10m long USB cable

[N0ddie]

Folks. My PC is located on one side of my spare room and my desk on the other. Given I need to run a USB cable around the room, I'll need one of around 10m. I'll run the 1 cable from my PC to my desk where I plug it into a USB hub (so that I only need to run 1 long cable).

The long USB cable or extension marketplace is a tricky one to navigate, hence my reaching out for advice.

Cheers

 

[Gray2233]

You can get them from the rainforest website for £15-30 depending on what you opt for, that includes USB-C. If you're worried about the setup working it's easy enough to quickly test and return a cable from there before tidying things up too, I picked up a 5m one some years ago for similar reasons that's still going strong.

I'd not overthink it personally, maybe buy 2-3 test options and return what you don't need/doesn't work out.

They actually run Royal Mail pickup in some areas last I checked which is really handy, you don't even need a label printer as they supply one for you.

 

[N0ddie]

I’ve tried a few longer cables or extensions over the past year with intermittent success. What will work one minute will fail the next.

After some quick googling and watching of an LTT video, it appears that I need some USB to Ethernet extension doo-dads.

I’ve ordered LTTs suggested one and we’ll see how it goes. As you said: if it don’t work then just return it.

 

[Gray2233]

I’ve tried a few longer cables or extensions over the past year with intermittent success. What will work one minute will fail the next.

After some quick googling and watching of an LTT video, it appears that I need some USB to Ethernet extension doo-dads.

I’ve ordered LTTs suggested one and we’ll see how it goes. As you said: if it don’t work then just return it.

That's fair, I can't say that I've ran anything beyond the 5m mark for USB but HDMI cables can run into problems at the lengths you're looking at too. The current suggestion for those is to go fibre optic, but for USB that feels like massive overkill, ethernet does make sense but I imagine would necessitate an active USB hub.

Is this just for data transfer or will they be powering devices?

 

[m_c]

I've got a few fairly generic 5 and 10m active USB(2.0/A) extension cables which I use at events, and never had any problems, with the heaviest use being a StarTech USB to DVI adapter plugged into the end.
I'd guess they'd probably cause issues if you were planning on pushing lots of data through them, or trying to power something fairly power hungry though, as even the active cables technically don't comply with the USB standard.

 

[Quartz]

The long USB cable or extension marketplace is a tricky one to navigate, hence my reaching out for advice.

You may get away with using active cables, but 10m is verging on the length that will require fibre-optic cables, especially if high bandwidth is required.

 

[N0ddie]

That's fair, I can't say that I've ran anything beyond the 5m mark for USB but HDMI cables can run into problems at the lengths you're looking at too. The current suggestion for those is to go fibre optic, but for USB that feels like massive overkill, ethernet does make sense but I imagine would necessitate an active USB hub.

Is this just for data transfer or will they be powering devices?

Its for peripherals. Keyboard, controller initially. Potentially my sim racing wheelbase, wheel, pedals, handbrake etc

 

[Bubo]

I made my own extension cable once. Got some shielded cable with enough cores and spliced the ends of a standard usb cable on to it. It was for printer use. I wouldn't try this if it was USB3, for for USB2 peripherals it would be ok.