The Eye Tribe

Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone can provide any verified info about the longest USB extension cables that have been successfully used with the Eye Tribe.

For some context, my computer is located across the room from the workstation with my monitor (for various reasons), and so I am unable to use the Eye Tribe when it is plugged directly into my tower. Currently, I have a 30 foot active USB extension cable which I hoped I would be able to use. However, the computer doesn't see the Eye Tribe when plugged into the extension; no USB "ding' for connecting/disconnecting, and no entry in the device list.

What's really strange, though, is that other devices work with the extension cable, such as other input devices or USB flash drives. The extension cable has a separate 5V power supply that can optionally be used, and while it isn't necessary for any of the other devices I have tried to connect, I connected it to see if that was the issue with the Eye Tribe to no avail.

Before people just respond by quoting the USB specification, I'm well aware of the "official" 2m maximum length for cables. However, in practice, lengths up to 10m certainly work for certain things. So does anyone have ideas what the issue might be here? Does the unit have unique requirements that mean it needs a shorter cable than most other USB devices? Or is something else potentially going on?

Check this thread.

It's gigabit peripheral standard, keep the cpu close My daily driver is sees 3-3.6m with powered hub.

I'm not sure you will get 10m without using active repeaters. The guys Newnex have a range of gear, as does Tripp-Lite and Cable Matters.

Anyone tired or seen a review?

To get clarification on this I have now ordered three extension cables to test.

Cable Matters® SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Type A Male to Female Active Extension Cable 10 Meters/32.8 Feet

Tripp Lite USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Active Extension Repeater Cable (A M/F) 5M (16-ft.) (U330-05M)

USB 3.0 SuperSpeed Repeater Extension Cable A Male to Female Active 5m (~16.5 feet)

Will post review once I get my hands on them.

Actually, the Cable Matters 10m active extender (the first on your list) is the one I'm using. I'll be curious to know what your experience with it is.

The cable seems pretty hit and miss for me; certain devices (mostly simple 2.0 input devices or flash drives) work fine, but for others, my computer completely fails to detect that they have been connected at all. This applies not only to the Eye Tribe, but also even an iPhone! I'm conversing with Cable Matters support at the moment, and they are suggesting I might have been unlucky and received a defective cable. However, in reading reviews on Amazon, there seemed to be quite a few customers that couldn't get certain devices to work with it. It makes me wonder if, even though this is an "active" cable, it is not effectively repeating the signal.

Update: Extenders arrived will proceed to testing, first on a Intel X99 platform (flawless). Will post stats/review in a couple of days.