[SOLVED] Your experience with USB extensions ?

[thomass1s]

I need a 50 feet usb extension and would like to know if those can last more than a few months-years, considering they would need a signal repeater/additional power ?

Either USB 2.0 or 3.0 will do.
I have no preference for any particular brand.

Does anyone have experience with those in time ?

 

[Ralston18]

More information needed.

Full disclosure - no immediate experience "in time".

However, what is the installation environment?

Indoor, outdoor, factory, humidity, vibrations, rodents, office, apartment, run through conduit, etc..

The environment is what will most likely determine how long the extension cable may last....

Installation is important: no kinks, other wires about, nailed, stapled, or just loose from Point A to Point B.

And there will also be a corresponding dependency on the quality of the cable itself and the associated repeaters.

 

[MadsModsat]

My only experience was with a 10 meter USB 3.0 extension cable with repeater, and it was not an overwhelming success.
It worked perfectly fine with some USB devices, and terribly with other devices.

It seemed the repeater messed up the signal for some devices - the worst example was a USB sound card I used for recording (the sound card had its own power supply). The sound card signal was somehow corrupted, and it was impossible to make the USB device work without issues. I confirmed the sound card was fine, by using it with a 10 meter USB 3.0 extension without repeater, and it was perfectly fine. The USB cable with the repeater did work with some other devices, and I never really figured out why some devices worked, when others didn't.

But I also never really looked any futher into the problem, since I could just use the cable without repeater, but I just thought I'd share my findings using a cable with- and without repeater.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I don't recall where I got it from, but I had a 25' USB Extension cable that I used for long gaming sessions. Even during beverage refills or "beverage deposits", I could still hear what was going on in game and the other players were none the wiser. It worked like a champ for well over a year until I accidentally dropped the connection port onto some hard tile.

I think, for the most part, if you use a little bit of caution, these things will likely last long enough to justify the cost.

-Wolf sends

 

[thomass1s]

My usage is indoors, with the cable fastened to the wall floor corners.

I have bought in the past a non-powered ethernet 50 feet USB extension, which worked fine with my mouse and keyboard, but never with my printer, and it still died after 5 months of modest normal usage.

It seems to me, judging by the very limited warranty of these extensions, that the market has been cornered by some very opportunistic manufacturers, which is a problem for people like me forced to work at a distance from their computers and who can't shell 50 bucks every 6 months.

 

[scout_03]

could you use network cable on printer .