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I have an USB mouse and keyboard, both of which have a cable 1.8m long. However for my purposes this is too short.

I read that USB standard limits the length of a cable to 5 meters for high speed devices and 3 meters for low speed devices. I guess that both mouse and keyboard belong into the low speed ones.

I measured that I need 1.2 more meters. However there are no 1.2m USB cables available in the shops I have access to, only 1m or 1.8m.

When I buy the 1.8m USB cable, will it work? Or do I have to look for active USB extenders with own power supply?

And What about the standard USB hubs? What if I connect both mouse and keyboard to an hub and that one will be connected to the extending USB cable, will it extend the range at least a bit?

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    Does this answer your question? How to extend USB beyond the recommended maximum cable length of 5m?
    – CaldeiraG
    Apr 27, 2020 at 15:22
  • My personal experience is this: A top quality 6-foot (2 m) Apple USB cable syncs my iPhone perfectly. Zero issues. My 10 foot (3 m) cheap USB cable is intermittent. A 3 m cable will work for you, but get the very best (Apple or comparable) cable you can buy, otherwise you may be disappointed. Trying to join 2 cables is probably not a good idea.
    – John
    Apr 27, 2020 at 15:22
  • The long and short of this: You are fine at 3 meters total. As long as the total length does not exceed 5 meters you are fine. Especially with a keyboard or mouse that are not demanding in speed or power resources. The real issue past 5 meters is data transfer from drives, network connections and such.
    – Giacomo1968
    Apr 27, 2020 at 15:25
  • The biggest problem with long USB cables in my experience, is that Windows will complain about USB Resources being unavailable, the result is that entire USB Hubs are reset and USB devices are disconnected.
    – Ramhound
    Apr 27, 2020 at 15:27
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    Just to add to the mix - I run my wireless USB dongle for my keyboard & mouse on the end of a 10m USB repeater cable quite successfully. I tether my DSRL camera with a 20m repeater cable. Never any issues.
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 27, 2020 at 15:49

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Or do I have to look for active USB extenders with own power supply? And What about the standard USB hubs? What if I connect both mouse and keyboard to an hub and that one will be connected to the extending USB cable, will it extend the range at least a bit?

You don't need an active extender or a hub with own power supply to handle a regular keyboard and mouse. Actually, extenders are usually made of hubs with one port implemented.

There are host systems that can't tolerate long cables in FS mode. To have the connection robust, I would recommend a 2-3 port USB 2.0 "mobile hub", bus powered. In theory, the hub should be able to operate on a 5-m certified cable (power drop would be of prime concern). First, you have only one long cable to care/carry around instead of two extender cables. Second, the hub will handle LS devices and even a flash drive when needed. The only problem that there are not too many small hubs with detachable cables, so you might need a passive extender (which is against USB specifications, but does work in many cases), or shop really hard. Some passive extenders might fail, so it will be a gamble.

Your best bet would be a "two-port extender" like the one made by Monoprice.

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  • Thank you, i will try it with a hub connected to passive extension cable and report back whether it worked.
    – Youda008
    Apr 29, 2020 at 17:02
  • So i bought a simple 4-port hub without any external power supply and a simple passive extension cable (1.8m) and connected it like this: PC -> cable -> hub -> mouse + keyboard. So far everything seem to work - no drops, no delay.
    – Youda008
    May 1, 2020 at 17:04

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