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additional USB cable tips

Michael Ossmann
2015-12-04 17:05:28 -07:00
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Tips-and-Tricks.md

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## USB Cables (and why to use a noise reducing one)
The USB cable you choose can make a big difference in what you see when using your HackRF and especially when using it around the 480mhz area where the USB is doing all its work.
The USB cable you choose can make a big difference in what you see when using your HackRF and especially when using it around between 120 and 480 MHz where USB is doing all its work.
For this reason, when choosing a cable it is best to purchase one that has a ferrite core (or ferrite beads). These cables are usually advertised to be noise reducing and are recognizable from the plastic block towards one end.
1. Use a shielded USB cable. The best way to guarantee RF interference from USB is to use an unshielded cable. You can test that your cable is shielded by using a continuity tester to verify that the shield on one connector has continuity to the shield on the connector at the other end of the cable.
Trying anything larger than a 6ft cable may yield poor results. The longer the cable, the more loss you can expect and when making this post a 15ft cable was tried and the result was the HackRF would only power up half way.
2. Use a short USB cable. Trying anything larger than a 6ft cable may yield poor results. The longer the cable, the more loss you can expect and when making this post a 15ft cable was tried and the result was the HackRF would only power up half way.
3. For best results, select a cable with a ferrite core. These cables are usually advertised to be noise reducing and are recognizable from the plastic block towards one end.
Screenshot before and after changing to a noise reducing cable ([view full size image](http://i.imgur.com/e64LASK.jpg)):
![Before and after showing the change when moving to a noise reducing USB cable.](http://i.imgur.com/e64LASK.jpg)