Defeating USB’s Limitation
It would seem that USB has infinite capabilities since it is so popular. With a 480 mbps data transfer speed and easy to use connector, there’s no wonder why its so universal. The only problem many people run into when it comes to USB and other digital signals is its length limitation. USB can only travel roughly 16 feet on copper cable.
You can solve this problem using baluns, or with an active repeater. Baluns take the signal and send it over long distances over Cat5 or fiber cable. That is a good option if you’re planning on going really far, like hundreds of feet. If you’re planning on going a shorter distance you’ll probably want to use a repeater, or a usb extension cable, which has an active repeater built-in. These typically allow you to extend your cable run by 16-32 more feet.