do I can do. Now to buy a USB hub and powered repeater.

[kens (Ken)]

I use an Orico 7 port powered USB3 hub that runs off 12V. I've had 2 cooled cameras, 3 regular cameras, filter wheel and mount all connected to the hub at once. It connects back to the PC via a 5m Active USB cable from Jaycar. They say you can run up to 5 of these in series so up to 25m.

[RobF (Rob)]

This is what I use - used to work fine with unpowered 4 port USB hub on the end of it, works fine with Mount Hub Pro currently.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/powered-us...d-10m/p/XC4120

[Imme (Jon)]

This is why i love this place.....

So much knowledge that people are willing to share.

Cheers guys

[ZeroID (Brent)]

STI Powered hub does the job best.

[acropolite (Phil)]

+ for the Jaycar 10 metre active USB cables, sir h0ugh introduced me to them at Astrofest many years ago, they work a treat.

[Imme (Jon)]

Cheers guys.

Ordered a couple repeater cables and a hub so I should be good to go