USB Power & Data Extender--

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

For those of you looking to shorten the RF run between antenna and SDR, Adafruit (in the US) is carrying a USB power and data extended which they say can go up to 30 meters (around 100 feet). It uses a standard Cat5/5e/6 Ethernet cable with the supplied extender goodies on both ends. (No, it doesn’t convert to Ethernet signaling; it just uses standard cables.)

$17.50 – such a deal! I haven’t tried one, but will probably pick one up.

https://www.adafruit.com/products/2676

bob k6rtm

(been busy for a while!)

2

I didn’t know such a thing existed, nice find. Found a much cheaper alternative on ebay if you’re on a smaller budget and willing to wait!

pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi … 1653732712

3

That’s cool. I ordered from them before. Might have to pick of of these up. I have a box of cat5.

4

I tried this, couldn’t get it to work. It found the reciver but it never transmitted any data.
Hopefully you have more luck with it than I had.

5

This extenders can take power and data from USB 1.0 standard only! Chip UIC4102CP inside in.
Devices which USB 2.0, 3.0 not supported.
Up to 50 meters you can run 3G modem if cable 5 volt power supply use copper electrical cable and for data transmission coaxial cables.
bloganten.ru/delaem-usb-udlinite … 4g-modema/

6

It says USB 1.0 and 2.0 supported. 3.0 not supported.

The question would be does it add additional latency?

7

I’ve one on order – my guess is that it won’t add significant latency (not expensive enough to be fully regenerating signals at both ends)

Comments say they’ve tested it with 100 feet of 30ga cable and 200 feet of 24ga cable, running an FTDI programmer, so minimal power drain. Putting an SDR out at the end, say 200mA, I’d stick to 50 feet or so of a 24ga 5e cable and measure the voltage at the end; that’s going to be the limiting factor I think, the IR drop on the power side. With more work (and money), the IR drop on the power side can be worked around, for example by fitting a (Pololu) buck-boost 5VDC converter at the end.

bob k6rtm