Good morning, I saw some camera questions in the forums, but I could not find an answer to my question. I have a lightburn camera that I purchased many years ago. I am trying to use it on my diy laser engraver. The laser is on the opposite side of my garage. I am currently trying to use a 50 foot usb 2.0 cable to connent the camera to my computer. The connection is very sporadic. Sometimes it connects and the drops. Sometimes it is multicolored with lines on the screen. The cable I bought has an active repeater.
My questions is, is the cable too long, it is yhe active repeater, is it the 2.0? Should I try a 20 foot, no active repeater, maybe 3.0?
I am looking for any ideas of any setups that have worked for you all.
That’s absurdly very much far too excessively long, per the spec:
USB 2.0 provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters (16 ft 5 in) for devices running at high speed (480 Mbit/s).[93]
Your cable may be different from the ones I’ve used, but the “active repeater” is on the peripheral end of the cable, where it depends on your PC being able to drive the entire overly long cable while also powering the repeater. That rarely ends well, because the PC ports seem to be barely adequate in “normal” situations.
There are no good answers, but using the shortest possible cable is a start. Converting back & forth between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 probably won’t help, but if you’re already grasping at straws, it’s worth a try. Putting several repeater cables in series seems like a Bad Idea™, because they all draw power from the PC port, but …
If it weren’t for bad ideas, sometimes I wouldn’t have any ideas at all.
Yes, I know it is long. I think I found a 30 foot usb 3.0 that has active and power injection at the end where the camera will plug in. I am going to see if that helps out with the signal.
I just wanted to let everyone know that I purchased this cable from Amazon, and so far, it is working very well. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNPXZQ4M?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 It picks up my camera every time I start Lightburn. It is also power injected at the end, so I think there is less signal loss.