Long USB cable...OK or no?

I’ve filled my first 14TB drive with plots and have another on the way and…I’d kinda like these to be on the other side of my room. Is running a long (say…20-ish feet) USB cable a problem for farming? Thanks :slight_smile:
Joe

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In theory there is no maximum however if you go beyond 3-5 meters the signal and power will degrade… so the longer you extend the USB cable, the lower the speed and power it will provide.

I have no idea if there are power extenders for USB but in theory should be possible to go from USB to cat5/RJ45 and back and have power/data bi-directional

100 meters should be possible then … or even more …

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A powered hub is the most common USB extender. There are extender cables with male at one end and female at the other but I highly recommend against using them because of the power degradation you mentioned.

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OK I’ll just make a way to hold and get some airflow over the drives close to my computer. If I get crazy and end up with a bunch of drives I’ll just get a little dedicated computer on the other side of the room.

This is good actually…no long cable strung haphazardly around the room LOL.

Thanks guys :slight_smile:
Joe

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That’s why I think the option to have USB to Ethernet (RJ45/cat5) and RJ45/USB could work as there are PoE’s for those that work without issues , 20 feet is only like a 6 meters , big degrade USB cable wise but with a cat5 neglectable

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I have never gone over 6’ with a USB cable, except for powering a USB fan with a 10’ extension cable (for a total of 12’ (including the cable attached to the fan – but that delivered only power and no data).

For data, I never went over 6’.

For audio (like between a transport and and DAC), it is recommended to stay under 5 meters (and preferably under 3 meters, to ensure no dropped or mis-timed / mis-read packets / bytes).

But for data that does not benefit from perfect timing, you can probably get away with 20’, assuming you use a quality cable (I used a 6’ extension cable for a USB powered fan, and it did not work, because it was a crap cable. Then I found a quality 10’ cable, and it works).

If no one is able to give you more than generalizations (like I am doing), then you will need to conduct your own test. See how the USB drive performs with its included cable, and compare it to the 20’ cable.

Even if the speed goes from, for example, 200 MB/s to 150 MB/s (or even 100 MB/s), that is more than fast enough for Chia to function within its response times.

If you get it to work, I would be interested in 1) did you take a performance hit (and how much), and 2) which USB cables did you try – which ones worked or did not work.

Good luck!

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found it … had to search lmao …

now this is ethernet to usb , pretty sure usb/to ethernet exists also (didn’t google), bought these to have antminers connected easy but was a failure from my end , a not to do thing with antminers …

These lil adaptors cost barely money, so if they exist as RJ45 to USB an USB to RJ45 should also and then … a solution is found for distances up to a 100 meter I guess with just a single PoE extender in between …

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