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Wicked little toy for 2 PCs 1 monitor

S

steveuk

Experienced Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2008
Messages
83
Just got one of these due to my TV/Monitor keeps playing up wont show anythink pass the startup screen, so i found one of these,and man they are cheap.

c112_10.JPG

Now running 2 PC's on 1 Monitor and 1 keyboard and mouse.. Had to tinker a little but got it working, ideal if you dont have th eroom for 2 monitors.

c286_10.JPG


If ya want one get it off ebay here.
2 PORTS KVM SWITCH BOX + 2 KVM CABLES TO CONTROL 2 CPU
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=130248610260&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=003

Start Bid 99p, Postage £7:99 i got mine for 99p:-D plus the P+P cost £9.99 quie cheap i think for a usefull little item likethis.

Steve
 
steveuk said:
Just got one of these due to my TV/Monitor keeps playing up wont show anythink pass the startup screen, so i found one of these,and man they are cheap.

c112_10.JPG

Now running 2 PC's on 1 Monitor and 1 keyboard and mouse.. Had to tinker a little but got it working, ideal if you dont have th eroom for 2 monitors.

c286_10.JPG


If ya want one get it off ebay here.
2 PORTS KVM SWITCH BOX + 2 KVM CABLES TO CONTROL 2 CPU
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....m=130248610260&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=003

Start Bid 99p, Postage £7:99 i got mine for 99p:-D plus the P+P cost £9.99 quie cheap i think for a usefull little item likethis.

Steve
Click to expand...


Asus and ATI both have plans for external graphics cards for laptops now. I wonder if those will actually work. I have my doubts....
 
Unfortunately you get what you pay for, even with KVM switches. I bought an el-cheapo Zonet KVM3012 a few years ago, and I can't really recommend it although I'm still using it. Limited video bandwidth - in particular when you use an onboard VGA which seem to drive the signal weaker than regular graphics cards? But the most frustrating fault with my switch is that sometimes it locks up, so I have to pull out the keyboard cable from the computer to reset the switch. It happens in particular when I use combinations of CTRL and ALT, two keys frequently used with Emacs. Very uncomfortable if you're in the middle of programming and the keyboard stops working, you have to get behind the computer to pull the cable etc.

For a long time now, I've considered getting a more expensive KVM, probably a different brand and hope that it works a bit better. But the lazyness in me never gets to that point...
 
This KVM seems ok, im running it on 2 card, 1 PCI Express the other is AGP. i did notice that when on my new system using a 8500GT card, the otehr is a 6800GS in the older PC, i notice like slight ghostly scrolls keep cumming across the screen when i get a dark or black screen, ya see they shite shaowy ghostly images whizz by.lol

I only brought this cheapo one to try it out, seems ok had little problem with mouse and keyboard not working at first untill i lookedat the monitor and it said dont move mouse or press any keys untill OS has finished loading,doing so will freeze your mouse and keybaord... I di what manul said and left untill both OS.s loaded compleatly and everythink worked fine.

Not bad for arounf £9+ or so inc P+P..
Steve
 
yeah i've got a pair of 4-port KVM's. one is a nice spare from my old job, and the other i paid $40 for. it's a zonet. the zonet is crap but it works.
 
The ones I have are SHGD (never heard of them) and I don't have any problems at all no matter what I am switching from/to.

They have all worked flawlessly and the included cables are very high quality.

Since I bought 4, I got a discount and I think they were around 20 bucks a pop plus combined shipping, which was reasonable.
 
Yeah, I've got a couple of cheapos here at home. Both Belkin. One 'cables-attached' 2-computer USB one, and one old fashioned no-name "rotating knob" mechanical switchbox four system PS/2.

At work, we have the wonderful high-end Belkin 8-port jobs that do PS/2-USB conversion automagically, and if we really want, can slave more than one daisy chained. (The PS/2-USB conversion works both ways. You can use either a PS/2 or a USB keyboard and mouse, and each 'system' port block contains both PS/2 and USB, so you can have a couple PS/2, and a couple USB systems, if you so like.
 
For the PC I stick to belkin KVMs. I have a 4 port SOHO model in my room that allows high resolution without distortion and switches audio output and mic input as well as PS/2 or USB ports (great for my 4 game machines).

For the lab I have 2 x 4 port belkin SE (f1d104). You can stack 4 of these together to control 16 machines. The cool thing about them is they do a great PS/2 to serial mouse conversions and they work with MS optical mice. So I have a MS optical (using ps/2) connected to the KVM and my old 486s connect using the serial cable and the KVM seemlessly converts the PS/2 mouse over to serial for them.

Most of those cheap KVMs with built in wires have video distortion on anything over 1024x768, so I avoid them.
 
I hate using the Wired mice on these KVM's i use wireless,which is USB, and the KVM dont have USB Sockets on mine, which i think the manufacturers should start doing, but hay i found a little convertor, usb to ps2 adaptor, plugged that in and hay prestoe, it works find, wirless on a KVM.

