13 Aug
2006
13 Aug
'06
5:51 p.m.
Teo Zenios wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don" <THX1138 at dakotacom.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 13, 2006 8:02 PM
Subject: Re: KVMs
The Omniview does this. When you power it up, it will automatically
select the first source it finds.
What I miss is the footpedal that my other KVM has (since I put
the KVM "out of the way")
It *should* be simple to get a box to do all of
the above.
It's disappointing and annoying that it *isn't*! :-(
I was surprised it took Belkin so long to get a KVM for home use that
switched audio (perfect for retro gamers with multiple generations of
machines).
My Black Box 12 port ADB KVM must have been made for a server room since it
has jumpers for each video output so machines can boot and sense a
"monitor" even when you are using another port on the KVM. I guess its not worth it financialy to make and sell a
low volume multi
platform KVM under $1000, then again I thaught there would be a few EE
degreed people on this list who would have designed and made one just for
the hell of it (since they would need one).
It doesn't make sense financially to *build* one when you
can cobble something together from free/cheap KVMs. :-(
It's not a particularly difficult task but there are lots
of "little things" that take up design time (e.g., you
want a PIC/AVR/some other low power MCU sitting on each
keyboard/mouse port all the time POWERED BY THE EXTERNAL
DEVICE -- not the KVM -- so they can track keyboard/mouse
state all the time; you need to develop a "universal"
key numbering/naming scheme so the *user's* choice of
keyboard cn be mapped to each of the various machines
attached to the switch; you have to worry about 100MHz
video rates; etc.)