• Registered: 2016-05-09
  • Posts: 53

Topic: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

I'm running a UC from about 35 feet (extension cable to a relatively cheap powered USB hub) over USB 3.0 to a Windows 10 PC in a machine room.

It's working pretty well. I haven't had any dropouts, but I have had to reset the interface once or twice which I attribute to the cable length.

Is it possible to improve the stability with a better hub, repeater cable, optical cable, USB PCI card, etc.? Curious to hear about what the people at RME use.

ufx ii / bfp

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
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  • Registered: 2007-04-06
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Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

USB 2 Repeater cable with active electronics. Cheap and efficient.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

3 Reply by wderganc (edited by wderganc 2016-12-27 17:44:02)

  • Registered: 2016-05-09
  • Posts: 53

Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

Do you have a maximum recommended length? (I've seen 10-20 meters)


Edit: this male to female 15 meter cable from SIIG has the option to add a 5 volt power supply to the end of the cable: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053 … PDKIKX0DER

Or, alternatively there is a 15 meter male to male StarTech that could go from the computer directly into the interface without any additional cables. https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-10m … e&th=1

I'm probably going to order the StarTech unless there is good reason not to smile

ufx ii / bfp

4 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

I tested only 15 meters. Mine looks more like the Blue Rigger and Monoprice one. The additional power input can be useful, but is of no use in your case.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

5 Reply by wderganc (edited by wderganc 2017-01-02 18:18:29)

  • Registered: 2016-05-09
  • Posts: 53

Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

Thanks for your feedback Matthias smile

ufx ii / bfp
  • Registered: 2008-05-07
  • Posts: 131

Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

I have had very good success with USB over Ethernet.

  • Registered: 2016-05-09
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Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

vanceen wrote:

I have had very good success with USB over Ethernet.

Sounds expensive! Is latency workable over really large distances?

Figured I'd update on the cable -- the 15 meter version I linked works great smile

It's working no differently than a short cable. For me, the "tells" were drivers crashing when switching sample rates (open a program @ 96K when something is already open and playing 44.1) and much less noticeable, the DAW would only see a limited number of channels (14 in 14 out) instead of the full 18 in 18 out when using a long passive cable.

ufx ii / bfp
  • Registered: 2008-05-07
  • Posts: 131

Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

vanceen wrote:

I have had very good success with USB over Ethernet.

It's pretty cheap.

The powered USB cables I tried didn't solve my problem. That may have been because I was using a USB female to male wall port to get the USB signal into the closet where I keep my computer. As soon as I replaced most of the run with Cat6 cable, no more problems.

I was also getting lost connection whenever the sample rate changed.

9 Reply by Manuel (edited by Manuel 2023-08-23 13:43:53)

  • Manuel
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Re: Current recommendations for long USB cable solution

MC wrote:

USB 2 Repeater cable with active electronics. Cheap and efficient.

Hi MC, I'm using a passive 10 m USB 2.0 cable with my UCX II at 192 kHz and the lowest possible buffer size, and I'm not getting any errors at all. Am I being lucky?

I looked into 10 m cables with a USB repeater built in but the ones I could find all have the repeater at the very end of the cable like the ones you guys linked earlier in this thread with Type-A USB 2.0 female connector. I see why I would want the repeater on the end if I am connecting a cable to it, but then there are Type-A male to Type-B female cables like the one I got that connect directly to the audio interface, in which case the audio interface acts as the repeater, correct? I think the repeater is useful for lengths > 10 m, even if the USB 2.0 spec says the max passive lenght is 5 m.