[AFMUG] USB over IP

[Nate Burke]

I have a generator control board that is interfaced via USB, it sits 
about 50' away from the building.  The generator has been acting up on 
me, failing it's exercise cycle about every 4 attempts, and there is not 
an LCD troubleshooting display to see what went wrong. Plugging in via 
USB give you complete control and monitoring through software (windows 
only), but it requires pulling the control board out to access the USB 
port.  I'd like to be able to get access to the control system remotely 
by installing a permanent USB hookup, but without having to sit in the 
snow and wind with a laptop.

I have found some USB to IP adapters, that range in price from $50-$300, 
but they mostly talk about using them as Printer sharing devices.  Will 
any USB device work with them?  I'm guessing that some software is 
required on the PC to get the USB to IP Bridge working, so the quality 
of the device is probably dependent on that software.  It looks like 
these devices may be mainly used in VM environments to attach USB 
Devices to VMs without going through the physical host.    Has anyone 
had experience with these devices?

Nate