USB Extender

[clayton4115]

hi all

can someone please explain to me how i can use a USB extender? what is it its purose?

is this something i will need to get if i wanted to place the antenna on the roof? with appropriate cat5 cable?

see here http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/unitek-usb-extender/

[Allocator]

hi all

can someone please explain to me how i can use a USB extender? what is it its purose?

is this something i will need to get if i wanted to place the antenna on the roof? with appropriate cat5 cable?

see here http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/p/unitek-usb-extender/

See this FAQ:

http://www.airnavsystems.com/forum/index.php?topic=635.0

This is the one that I use and it works very well. No signal loss, no additional power source required as the RB receives it's supply via the USB feed.  My RB is permanently plugged into the Cat 5 USB extender on about 10m of Cat 5 cable.  It's only about 10 feet away from me, but I wanted to clear my desk and still use RB.

The only downside if you have the RB out of sight, it that you can't see the indicator lights - only a problem if you want to do some diagnostics - and you can't easily disconnect the antenna if you have an electrical storm in the area.

[clayton4115]

yes i did look at that FAQ but i am puzzled what i need to buy to make this work?

so this is something which extends from the usb port of your computer to the RB, like an extension cord?

so this way the RB can be placed in the attic with the antenna and a extension cord i.e CAT 5 cable run down to the computer?

do you have a link of what a USB Extender looks likes and the ends of it so iRB?know how it plugs into RB?

[Allocator]

Can you not see the picture on the FAQ?

I'll see if I can find some more pictures to post - but imagine 2 matchboxes, both with an RJ45(?) network cable female socket.  One of the "matchboxes" has a male USB plug that goes into any USB socket on your PC.  The other has a female USB socket just the same as the one in your PC.

- Plug the matchbox with the male USB lead into a socket in your PC

- Plug one end of your standard Cat 5 lead into this box

- Plug the other end of the Cat 5 into the remote "matchbox"

- Plug your RadarBox USB lead into the remote box female USB socket

- Your PC will come up with a "Found New Hardware" message for RB

- Go for the "I'll install drivers from a spacific location"

- Browse to the RadarBox/Drivers directory

- Click OK

- And you are in business :-)

You only have to install the RB drivers again when you change USB sockets, so if you plugged the USB entender into the same socket it was in before, then you probably won't even have to do this.

So easy - I like it :-)

[clayton4115]

ok thanks for taking the time to explain to me, it looks like this is the way to go to get the current antenna with RB to put up on the roof, im going to put the antenna in a 3mm diameter rod, upside down, and ubolt it up to the tv antenna, i will then tape the antenna with self amalgamating tape to waterproof it,

 i will buy a usb extender, plug the usb local unit into the pc, run a cat5 cable from the usb local unit to the remote unit and then the RB cable back into the remote unit

like pic below

so will this mean i can have the antenna outdoors? will placing it in a 3 - 4 mm aluminium tube interfere with the antenna?

[Allocator]

Yes, the aluminium tube will affect the antenna.  You need something electrically transparent - I'd recommend plastic PVC plumbing pipe as you can get it in all sizes and you can use a proper waterproof cap on the end.

[Allocator]

This is my extender.  The blue cable is the Cat 45 and the silver lead plugs into a USB socket in my PC



This is the remote end, the blue lead is the Cat 45 again, and the black lead is the standard RB USB lead.



That's all there is to it.

[clayton4115]

ok thanks for your help, i appreciate it!