Did I break my USB 3 active extender?

Thread Starter

TearSouo

Joined Oct 22, 2020
4
Hello,
I recently bought a deleyCON 5M USB 3 active extension cable and on the side I noticed a power port for a 2mm plug. Without thinking, I plugged in any old cable that would fit without checking its advertised voltage.

After doing research, I was supposed to plug in a 5V 2A cables instead of the 12V 1A one I ended up plugging in instead.

The cable seems to be able to provide power to devices like my oculus quest, but no data goes through. Is it safe to say that it is dead and that I should simply order a new one? And more importantly, would high tech devices likely the oculus quest 2 have its own voltage regulation system to protect itself?
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,911
Welcome to AAC!
After doing research, I was supposed to plug in a 5V 2A cables instead of the 12V 1A one I ended up plugging in instead.
What would make you think that 12V would be appropriate? Vbus for USB is 4.5-5.5V.
would high tech devices likely the oculus quest 2 have its own voltage regulation system to protect itself?
Making things foolproof costs money.
 

Thread Starter

TearSouo

Joined Oct 22, 2020
4
You probably fried the repeater device and you learned a valuable lesson.
That's a relief to hear. It means that the problem can be fixed by buying a replacement. For the past day I was concerned that this setup won't ever work.
 

Thread Starter

TearSouo

Joined Oct 22, 2020
4
What is your "setup"?

An active extension just lets you exceed the maximum passive USB cable length.
I'm trying to connect an active extender to my PCs USB 3 port, and then have the 'repeater' part of the cable additionally powered by my mains socket. Then I'd use an Anker 3 Metre powerline go to my Quest 2 from the 'repeater' thingy so I can use oculus link software while simultaneously having my quest charge faster than it's battery is discharged or at least slow it down as much as possible.

I don't really know anything about electronics and most guides I've looked up link products that only sell outside the UK.
 

dl324

Joined Mar 30, 2015
16,911
It sounds to me like you just want a USB hub. The hubs should follow the USB protocol. If it has it's own power source, it can supply 1-5 USB loads to any device connected to it. This assumes that the USB devices connected to the hub are intelligent and know how to negotiate for more than 1 USB load if they require it.

IIRC, 1 USB load for USB3 is 150mA. Can't remember if it allows a device a maximum 5 or 6 times that. For USB2 5 loads was the maximum allowed.
 

MrSoftware

Joined Oct 29, 2013
2,196
This link might help to explain the USB power a bit more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#Low-power_and_high-power_devices

That said; if you have several devices plugged into each other, and you gave one of them too much voltage, then it's a crap shoot as to whether only one device or multiple devices failed. Hopefully the first device failed and didn't send the power further down the line, but it's impossible to say for sure until you test the other devices individually.
 
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