Printer connection

[huguito]

I am moving some things around in the room where my I mac and the 9600 lives.

How long of a USB extension can I use between the computer and the printer? 12 foot is too long?

I normally use a 6 foot cable, but that's not enough for the changes I want to make

Thanks



Hugo

[I.T. Supplies]

You can use a 12' cable if needed.  Just make sure there is no split between the printer and computer which can cause reading issues between them.  Needs to be a direct connection with one cable.

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I am moving some things around in the room where my I mac and the 9600 lives.

How long of a USB extension can I use between the computer and the printer? 12 foot is too long?

Hi Hugo,

That's a bit on the long side for a regular USB-2 cable, but the formal USB 2.0 standard provides for a maximum cable length of 5 meters for devices running at Hi Speed (480 Mbit/s), so it ís possible. That does assume high quality shielded cables and connectors, to avoid roundtrip signal delays and time-outs. Standard Copper wire cables are only barely conductive enough to meet the timing delay limits for that length of cable.

But it should be no problem if you get an 'active' USB extension cable, like this.

Whether a single 4 or 5 metre cable works in your particular situation, only you can test that.

Cheers,
Bart

[I.T. Supplies]

I would not recommend an extension USB cable.  I had a customer buy this type extension cable (different brand) and another cable when they purchased an Epson printer from us and I hooked it up myself for them.  Had issues with the computer reading the printer and our former company tech said that it's definitely not recommended to use that method as it will surely loose the connection between computer and printer (where the extension connects to the other cable).  So, it is true and I found out the hard way myself.  The customer went back to the store and bought a longer cable and it's been working ever since.

You can find 16-25' cables at retail stores or get an inexpensive one online (eBay, NewEgg, etc).  If the printer "has" an Ethernet card, it would be recommended to go via Ethernet at longer lengths.

[BobShaw]

You can buy powered USB cables of 5m that work fine.

[Garnick]

For 6+ years I've been using three 5m Active USB Cables in line(total 45') to operate my 9900, with absolutely no problems.  It was advised by a tech that 10' should be the maximum length, but I bought the cables, connected them together and was in operation immediately.  I tested with a 6' cable first and then the 45' run and the results were identical.  During the 3 year warranty period I had several service calls, none of which were related to the cable length. 

Yes, they do work.  Give them a try.  If for some reason they don't work for you, return them.  The only reason I can think of for them not performing properly is perhaps what's called "Dirty Power".  In other words, an unstable power source.  Of course in that case you might have a problem with any length cable.  I've known that to happen with an associate of mine.

Gary     

[Larry Heath]

Hi Hugo,

You might also think about getting a network card if the printer doesn’t have one already (my 9880 came with a network card), they can be had for around $40 for the Epson 9600, and then you can place the printer just about anywhere within reason. The printer I have with the longest cable run, 100’, has never given me a second’s problem, with Cat 5 or Cat 6 network cable you could go as far as 100m or about 325’. As well you have the ability to access the printer from any other computer on the network, if you have one of course. With 6 or 7 computer and 5 printers my little network is a god send for me.

Routers now days are cheap and easy to use/setup, you can get a gigabit 4 port wireless AC flavored router, transfer rates up to gigabit for wired connections and up to about 875 Mb over AC flavored WIFI computer to router and 100 Mb router to printer if the card you get is the old T10/100 card or 1 Gb for newer cards, for about $75. You could also then use mobile devices and wifi laptops to print from as well. Also a router could make a NAS devise available to all your computers and or smart devices and is a good place to centrally store and or backup image files and other data. A nice Western Digital RAID 1 (mirrored drives if one fails you just replace it and keep right on going) 6TB NAS box would set you back around $300.

So for about $100 to $150, depending on if your printer has a network card installed already, you could connect your printer to a computer up to about 325’ away if you had to, with a bunch of available side benefits should you find the need of or desire to avail yourself of them. So yes it’s a lot cheaper to just go out and buy a 15’ USB cable and or a powered hub and another 15’ of cable, but, I will tell you in my experience that doesn’t ever seem to work out as well as it seems it might. So you buy a couple 15’ USB cables and a powered hub and you have about $50 in that. By the way you really do not want to go cheap here the $3 cables and $6 or $8 hubs likely will work but at reduced speed and cheap hubs always seem to be problematic, been there done that got a couple of boxes full of nearly useless stuff to prove it, can't speak to active cables never tried them. So you got $50 into something that does one thing and may or may not do it to fast or reliably, or $150 for something that is damn near bullet proof and can provide a bunch of other functionality as needed.

So yeah I know you just wanted to move the damn printer 6 feet, not build a small network, but none the less there are some things to think about anyway.

Later Larry