(vanity) Need help with a USB cable question

personal thing | 2/10/06 | marty_fierro

[martin_fierro]

I need to extend the USB 2.0 cable that goes from my CPU to a HP ScanJet 5530 scanner.

The old one was 6' long; I now need one about 10' long.

The old one is a standard USB cable with "A - B" type connectors on each end, except that it also has this cylindrical thing toward one end:

Does anyone happen to know what that cylindrical thing is/does (the scanner manual doesn't mention it), and would I need something like it in the new 10' USB cable?

[martin_fierro]

Thanks!

[martin_fierro]

Techie Ping

[nevergore]

Buy a regular USB Connector in the length you want.....

The cylinder is not an electrical connector and has no significance....

[xcamel]

IIRC it's a ferrite ring to cut down interference and spurious RF - if you're getting an extension, or a high quality 10' shielded cable, you really won't need it.

[Delta 21]

Its just there to snag on every other patch cord and assorted plug in you may have running behind your desk.

Type 2 Frustration Generator

[keat]

It's a porn filter, get rid of it.

[randog]

The cylindrical bulge is a ferrite. It's used to filter noise in the cable and it wouldn't be a bad idea to have it on the new longer cable.

Alternatively, you could buy a cable stretcher...;^)

[martin_fierro]

It's a porn filter, get rid of it.

I happen to know it isn't, because ... well, I just do.

< |:P~

[jdm]

LOL!

[Fatuncle]

If I remember what I was told years back, it's a static suppressor, a simple coil around the wire to absorb magnetic fields and to keep other power and data lines from coupling. If you wish to keep it in line, it is a very simple matter - they make USB extension cords, which plug onto your existing line on either end (depending on your choice of the ends) and extend it.

[martin_fierro]

if you're getting an extension,

Hey, there's an idea!

Just extend the existing cable. Thanks!

[Boundless]

> I need to extend the USB 2.0 cable that
> goes from my CPU to a HP ScanJet 5530 scanner.

Replace it with a longer single cable.
That's more reliable than extension.

Strictly speaking, the USB spec doesn't support
passive or active extension (other than hubs).
Passive A(M)-A(F) cables may work, but if the
scanner really runs at 2.0 speeds, stay with a
single cable.

You might as well go for the max 5m, for future
flexibility in office configuration.

> ... it also has this cylindrical thing toward one end:

RF ferrite. Don't worry if the new cable omits
that feature (unless your AM radio stops working
or the FCC comes calling).

[Fatuncle]

Here is a link to a site selling USB extensions. Look it over. (You will have to copy and paste - I don't know how to post an active link.)

http://www.mptools.com/usb_extension_cables.htm?gclid=COT9lPPdpIoCFRhFVAodCAJ7vQ

[raybbr]

It's a choke coil. It's supposed to keep electrical noise out of your printer signal.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You ready to fess up?

I'm checking my cables....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You can get USB switches so the device can be shared across multiple computers and some come with additional cable....some may have a plug with additional power...think I have seen those in the Fry store aisles....

From Newegg:

usb hubs and switches

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This has two 6ft cables with it:

SIIG JU-SW4212-S1 USB 2.0 Switch 4-to-2

[elfman2]

No point in wasting money on extensions. Good cables can be found dirt cheap:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812116114

[Fatuncle]

No point in wasting money on extensions. Good cables can be found dirt cheap:

Yes, they can, but I was pointing out that should he wish to keep the noise suppressor in line he could by adding an extension. Question for you: How do you post an active link? I don't know how.

[elfman2]

If you post any html in your reply, FR’s software won’t automatically convert urls to links. If that’s not what you did, I don’t know why your it wasn’t automatically converted. This is the code for making a simple link:
<a href="http://www.siteaddress.com"Link Name</a>

There’s a thread on that here: How do you post images and html text

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

How do you post an active link?

Either of two ways:

• The easy way is to post with no HTML at all. In that case John Robinson looks at the URL and says, "hey, that would be more useful as a link," and does the work for you. That also means that you get the paragraphs that you see when you type.

  But you can't label the link; John simply echoes the URL itself as the label. And you cannot have anything in your post that even looks like HTML.

• The other way is to use

  <a href=" to tell HTML's parser that you want a link,

  the URL,

  "> to terminate the definition of the URL,

  the label you want for the link, and finally,

  </a>to terminate the definition of the link label, and the link as a whole.

Thus, if you enter

<a href=" http://www.freerepublic.com"> the label you want for the link </a>

you get

the label you want for the link

which is in fact the link you would expect, labeled the way you would expect, from the instructions I've given.

A curious person might well ask, "Hey! How did you just show me the HTML command itself? Why didn't the parser just show me the result of the command?" The answer is that to show the HTML command, rather than the result of the HTML command, I didn't literally enter the < and > symbols themselves. Instead I entered &lt; to display < and &gt; to display >.

And how did I just display &lt; without getting < ?
By entering &amp; in order to get the & symbol to display without being interpreted as part of a different HTML command.

[Fatuncle]

And I thank you both. I copied your posts and saved them to my documents folder.

Boy, you can learn most anything on this site, can't you?