Remote connection options

Shelster · 14 Mar 2016 at 10:15

At present I have my astro imaging gear set up in my garden and this is controlled locally with a laptop, but due to it's age (Core 2 Duo) the laptop is really struggling and falling over with the work I am asking it to do.

Have been looking at options for a replacement and looking at a very low cost option have thought of using a USB over Cat5 adaptor / extender. All the gear on the pier will go into a powered USB hub, this then connects to the extender adaptor, that then goes to a powerline adaptor, powerline adaptor at other end then into other adaptor and then into USB port on my main computer.

Do peple think this is likely to work? or have I thought of something really bad.

Due to the location and SWMBO there is no option of running a cat 5 cable between the pier and computer, so powerlines are only option (unless I have missed another option)

joeyjojo · 14 Mar 2016 at 10:50

That could work but I wonder if there's a more "general" solution.

What's the cost of all that stuff going to be? If it's not much more to buy something to replace the laptop I'd go for that. A Raspberry Pi or NUC would probably do the job more elegantly and could be used for future projects.

Shelster · 14 Mar 2016 at 11:24

Total cost for USB/cat5 adaptors and powerline ones is £35, which is considerably less than as replacement laptop or NUC.

I did look at getting a NUC, but want to do this for as little cost as possible

bledd · 14 Mar 2016 at 11:59

External CAT5E, do it when the mrs is out.

bremen1874 · 14 Mar 2016 at 12:09

I don't think his original plan isn't going to work anyway.

USB over Cat5 adapters need a direct cabled connection between them.

For it to possibly work over a powerline connection you'd need USB over IP adapters. The examples I've seen are limited as to what you can connect to the other end. They don't just provide you with a USB port that's a long way away.