Hi

Problem:
When I connect Kinect through 10m active USB repeater cable I get black screen in iPi Recorder. Audio works (I assume by the fact the L and R bars in iPi Recorder react to sound from around mic. I can operate Kinect's motor. When I connect Kinect directly to my computer this problem don't occur. I can operate with two Kinects at the same time while they are connected directly.

Set up:

iMac with boot camp. Windows 7 installed. Kinect have 61% band-witch allocated from USB 2.0 in both 'direct' and 'through extension cable' connection. I tested Kinect on all of USB ports (4 of them in total). Only other device connected through USB is a keyboard and through keyboard mouse.

I would really appreciate help as I cannot set up 2 Kinects in right spots in room withouts use of at least one cable extension.

Hi
Did you have a chance to test with another cable? Possibly, your particular USB cable is of bad quality and does not provide sufficient strenghtening of the signal.

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunetly I own only 2 active USb cables (I received them today) and both are the same brand (link). I tested them both with both Xbox Kinects I have on all USB ports available. No luck so far.

Can anyone recommend tested and working cables? I know someone recommended some from an online store in USA, but maybe there are people that can recommend good quality and tested brand from UK or at least Europe?

We use Monoprice and Trendnet cables successfully. They both are available at Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monoprice-Female-Active-Extension-Repeater/dp/B004HJDUW0/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trendnet-TU2EX12-Repeater-Extension-Cable/dp/B004YI9U2I/

Thank you. I will get one and report back :)

Update. I just tested wires I was talking about on a PC with Windows XP and they work fine. It might be issue with drivers for USB controller for boot camp. I can't come up with any other reason why they would not work on Windows 7 on iMac.

So, the cables seem OK but they do not work with that particular USB controllers in your iMac.
First, let's know what are those controllers - please take a screenshot of "USB controllers" node in Device Manager. You can open Device Manager right from iPi Recorder by clicking "tools > device manager" at the top-right.

As an additional info, take a trace log from iPi Recorder when you see the black screen. To get the log, click "tools > show trace" at the top-right.

A wild idea: try to connect through USB hub with external power, if you have one. But don't buy it just for this test - it is not guaranteed to help!

Exactly. Cables I bought work on different machine with same kinects, but they give 'black screen' on my machine. I attached files you asked for. Unfortunately I don't have USB wire/hub with external power supply that you mentioned.

Thank you.
Nothing interesting in the log.
Controllers are USB 2.0 built into the Intel chipset, the same I have on my PC.

OK. Let's continue troubleshooting...
Just for sure, reinstall Kinect SDK 1.8 from this link:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=323588
Then install Kinect Developer Toolkit:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=323589
and see whether Kinect Studio or sample applications show the picture from Kinect while connected with extension cable.

I did uninstall all items with word 'Kinect' from control Panel. Then restarted iMac. Installed SDK and then Developer Kit (both from links you gave me - thank you for that). Then I plugged Kinect and some drivers were installed (window.png). When I opened iPi Recorder it worked as it worked before. Direct Kinect to iMac connection works, but extension wire gives black screen.

In addition I tested PS Eye (I have access to only one of these) and it works with extension cable.