Extending USB beyond 5M what are people using?

[richardg7vyi]

Can anyone recommend a reliable solution for extending USB for use with Interactive classroom equipment.

We have a lot of interactive projectors mostly Hitachi but some Epson too. Early Hitachi's were IPJ-AW250N and CP-AW2519N the latest Hitachis are CP-TW2503 and we have a few Epson EB-450 and 475 Wi ones The first devices that went in I installed an unpowered USB 1 over cat5 adapter and apart from being a little slower comms than recommended they all worked fine although USB patch lead length at either end had to be the very shortest possible otherwise it didn't work. I then found these adapter devices would not work properly with next generation of Hitachi interactive projectors but a powered USB 2 over cat 5 device did. Then in other settings exactly the same setup refuses to work properly this time. I've found sometimes Eco settings on the projector powering everything off causes issues with USB comms initialising and turning off all the Eco settings solves it. With more interactive systems going in it is proving a challenge in each room as teacher computers are rarely within 5m reach of the projector up on the wall.

[LeMarchand]

I've got one of these at home, and it's been fine for over a year - but it's not heavily used. (Occasional use when I throw my main PC onto the TV).

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005LJKEXS

[mikeyw]

I have used: StarTech.com 5m USB 2.0 Active Extension Cable - M/F - Ebuyer Works great, comes with a plug to power the extender.

[Michael]

I've always used USB > Ethernet > Ethernet > USB and it works with very long distances.

[Sagima]

We use active usb cables from amazon. Various lengths

[gbiltd]

Yes we use the active cables, I think you can link a total of four of the five metre ones together. anything longer then cat5 extenders.

[richardg7vyi]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like people use the same sort of devices I've used. I think the Hitachi interactive projectors are just a bit fussy about their USB connections and only work if its just right. Epson ones seemed less fussy.

[Davit2005]

I've always used USB > Ethernet > Ethernet > USB and it works with very long distances.

 

+1, Used to use these at last place.

[snagrat]

If it's no longer than 10m then the Visual TechConnect USB 10m booster cable will work fine

[richardg7vyi]

Yes it's strange. When we first installed these interactive projectors that's what I used firstly ones with no seperate power supply. With Epson no issues at all. When we moved to Hitachi I found they were ok as long as at the projector end there was no more that 1/2 metre USB patch cable to projector from cat5 to USB converter. Then when some later ones were installed by a contractor using the same converters as me I found they would not work properly. Eventually we got them changed to USB2 over cat 5 with a power adapter at receiving end and these worked ok after we disabled ECO setting on projector which seemed to cause issues with USB comms at power up from standby. Then since then We have had projectors of same type in and I've had issues getting them to work properly even with same converters. They work over a 5m USB direct but refuse to work properly even over a short cat5 cable with converters. Its as though there maybe some latency or bidirectional aspect that doesn't carry properly over the cat5 converter. The newer projectors have a USB drive built in which appears as a CD drive from which it seems to load up a driver from an autorun which fires up the pen side of things and auto calibrates the projector. What I tend to find is the software sees the projector itself but these USB drives don't appear and driver then doesn't run so the projector pen does not work. It's very frustating as I haven't found a USB connection formula that works every time at the moment.