My backup device is a USB 2.0 250 MB Iomega Hard Drive.I'd like to put it in my garage, requiring about 20 to 25 feet of wire. The official USB specs say 5 meters max; if further use a hub/repeater. I'm wondering how realistic the 5 meter spec is. I recall that parallel printer cables were supposed to be limited to 10 feet or so; 75 foot cables worked just fine. Same thing with the specs for RS-232 cables. Does anyone have any real world experience with long USB 2.0 cables? I'm thinking of building mine using unshielded CAT5 cable, one twisted pair for power, another for data. Wise? foolish?
I've never tried to use USB cables that long, and I imagine you can't buy them for your requirements so I ahve no idea if it will work. Interesting idea about the cat5 cable though, my god watson it just might work!
i think 5 meters is the longest cos you need to amplify the signal and they cost quite a bit bout £10 i think for 5 meters i dont know if you can join them though
although it is USB 1.1 there is this it is a bit expensive but if you do a bit of searching you may find a USB2 cable[ot]upon further research, that cable also supports USB2[/ot]
