5 ms·
This would have been great for me to have around 25 years ago, when I wanted to mount a USB web cam in my bedroom window on the second floor and connect it to a
by 2024throwaway 2y ago
This would have been great for me to have around 25 years ago, when I wanted to mount a USB web cam in my bedroom window on the second floor and connect it to a computer in my basement. I was a dumb middle school kid and just spliced the usb wires onto Ethernet cable ends, and plugged them into the existing Ethernet run. That’s when I learned about maximum USB lengths the hard way, by frying some perfectly good hardware.
- dTal 2y agoI would not expect this hack to fry hardware - at worst, voltage drop, interference, signal distortion, and impedance mismatch will simply cause the device to not work. But I've successfully run USB 2.0 over 30ft cables despite it being illegal per spec, so your idea wasn't radically wrongheaded. "Fried" is an extreme result - are you sure you didn't just connect V+ and V- backwards or something?
- 2024throwaway 2y agoIt being 25 years ago, I’m not sure of anything. But glad to know I’m not too far off or alone.
- worewood 2y agoYeah, probably just jerry-rigged an extension and plugged V+ into a data line or something like that. Properly wired, it just wouldn't detect the device.