Restorer
03-02-05, 04:48 AM
I'll finally have my own room next year (after two years of living in the dorms with a roommate, I'll be moving into a large apartment), and I can't wait to set it up with several terminals and such. My Master Plan will end up with about 4 or 5 computers that will be attached to monitors, and some will work out to use dual monitors. I plan to have the 19" Viewsonic CRT I currently have, a 21" or 22" Viewsonic CRT, an old 17" CRT, and maybe a 17" LCD.
What I'd like to do is have a KVM setup that will allow me to not only switch which computer a monitor is connected to, but to choose which monitor is connected to a computer as well. For example, I could be running dual screens with the 19" and 17" LCD on my gaming computer, then switch that computer to the single 22" screen, and switch my Mac to the dual 19"/17" screens.
I can't really think of how the controls would work for such a KVM system. I could do it with a stack of manual KVMs and reverse-KVMs, but that would involve hitting way too many switches in the right order to keep the monitors from blowing up. I think I would need a smart device that can switch the signals on and off in the right order, to switch monitors and computers.
EDIT: Now that I've drawn a diagram, it looks like my combination is three computers to three monitors, with my gaming computer using either dual monitors (19" CRT and 17" LCD) or the single 22" monitor; my secondary PC using either the 22" or the 19" (which is the primary dual-screen monitor); and my Mac using only the dual monitors (if they aren't used by something else). That makes somewhere around 12 different combinations (including off-states) by my count, because of the restriction of the dual-monitor setup. Obviously 12 hard-wired buttons with some ingenuitive circuits behind them could do it, but that's simply not elegant enough :). Is there any combination of manual switches I may not have thought of that could do this easily, or is there a configurable commercial solution? I might be able to make a digital diagram and post it if you need it to figure out what I'm thinking about.
What I'd like to do is have a KVM setup that will allow me to not only switch which computer a monitor is connected to, but to choose which monitor is connected to a computer as well. For example, I could be running dual screens with the 19" and 17" LCD on my gaming computer, then switch that computer to the single 22" screen, and switch my Mac to the dual 19"/17" screens.
I can't really think of how the controls would work for such a KVM system. I could do it with a stack of manual KVMs and reverse-KVMs, but that would involve hitting way too many switches in the right order to keep the monitors from blowing up. I think I would need a smart device that can switch the signals on and off in the right order, to switch monitors and computers.
EDIT: Now that I've drawn a diagram, it looks like my combination is three computers to three monitors, with my gaming computer using either dual monitors (19" CRT and 17" LCD) or the single 22" monitor; my secondary PC using either the 22" or the 19" (which is the primary dual-screen monitor); and my Mac using only the dual monitors (if they aren't used by something else). That makes somewhere around 12 different combinations (including off-states) by my count, because of the restriction of the dual-monitor setup. Obviously 12 hard-wired buttons with some ingenuitive circuits behind them could do it, but that's simply not elegant enough :). Is there any combination of manual switches I may not have thought of that could do this easily, or is there a configurable commercial solution? I might be able to make a digital diagram and post it if you need it to figure out what I'm thinking about.