Moderator: igrr
That said, if I can't get better range from SPI, I'm thinking that sourcing a I2C range extender might be an option. They don't look that expensive and would only be needed for 2 sensors I think (so only 1 module needed).
I had one product where we initially didn't, but the supplied interconnect cable was only four feet long so I didn't bother buffering the signal. But one day my boss had someone else test it with a longer cable and it worked so that is how they started shipping it. And soon after there were field failures, and then I was to look at why. When I found out that they were using a longer cable I had to control myself from calling them fucking idiots. I took some scope captures to show them how badly they were violating the timing specifications. But hey, it worked on the bench for them so it must have been ok. No.
So now whenever I have I2C leaving the box I always design in buffer/level translator chips, sometimes isolated buffers.
If using cat5 don't use the same pair for sda and scl and don't use one pair for either signal and gnd.
spi with clockrate in MHz range won't give you any reasonable choice on cable and length matching your situation.