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I'm sharing the display as well. The USB switch electrically disconnects and reconnects any attached USB devices, moving them between a USB port on my desktop
by ohazi 6y ago
I'm sharing the display as well.
The USB switch electrically disconnects and reconnects any attached USB devices, moving them between a USB port on my desktop and a USB port on my docking station. I have a keyboard and a Logitech receiver connected to this switch. The advantage of doing it this way is that it works on any operating system without any additional software. Things that might not make it through a HID emulation layer (e.g. scroll sensitivity, firmware updates, RGB LED control(?), etc.) just work the way they would if the peripherals were connected directly (because they are connected directly). You could also add other USB devices to the switch if you wanted, like an audio interface, drawing tablet, thumbdrive, etc. (although you'd want to be careful about unmounting any drives).
The video source is set by the monitor. Doing this via the monitor's OSD menu works, and also doesn't require any software, but is annoying. So the small bit of optional software that I've added is a script that waits for the keyboard to disappear (which happens after I press the button on the USB switch), and then tells the monitor to change input. It saves me four button presses when it works, but I can still perform the switch manually if it doesn't.
The no-software approach allows this setup to work even if a friend shows up with a TB3 laptop without any special software and wants to work at my desk.
- philliphaydon 6y agoAhhh ok cool. I wasn't quite sure when I read your post but thanks for explaining. It's really interesting. Wonder if it will work with my desktop and raspberry pi.
- no_carrier 6y agoDid you think about having both the laptop and desktop connected via the dock and then using the USB switcher to switch it that way? Then there wouldn't be any messing around with monitor source. Is that even doable? It's the type of setup I want.
- ohazi 6y agoUnless I've misunderstood what you're suggesting, I think you would need a (20? 40? Gbps) Thunderbolt 3 switch for this to work, because the dock only has one host port (the dock's topology looks more like a USB hub than a network switch). I suppose there are chips that can do this, but I've never seen a standalone Thunderbolt switch as a product, and if one existed it would probably be expensive. In any case, my desktop is old and doesn't speak Thunderbolt. I'm not sure whether I can bolt it on with a PCIe card, but even if I could, configuring an nvidia card to reroute output from its own ports to a Thunderbolt add-on card sounds... not fun. And then you'd have to deal with the fact that the longest passive cable that the TB3 spec allows for is like, 2 feet long, and I have a standing desk... It's certainly an interesting idea, and pulling it off would be an impressive technical feat.