Active USB C / USB 3.2 Gen 2 cables...

[jack]

Has anyone experience with active full-feature USB 3.2 Gen 2 long cables, specifically 5 metres - this will be USB-C -> USB-C connectors (obviously).

This is partly in response to the video I posted elsewhere about Apple's Thunderbolt 4 cable - an amazing bit of tech.

I never really appreciated that ACTIVE USB-C/3.2 Gen 2 cables were a thing, but the USB 3.2 spec states that for full performance, cable length should be < 1mtr, which is bog useless to me...

My problem is not unique - just like Apple's cable, there are "active" USB 3.2 cables that are supposedly good to 5 metres.

So, has anyone tried these?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C

[jack]

No-one?

[Neal]

Sorry Nick never knew active usb cables where a ‘thing’

[Nick]

Sorry Nick never knew active usb cables where a ‘thing’

Ditto

[jack]

Sorry Nick never knew active usb cables where a ‘thing’

Ditto

Nor did I until this issue came up!!

[jack]

So, settled on a Lindy 43308V2 5mtr active cable as: it's from a real company that you can talk to and who is in the UK (and Germany), they designed the cable (it's not some generic white-labelled bit of stuff), they test every cable before sending it out, they can tell you exactly what it does and doesn't do (their technical support actually knows what they are doing), they have a 2 year unconditional guarantee that means something as they are a UK/DE company etc. etc.

Also bought a Lindy 43275 10gb/s 7 port USB 3.2 gen 2x1 powered (50W) hub - 4 USB-A 3.2 and 3 USB-C 3.2 - this is really a data centre bit of kit and quite pricey, but super duper build quality and based on the VL820 chip set. USB-C in from the host - all USB-C connectors are screw-locking, as is the power connector.

Opened a trade account with them and that made quite a bit of difference to the price - ordered at 5PM last night, arrived at 8AM this morning.

Build quality seems excellent.

First impressions on the combination are excellent - all the comms issues I was having have gone away. The Logitech MX Master 3 mouse & KB are responding way better than they used to and I'm getting stupidly fast throughput on an SSD I've just got on it. Also, my Logitech webcam doesn't keep going offline just as I'm making a call any more!

Edit: All the error messages ("Unrecognised device" etc.) I was getting when plugging in new devices, e.g. Garmin watch or unknown Pi Pico etc., have gone away! Hurrah!

PXL_20231123_094331000.jpg (208.09 KiB) Viewed 2840 times

[Neal]

Result!

[jack]

Result!

Expensive result... but a result nonetheless...