Basic USB Wiring Help..

[rawfuls]

Another stupid question.

Gonna make a USB extension cable because I need some more length from the outlet to my bedtable for my iPod dock.

First question, anyone have the wiring diagram?
Looked a few up online (found some, but they suck.. maybe I just stink at googling), but couldn't distinguish which pin was which.

I have a male USB cord, and a female socket... No wires connected to that...

So I don't know which pin is what color.

Also, any "interference" I have to worry about or anything without the shielding...

[_paralyzed_]

just do one at a time.... top left from male to top left on female(or top right on female if you wanna look at them with the same perspective)

then pin 2 on top male to pin 2 on top female. then pin 3 to pin 3. repeat until done.

just do it systematically.

sheilding be damned

[_paralyzed_]

oh.... you have cable ends........ n/m, different manufacturers use different wires.


My best advice is to cut a short cable in half and splice it back together longer wire for wire.

[BrianG]

Most any pinout you'll ever need: http://pinouts.ru/

I wouldn't splice the middle because the wires are twisted and shielded to prevent noise. I would jet get an extension...

[bdebde]

Problem solved

[brijar]

If you want a lot of extra length, I would highly suggest a USB repeater such as one of these. I own the grey one and it works great, though sometimes draws a bit too much power, but that was on a very old PC that doesn't have USB 2.0 built in.

If you don't want one of those, I have used Wikipedia's image and specifications to put new plugs on some USB devices.

USB 1.x/2.0 standard pinning Pin
      Name Cable color 	Description
1 	VCC 	Red 	+5 V
2 	D− 	White 	Data −
3 	D+ 	Green 	Data +
4 	GND 	Black 	Ground

Some companies use different colors, so I would always use a multimeter to double check which pin goes to which color.

Good luck,
Brijar

[_paralyzed_]

Originally Posted by BrianG

I wouldn't splice the middle because the wires are twisted and shielded to prevent noise.

I'm totally just talking out of my butt here.....

Noise prevention for compressed audio files?

I just hate mp3's. I'm a cd purist

[brainanator]

depending on far you want to go I think you'll need a repeater in there, which I think is basically an amp for the signal.
USB is only good for 16' I think....

Originally Posted by wiki

Maximum Cable Length

The maximum length of a standard USB cable (for USB 2.0 or earlier) is 5 metres (16.4 ft).[28] The primary reason for this limit is the maximum allowed round-trip delay of about 1,500 ns. If USB host commands are unanswered by the USB device within the allowed time, the host considers the command lost. When adding USB device response time, delays from the maximum number of hubs added to the delays from connecting cables, the maximum acceptable delay per cable amounts to 26 ns.[28] The USB 2.0 specification requires cable delay to be less than 5.2 ns per meter (192,000 km/s, which is close to the maximum achievable transmission speed for standard copper cable).[29] This allows for a five meter cable. The USB 3.0 standard does not directly specify a maximum cable length, requiring only that all cables meet an electrical specification. For copper wire cabling, some calculations have suggested a maximum length of perhaps 3 m.

edit: reading that I don't even think a repeater will help you past 16' since it can't physically speed up the signal....

[BrianG]

Originally Posted by _paralyzed_

I'm totally just talking out of my butt here.....

Noise prevention for compressed audio files?

I just hate mp3's. I'm a cd purist

You're thinking of audio noise. I'm talking digital noise. Doesn't matter what the digital signal is (audio, file copy, scanner, printer, keyboard/mouse, etc).

Yeah, MP3 is "lossy", but you must have some decent ears and equipment to hear the difference between 320kbps MP3 and CD.

Anyway, 16 feet is about the max you can go. You might be better off putting your ipod near where it is plugged in and use a remote... something like this: http://www.theistore.com/ijet-rf-rem...dock-connector

[rawfuls]

I'll be splicing the USB off at the end, or the perfect length, then soldering the wires to the fresh female port (oh lord..) which doesn't have any wires on it.

I'll only be extending a solid.... foot?
And it's gonna be used solely as a power extension (though, wouldn't mind some transfers later on).

So I won't be breaking the shield besides the point where I'll be soldering over.

[simplechamp]

Originally Posted by rawfuls

I need some more length

Wow, Harold and Linc really dropped the ball on this one. That was a softball, you guys could have hit that one out of the park! There's still time if you hurry...