Interesting, it touts itself as being a repeater, but I see no talk about the regeneration circuitry required to do this.
I would think the vendor would go crazy talking up the built in power regeneration circuit if it were a true repeater/regeneration device.
As a result I'll put money on it merely being an extension cable.
When I use this cable I have two USB ports on tope of my computer. One is the type that has the little power symbol next to it and the other one does not have this symbol. They are both USB 2 ports but one has the built in PowerShare feature. Restults are the same in either port.
Usually when you have two adjacent USB ports on the computer, they are internally connected to the same Internal "root hub" USB controller chip.
The cable that I purchased is longer than I needed. And based on your reply I feel I should not give up. Instead I should return my active cable and try a different technical solution.
Your description is a somewhat classic example of the data not being received correctly and the receiver sending a Negative ACKnowledgement ( NACK ) for the packets. This causes the sending device to resend until the receiver submits an ACKnowledgement ( ACK ).
Since this happens somewhat quickly and repeatedly as USB is a serialized transmission, the end result is EXACTLY as you describe... a perceived delay.
1. I have a powered hub already that presently is new in the box and never used. You recommend a powered hub. So I have this covered.
2. You indicate you have sucessfully used passive USB extention cables up to 40' in length, "I have a 20' USB cable connected to my Interlink and there is NO difference what-so-ever even when I connect up two for 40'."
3. 40' woks for me and if it works for you all I have to do is duplicate what you are doing. Therefore I will return my active cable and replace it with 2 passive USB extension cables. I will plug them together for a total length of 40' and I will plug them into my PC. Does it matter which USB port on the PC that I use? Rember my PC has 2 USB ports, They are both USB 2 ports but one has the built in PowerShare feature.
First try this...
Plug the powered hub directly into the computer and wall outlet.
Then power up the computer and let it find the powered hub.
Once you see the "device detection" balloons finish up, plug the Interlink into the Powered Hub.
Check for delays... if there are none so far so good.
Now the big question is where will you get the best results by placing the powered hub....
4. Then at the end of the now 40' passive USB cable I will use my extenal powered USB hub. This will supply external power for the interlink controller that will plug into the hub.
Did I get this all right? If so I am learning. And if it works when done my learning will be reinforced with a working result.
I would try it as I mentioned above first... eliminating one variable at a time.
If the Interlink plugged into the Powered Hub, plugged into the computer works fine, then try plugging the extension cable into the Powered hub, then the Interlink into the Extension cable.
BTW: If the computer reacts with a DING or as if a new device is found, when you plug in JUST the cable into the powered hub ( no connected interlink ) your cable DOES have a repeater circuit in it. If that happens try to find a shorter passive USB extension cable, preferably with thicker wires as some come with very thin wiring.
Computers 'root hub"? I did some googling and beleive the "root hub" to be something internal to my PC. Here si what I found "A USB Root Hub is where all of your computer's drivers and software are stored. It is the "central filing cabinet" of your system. If you are having problems with your USB devices, it may be because of a faulty USB Root Hub. Another reason your USB devices aren't working is that they require more power than the USB hub allows"
USB is a high speed serialized data stream protocol.
It needs a sending and receiving device at each end to operate.
These devices are usually bidirectional. In the old slow serial ( comm port ) days, the controller was called a UART. ( A universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter, usually abbreviated UART and is a type of "asynchronous receiver/transmitter" ).
With the advent of USB, the UART was replaced with a more sophisticated device, often referred to as the "USB root hub" because it usually has two or more associated ports.
Most computers have multiple root hubs, some systems have as many as eight or more, each can handle two separate USB ports.
Each "root hub" also has a 5v power regulation supply associated with it. Typically this regulator cannot handle more than 400mA of power drain.... even when they say 500mA available.
In some systems the regulated supply current are tied together to save manufacturing cost, so one regulator can power multiple Root Hubs. This is not good.
One device can pull the total amount of power available, the result is that one you plug in the second device, things stop working or work poorly or intermittently... ( sound familiar? ).
So it is best to limit the total current drain on your computer.
Since the USB signal itself is affected by power going to the root hub, the quality of the wave form seen by the receiver can be affected by too much power draw ( and yes for those who know more about this I'm being overly simplistic on purpose... )
Therefore I went to device manager in Windows 7 and saw I have quite a few items under USB. 2 of the items are named "USB Root Hub". Please see attachment.
1. Other then a slight difference in location description on general tab they look identical. One is 1C2D and the other is 1C26.
2. The power tab says each says it is self powered and has 500mA available with zero being used.
2a. One does say it is a 6 port with one available port.
2b. Thye others says it is an 8 port with one available port
Yup you have a lot of USB ports on that computer! 14 total!
3. After that I am at a complete loss as to which is where on my Dell XPS-8300 and if I knew how I woulod use that to my benifit so I can follow your recomendation to, "
Just make sure that there is no other device plugged into the computer's "root hub" that the Powered USB hub is connected to."
I really do appreciate your help and hopw to hear back from you. Thanks
To simplify, plug the Powered USB hub into one USB port on the computer. There will be another port or three right next to that port. These are likely all connected to the same "root hub"... just make sure nothing is connected to the other ports when you test things out.
Later once you have things running, you can plug things back in ONE AT A TIME and retest to see if anything upsets the applecart so to speak.
Good luck!
