4K KVM

Thanks for the heads up Andy, I have taken a punt on one. I have recently got a new laptop from $WORK and when working at home, it is proving a bit temperamental with my current KVM (Startech, reasonably decent in its own way). For that price it is worth experimenting.

What voltage is the PSU BTW? I am guessing 12V...

Cheers J^n

answering my own question: 5V I see.

I got two...

Yeah, I have plenty of those...

I assume this does not come with cables for the 4 PCs?

I didn't know you could get SS USB cables with a B plug and an A plug at each end?

So once you factor in buying a PSU and the 5 sets of cables, it could add up but still better than £400!

Update! I've emailed the seller and he confirms auction is just for the KVM switchbox so no cables either as well as no PSU!

The KVM I use doesn't need a PSU. It gets power from one of the sources.

Yes, no cables or PSU, I only need one more set of cables beyond what I have.

before USB-C cae along, all cables were *supposed* to be type-A at one end and type-B at the other (B ends often mini or micro, except printers).

DP cable, £5 for no-name, £10 for something like UGreen USB 3.0 type-A to type-B, about the same.

My current Aten 2xDisplayPort does the same, but it can't power much other than kbd/mouse dongle.

Amazon Basics USB-A to USB-B 3.0 Cable is £6.25, HDMI is £3.99, and a suitable PSU perhaps a tenner - so you would be paying ~£70 for a £400+ KVM (Aten KVMs are typically one of the best you can get IME)

so for 4 sets of cables thats £20 for 4 x DP & £40 for USB cables plus a PSU, the KVM veing £15 one should be able to get fully sorted for £100...

Still cheaper than £400!

I wonder if this could be controlled with a piKVM or is there a hot key sequence to switch between PCs?

(PiKVM is a single channel KVM over IP so you can access a device via a webpage)

Third party KVM support in PiKVM is complicated because the KVM may not implement a full USB stack. In particular the PiKVM exports a composite USB device (keyboard/mouse/USB stick/DVD in one device) which the hardware KVM may not be happy about.

Here:

Theo

As well as the buttons on its front panel there are hotkey sequences such as scroll-scroll-2-enter to move focus to the 2nd port, but you can get fancy and move screen/keyboard/sound/usb focus individually if you want to.

The keyboard I use use in my study I've replaced its firmware with the opensource QMK, so I might add an extra "layer" of KVM shortcuts so that e.g. right-alt with numpad 1 to 4 selects that input.

Typically there is a key sequence option as well as the physical button option. I typically use <scroll lock><scroll lock><digit> to select the required channel (others are also available). YOu can also do things like split the switching to have video from one PC but say audio from another etc.

I have the rear USB control input on my ATEN CS1944DP[1] connected to the USB 3 hub that is built into my monitor stand. It seems content to switch whatever is connected to HUB to the device being controlled. So I might have a USB stick and web can connected to the hub and they are visible to whichever machine I control.

You did well to get one at £15.

Well that saved me buying something I did not really need :-)

Although:

All sold now, looks like they had over 50 of them probably from a strip-out of a control room, or CCTV monitoring centre? Re-jigged all my cabling today and working nicely ...