Steve
 
There have been USB KVMs for some time. Look at Belkin, they have (as I mention in my previous comment,) a KVM that lets you use a USB keyboard and mouse that it converts to PS/2 for PS/2-only systems.

Heck, companies make DVI/USB KVMs. (I just found an old combo PS/2-AT+serial KVM at work! I'm going to try to score it to bring home.)
 
I've been entirely happy with an IOGear MiniView Micro dongle-style KVM I got a few years back for about $30 -- vastly less than the big Belkin boxes that had been the standard till then. It's well made and has been perfect: you just tap ScrLk twice to switch, and otherwise forget have it.*

* of course if you run Linux, ScrLk stops what you were running via CLI, so when you KVM back to the machine to see if the process is done yet, it'll be paused where you left it. Mild embarrassment.

EDIT: I should add this is the PS/2 model, and is just fine with an adapter for the USB mouse.
 
This KVM switch business may prove informative for some - so let me put my slant on the subject in here.

I don't have a computer desk, I use an old kitchen table that is 3 foot square but with pull outs. Anyway I set three computers upon it and (1) monitor. When I want to use one of my vintage computers, be it Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack, Atari or whatever I basically 'throw a switch' < press my scroll lock key twice, and my monitor switches to #2 computer, along with the mouse and keyboard. I use that computer to hook in my vintage computers so that I can just use my 17" computer monitor for everything. The capture card in #2 computer also gives me the ability to record video of any of my vintage computer stuff. It's nice to use my Commodore 128 in 64 mode, or C128 mode 40 column or C128 80 column mode - all with my everyday monitor.
Here's the KVM IOGear 2 port switch I use.

picture.php


(It's the green thing on the middle computer.) As it sits there the switch runs between the middle computer and an old Gateway 2000 on the left there. The computer on the right, #2, is the one with the capture card. I really should have a 4 port switch here, but I don't use the Gateway that much, so the switch is usually hooked between #1 and #2 computers.

So, for what it's worth - that's how I 'switch' from today's world to vintage world.

Here's my newly acquired VIC-20 being put through it's paces.

picture.php
 
Could this switch device be used to connect a 486sx and a pentium to a crt or lcd monitor?
 
So far, I've used three different KVM switches in the midst of my madness...

The first was a 6 port Belkin Omniview AT, which had my GEM PIII, ATXT P200MMX, Flight 486, Compaq Deskpro 386, Compaq Deskpro 286, and XT Clone hooked up to it at one time, all displaying from a 17" KDS CRT.

The second was a 2 port Belkin Omniview that I still have, but I found it too small for my useage of so many computers on my home LAN for the heck of it....

The the big day came I found an 8 port KVM that used a standard AC power cord at the thrift shop for $10.00....turns out it was an Advocent APEX Outlook 8 port KVM designed to be mounted on a server rack, and it was still availible for sale brand new on line.......for $899.99. That has since been my main KVM for everything.
 
badger99 said: "Could this switch device be used to connect a 486sx and a pentium to a crt or lcd monitor?"

Yes. They work on almost anything except REALLY old junk like some people might use around here. (ducks) The monitor type doesn't matter either because the VGA signal is the same. BTW I noticed that "The Source" in Canada has 2 holers for under 20 bucks.

I use one for switching (scrolllock twice + arrowup) between my linux box and my dos machine. Recently I needed another port for my new DOS box and didn't really want to spend any money so I dug out an old 4 port mechanical KVM. That works fine except the large din plugs need adaptors which cost about 8 bucks each in this neck of the woods! Anyway I wired up a cable adaptor and figured out a way (I won't bore with details). One good thing about the mechanical switch is the (almost) unlimited bandwidth - not that I care that much about video anyway. On my linux box I use a wireless mouse and on the dos machines I have no use for such a creature.
 
Hey Mad-Mike that's a cool widget there with my (almost) IP. One thing though - it's about 5 hops away from here. Its got the linux and firefox right though.
 
4 or 5 years ago I got a Belkin KVM + sound that is just wonderful. Doing almost everything on a 19" Samsung LCD is much easier on the eyes.

I have also found you get what you pay for with most KVMs and switches. My friend went through 4 KVMs over 2 years trying to find a good cheap one. Many started off great then 3 months into it started to have issues. That was 4 years ago and they have improved alot and gone down in price.

Joe
 
Yeah, I have several 4 port KVMs (including Belkin and others). I do have a cheap one very similar to the posted one (also a 4 port and came with cables unlike the belkins) and it's worked fine on my newer stuff.

The only problems I've seen are when using converters that sometimes don't actually keep the voltage alive on the connector or do some odd non-standard connection and that can throw off older systems if you're using a ps/2 to AT connector, etc.

A lot of KVMs will be really cheap right now since a lot of folks are wanting USB instead of ps/2. I just remember eying my 4 port Belkin KVM for around $240 without cables, then they wanted $30 per cable set. I had my friend buy the Belkin from the store as an employee ("at cost") so it was $80, then I goodwilled the cables for about $1 per cable needed. Only pain is that some KVMs use extention cables and others use male to male, etc.
 
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