USB over IP vs USB over UTP range extenders

[aijii]

Well, looking for ways to reduce the amount of ILDA 25core we run around venues.. as its expensive, a pain, expensive, and also a pain. Not to mention a pain.

The QM.nets are great - but we also have an investment in some FB3 USBs.

Now - there seems to be an abundance of usb to cat5/utp range extenders available on the market that are good for up to 50 metres or so. Nice and simple, although these will just be line drivers/recievers.. probably rs485 ?

The other option is usb over ip doohickeys, like what keyspan and silex make. You basically install a usb driver on your pc, so you now have extra "USB" virtual ports on your PC. When you plug in the flashbacks at the other end, they theroretically appear as though they are locally connected. Benefits are - well it's over IP, so we can use the same cat5/cat6 uplinks for the QMs and the USB data. It also means more than 50 metres, as ethernet goes bad after 100m, but we can use switches or bridges to extend this.

I guess this is more of a question for Bill of Pangolin - I just wonder how much data the usb flashbacks spit out, and how buffered this data is. Ie is it realtime - or is there a certain amount of buffering going on inside the flashback to allow for some jitter/latency in the processing of the usb - ip - usb conversion ?

Anybody ever play with one of these usb-ip thingies ?

[dave]

I seem to remember someone trying the usb over IP, and not having any luck..

[Stuka]

Here's a posting I started sometime back for a product I checked out:

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...highlight=Ubox


I haven't gone "live" with a set of scanners yet, but the results from a stretch of CAT5 cable, the UBox, my FB3, and LivePRO on my laptop look promising!

[p1t8ull]

Like Stuka, I have used the Lantronix UBox 2100 with a single FB3 feeding 2 projectors with an ILDA splitter over 40m of ethernet with no problems at all, used it quite a bit and have worked it hard all night (Oooer!) without a single blip.
It's a dual USB port box, but havn't tried with more than 1 FB yet though. Very keen to see if it will work with 2 FB3's on the one box, and also if multiple UBoxes off a LAN switch works. In theory if you're GB from the laptop -> switch it should be ok...

The 4100 model UBox didn't work at all.

[stanwax]

I dont know alot about FB3 but as I understood the data for a show or whatever is loaded thru USB then stored locally - of course this is all bollox if you are talking about live 'action' as that will have to transmit in real time.

just my thoughts

Rob

[aijii]

depends. if your'e using it with livepro then its realtime data that is sent to it. you can ALSO send cues to the flashcard etc and recall them with livequick, or dmx etc

[aijii]

hmm so those lantronix ubox 2100's seem to be the go! would be a doddle to install one of those and a flashback into each projector!

[JeroenVDV]

But, how many FB3's can be connected to LivePro USB?

[dave]

I believe its 6.