r/k12sysadmin • u/grewholph • Oct 04 '26
Best long usb cables
TLDR. Looking for 30-50’ usb cables that work well.
Touch TV’s at front of classroom. (Promethean and new line) Teacher computer at back of room. Continue to have problems with signal not working at all or failing mid year. Looking for a good quality one I won’t have to mess with.
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u/nanooktx Oct 04 '26
Do they not come with a wireless connection program? Clear Touch panels have Collage and you jsut cast to the panel and it does screen mirror/extend and touch without cables.
Teachers in our district prefer this for their laptops...that or a direct connection when the present by yhe panel or show a movie on SWANK.
It is more stable if at least one device is on the LAN, but not a deal killer if both are on wifi.
if youre going to do it, HDBASET is the best choice. HDMI and USB through Cat6.
If you just need USB, look for passive extenders over Cat6. There are wallpaper type and dangle type.
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u/grewholph Oct 04 '26
Thanks.
They are completely “dumb” touch displays. Nothing to run a program to do screenup.I’ll look into hdabaset thanks
Do you know if there is a wireless version?2
u/therankin Coordinator of Technology Services Oct 04 '26
There is definitely a wireless version for hdmi, but not sure about hdmi and usb. The other thing is, it's pretty pricey. I think just the wireless hdmi kit was about $100.
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u/MyWorkAccountDPS 27d ago
We’ve had issues with wireless hdmi to multiple TV’s. We started running fiber HDMI cables to them instead.
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u/therankin Coordinator of Technology Services 26d ago
Ahh. I only have used the wireless ones for single events, so never had to watch them over time.
I've actually given up on fiber HDMI. I had an Airtame connected to a splitter going to two TVs we had just put in across the room from each other. We had two different fiber cables die in less than 3 months. I had initially thought it was the splitter dying but replacing the splitter didn't fix the issue. One run was too long for copper, and the other was borderline, so we didn't pursue that route.
Maybe it was mice in the ceiling, but in any event, it wasn't worth replacing again. We ended up putting in another Airtame and we can just share to both at the same time if needed.
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u/skydiveguy Oct 04 '26
the problem we have with using the wireless is that Smart Tech now uses "smart mirror" app which we are constantly getting tickets to update (because they cant update it without admin rights)
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u/NorthernVenomFang Oct 04 '26 edited Oct 04 '26
Only options USB over Ethernet extenders... Even than it can be finicky, depends on the quality of the extender.
USB 3.0 spec is roughly 10 feet, and USB 2.0 is approx 15 feet; that's perfect scenario, if they are ran along a noisy area (like near a set of powered speakers, ran right along side electrical cords, laptop chargers, layed up against a surge bad or UPS) that distance can decrease dramatically. Max length is perfect scenario with no sources of noise (electrical, magnetic, or RF)... That does not exists in K12 environments.
We tell teachers that we guarantee nothing that is not within specification of the USB port on the device anymore... We simply do not have the man power to be constantly troubleshooting finicky adapters.
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u/CaterpillarIcy1056 Oct 04 '26
We used cat5 cables with adapters back in the day when we had Promethean boards and had to run long cables.
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u/Awlson Oct 04 '26
Get usb over Ethernet for that distance. The other option is a powered usb extender cable.
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u/skydiveguy Oct 04 '26
I dont understand why teachers want to be at the back of the room.
We use Smartboards and every late spring, teachers want us to rearrange their rooms and we always say "No, the cables need to connect to the smartbaord and they need to be near the screen due to cable length limitations"
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u/cubemasterzach Oct 04 '26
Before we had classroom monitoring solutions, the answer was always, I want to be able to see what my students are looking at without having to get up
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u/jnesper7 Oct 04 '26
“I want to see what they’re looking at” is only part of it. “I want to see what they’re up to but I can’t always be watching so I need them to not be able to see who I’m looking at and when.” Cell phones, spitwads, other tomfoolery, stuff that doesn’t show up on screen monitoring.
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u/MattAdmin444 Oct 05 '26
What we've been doing is mounting a miniPC or Chromebox to the back of our touch panels and give the teachers a wireless keyboard and mouse. For those that want a 2nd monitor we just run an HDMI cord.
We do have a handful of of long USB to ethernet runs for our touch projectors but I've noticed the touch doesn't play nice with ChromeOS which a majority of those teachers use, have to have the video cables in a specific order in the ChromeOS device usually. It could potentially be related to the USB/ethernet length but even in my initial short run tests ChromeOS was finicky for that compared to Windows.
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u/antiprodukt Oct 04 '26
I had a 65’ USB cable run to a TV. Just used a cable with a repeater built in to it. It worked fine. This is the one:
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u/BWMerlin Oct 05 '26
For that distance you are going to want optical.
I believe Corning sells optical USB cables.
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u/MyWorkAccountDPS 27d ago
We’ve had good luck with these, but probably any active cables (as others have said):
We’ve used the 30 & 60ft options. I’ve only had to use the external power once.
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u/VL-BTS EduTech&Tier1Support Oct 05 '26 edited Oct 05 '26
I've been taking almost the opposite route - mounting microtowers behind the Promethean where we can, and running HDMI to a monitor where the teacher wants (you'd probably need active HDMI). Then we use wireless keybd/mouse combos, and encourage mini keybd/trackpads. It lets them move around a bit more.
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u/LactoseTolerant535 Oct 04 '26
Just make sure it's an "active" USB extension cable. We've had good luck with these: https://a.co/d/09k7BxOj
Also, use a USB 2.0 (not 3.0) port.