Tether cable 60d

Is there a limit on the length of cable that one can use when tethering??

I bought a 5m cable of flee bay and it doesn't work.. My aim is to set the camera up on a tripod in the garden and plug it in to my mac inside and use Eos utility. The camera display flashes "busy" but the mac does not show that the camera is connected..? Any ideas please

thanks Jason

According to this site: http://www.usb.org/abo​ut/faq/ans5
the limit is 3 or 5 meters. Have you checked the "flee-bay" cable with some other USB device to see if it's good? You may try adding a USB hub to extend the distance.

The USB standard calls for 16 feet or 5m total including internal connections. However in practice you will only reach this distance with a high quality cable. Extensions cannot be used. The better longer cables are made with heavier gage wires, double shielding, and good connectors.

These attributes are most often seen with A-B cables. A - mini B cables often are thinner as it is harder to get the mini-B connectors to take heavier wire.

This 16' cable from Digi-Key looks excellent:
http://search.digikey.​com …s.dll?Detail&na​me=Q374-ND

Try plugging it straight into the computer rather than a hub too.

Thanks for your replies guys, I am plugging straight into my mac, I will add that this cable was cheap! Like really cheap, I guess you get what you pay for..?