Electronic – Fitting USB Data in Cat5 Cable with External Power

ethernetusbvga

I have a camera system at home with a DVR, which connects to a VGA monitor and mouse with which you can read and edit its settings (the cameras can be accessed over the Internet). I've been trying to move the monitor out of the closet it was in before (that's where the DVR is) to a more convenient spot, on a desk in my room. As it turns out there is a Cat5 cable that leads to the closet from my room, and I was able to splice together a VGA cable to both ends of the Cat5 wire, which allows me to see the video feed from the DVR. The VGA setup I have uses 6 of the 8 wires in the Cat5 cable, leaving 2 behind. I wanted to also connect a USB mouse to the DVR from my room using the Cat5 cable, however you'd normally need 4 wires in Cat5 cable in order to do that. Despite this, I tried to run the USB mouse's Data+ and Data- through the Cat5 cable's remaining pair of wires, and I connected the VCC and Ground wires to a power supply. The mouse was powered (ie it lit up) but it did not appear to be controlling the DVR from my room despite the data cables being connected. Is there any way to run only the USB data through Cat5 and not VCC and Ground? This would allow me to run VGA video and USB through the same Cat5 cable, which I am hoping to do.

Here's the current setup, where the mouse is powered but not "connected:"

                         To   <----VCC------+ (loose)
                        DVR's <----GND------+ (loose)
                         USB  <----------+         To DVR's VGA out
                         in   <--------+ |  D-      ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
                                       | +--------+ | | | | | |
                                       +--------+ | | | | | | |                                        
             External USB Power Supply      D+  | | | | | | | |
               (an iPhone wall USB              | | | | | | | |
                 charger adapter)          (cable goes through walls)
                        ^   ^                   | | | | | | | |
                    VCC |   | GND               | | | | | | | |
                        |   |            +------+ | | | | | | |
                        |   |         D+ | +------+ | | | | | |
                        |   |            | | D-     | | | | | |
                        |   +----------+ | |        V V V V V V
                        +------------+ | | |       All VGA video,
                                     | | | |         to monitor
                                     V V V V
                                     To Mouse

Best Answer

Your circuit is missing a common GND between the mouse and the DVR. This alone prevents USB from working correctly.

There is another issue: The CAT.5 cable is not suitable for USB - wrong impedance. It is also highly likely too long.

But there might be a simple solution: Try one of those wireless mice.

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