Flat Cat 6 - re-termination/USB over network cable

[LeMarchand]

Saw some cheap flat Cat 6 on Amazon (slightly cheaper on eBay) and was considering replacing some of my runs at home. Has anyone had any experience of re-terminating this? Is it as easy as normal round cable? I was planning on creating 3x 10m leads.

 

One of the leads is potentially for USB over network cable. Has anyone used anything like this successfully? Or would I be better off with an active repeater?

[win]

Never done it but i guess termination would be easier than a round cable - if all the colours are in the correct order.

 

It depends on the device for the USB extension, active repeater seems safer but the cat5/6 looks like a more flexible option.

[smithson83]

I have used a few of the cheap USB over Ethernet adapters, they work quite well depending on what you're using them for and the length of the cat cable.

 

Short runs work great, longer runs can be intermittent. I have a webcam ~ 15m away and works great upto about 1024x768 (cant remember exact res) but any more it starts to drop the connection when loaded.

 

 

EDIT: RE re-termination, I'm not sure it would be easier, depends how the pairs are moulded in the flat cable, could be a ***** to strip back

Edited February 24, 2015 by smithson83

[LeMarchand]

It depends on the device for the USB extension, active repeater seems safer but the cat5/6 looks like a more flexible option.

 

I have used a few of the cheap USB over Ethernet adapters, they work quite well depending on what you're using them for and the length of the cat cable.

 

Short runs work great, longer runs can be intermittent. I have a webcam ~ 15m away and works great upto about 1024x768 (cant remember exact res) but any more it starts to drop the connection when loaded.

 

 

EDIT: RE re-termination, I'm not sure it would be easier, depends how the pairs are moulded in the flat cable, could be a ***** to strip back

 

It's just for keyboard and mouse. At the moment I'm on my second 5m repeater (10m not available at the time). PC (other side of room, hence the need for cable), HTPC, TIVO and PS3 all feed into a switch and then a powered hub which normally only has the broadcaster for a wireless kb/mouse attached. The 5m ones seem to get iffy after a couple of years, so I was looking at replacing with a more suitable length.

 

That's what I was thinking about the stripping back...

[smithson83]

What about doing away with the cable entirely Logitech K400r or MK520 keyboards are very good, I have a few dotted around school. Use the MK520's in offices with AiO PC's and the K400's with mobile screens etc. The K400 is well balanced and easy to use one handed while holding with the other Edited February 24, 2015 by smithson83
spelling

[LeMarchand]

What about doing away with the cable entirely Logitech K400r or MK520 keyboards are very good, I have a few dotted around school. Use the MK520's in offices with AiO PC's and the K400's with mobile screens etc. The K400 is well balanced and easy to use one handed while holding with the other

 

The keyboard and mouse are already wireless: it's less clutter (and cheaper!) to just have one set to use with whatever is being displayed on the TV at the time. I did look at the K400 a while back, but found that my existing pair worked with everything (until the repeater started to fail). Though you have made me think: the PC is only used on the TV for gaming and I tend to game via pad (so sue me) and have one of these hanging around since I got the HTPC to work with my TV remote:

 

 

Whilst I would still prefer the option of being able to use the existing (full size) kb/mouse, as it's mainly only used to do some pre-game setup maybe I should just use that in the short term.

 

Still interested about anyone's experience with flat cable termination, though!