Wireless USB device control???

[VK4GHZ]

Hi all

I would like to remote a USB device 200-300 meters away.

I'm aware of the various USB - Ethernet adapters (on eBay) that are available and offer up to 300m of cabled range.
eg: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0793045455
Ideally, I'd like a wireless solution, and not 2.4 GHz.

The application is to remote a SynthNV USB signal generator for receiver testing.
I'd like to be able to locate this signal generator down in a local park, and I cannot run some Cat 5 down & across the street, and around the corner into the park.
It also has other uses for club "shoot out" days.

Current USB3 specification is not required, and USB2 is just fine.
A wireless solution obviously necessitates a local power source for the remote device- this is not a problem.

I'm already familiar with Google and eBay, but I'm either not using the correct search terms, or these products do not exist (yet).
I would have thought something on 5.8 GHz may be available.
Even if I have to home brew my own thing on 433 MHz, I'm not sure these 433MHz modules will handle the data rate.

Suggestions please?

[VK2OMD]

I explored the same thing some months ago (maybe a year or two now).

I wanted to 'talk' to remote antenna analysers or VNAs over RS232 or USB, preferably USB. The concept was to place a VNA at the antenna feed point (up in the air) and run the software on a workstation on the ground.

I did get a remote RS232 solution working using RPi, so a virtual com port on my Windows box was delivered to a device attached to a RPi using an ordinary WLAN USB stick.

USB was not so successfull. The support for USBIP was broken in the RPi kernel, and I wasn't prepared to fix it. I gauged the RPi team didn't see the potential of RPi as a remote data collection device using USB sensors accessed from a central monitor over IP.

Don't know if it is fixed, but there was a patent lack of interest at the time, the problem was well known but not receiving attention. RPi is pretty flaky, so I guess too much function ported, not enough quality testing before release.

Depending on the protocol, some of the cheap USB over IP servers might provide a solution for generic apps like HID, disk emulation etc.

Otherwese there are proprietary IP based USB extenders... but they are pretty expensive.

I have a four port RS232 over IP remote server which works very well, and I think the company now makes USB over IP remote servers, but they cost hundreds of dollars.

Perhaps a simple solution is just a small remote Windows box with the device, and use USBIP which does work Windows to WIndows, probably works to more regular Linux distros (I vaguely remember testing it witn Ubuntu on Intel).

Owen

BTW, I use a FD 57Kb/s 433 data link between my UAV and notebook... cost about $30 for the pair of modules which has USB interface (FTDI COM emulation) at the workstation and TTL RS232 on the remote... range is better than 1km in the clear and like most of this advanced communications technology, you don't need a ham licence, it is class licenced!

[VK5ZD]

If you have two laptops available, then connect one to the USB device at the remote location and use the second to control the first via a wireless link (VNC, Remote Desktop, etc.).

[VK4GHZ]

If you have two laptops available, then connect one to the USB device at the remote location and use the second to control the first via a wireless link (VNC, Remote Desktop, etc.).

The remote desktop isn't an option, because the remote laptop is only running Windows 7 Home Premium.
(And I don't have a second laptop anyway!)
Whilst it supposedly can connect to a remote computer (tried connecting to my W7 desktop W7 Professional, but had no luck there), it cannot be connected to.

[VK2OMD]

...
The remote desktop isn't an option, because the remote laptop is only running Windows 7 Home Premium.

I use uVNC frequently, and I would not have expected a problem connecting to a W7HP... though I cannot say I have tested it on that OS (I have tested it on lots of others).

I did mention using a remote Win box to run USBIP, but obviously the use of any remote access client that allows you to run the VNA app or whatever on the remote workstation and access the screen, keyboard, mouse etc like uVNC does is another solution.

I often use uVNC to drive a laptop out in the yard attached to a VNA or AA-600 so that I can sit at my desktop and analyse the data collected out of the glare weather, and with access to my collection of previous work.

Owen

[VK2CSW]

If you have two laptops available, then connect one to the USB device at the remote location and use the second to control the first via a wireless link (VNC, Remote Desktop, etc.).

The remote desktop isn't an option, because the remote laptop is only running Windows 7 Home Premium.
(And I don't have a second laptop anyway!)
Whilst it supposedly can connect to a remote computer (tried connecting to my W7 desktop W7 Professional, but had no luck there), it cannot be connected to.

It has been a while since I worked with RDP and terminal services, but you should be able to get a limited number of remote sessions connected to Win7 Home - in the order of 2 or so.

By default they are disabled.

Right click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.

Select the Remote tab.

From memory it is just a check box or radio button to enable remote connections.

On a different tack,
Could you use say a Raspberry Pi and its VNC server at the remote end? I am not sure if the device and application you want to run are compatible.