1 PC, 2 sets of inputs but not being used at the same time, possible?

saitrix

saitrix

saitrix

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2003
Posts
8,950
Location
Nottingham
Hi,

I have a pc and I am wanting to do inputs on it from two different positions (about 10 metres from each other). It is an old pc which cannot be upgraded, so it has vga video, ps2 mouse and ps2 keyboard. Now looking on the net you can get powered splitters for vga and you can get ps2 splitters.

Would I be correct in saying that should work with both mice operating the same cursor and the keyboards both inputting in the same place on the screen? As that is totally fine for me as there is only ever 1 user on the pc at once, I am just trying to minimise the distance the users have to travel to use the computer.

Oh and if it changes things it runs on Windows NT. :p
 
have a wired mouse and keyboard then install a wireless set, but have the USB receiver plugged into a USB extension cable to make the distance a non issue.

It runs fine on Windows 7 but not sure bout NT
 
Ahh unfortunately no USB either due to it being Windows NT. Old computers are annoying, I have to use floppy disk to get files off it!
 
Nope can't have that, the mouse would get stolen. :D This is to be used in a factory so if you don't bolt it down it disappears. It really is an annoying situation!
 
I am going to give a y lead a go with ps2 as they will be about 10 metres apart and I cannot have any cables dangling between (very hot things between, about 400C). See if that works, I have found something I am totally sure will work for vga so its just a question of the keyboard and mouse.
 
Not used ps2 at that distance but it should work fine,

ps2 splitters are pretty straight forward as well, have used them many many moons ago.

Quick bit of googleing, does show some limited options for running usb from windows nt 4 tho!
 
what about some kind of remote desktop setup? It would mean you would need a second computer at the 2nd set of keyboard/mouse screen, but you would only need to run a network cable between them then.
 
How hard is remote desktop setups on the 'main' pc that you would be remoting into? As I think it only has about a 700mhz cpu. :D
 
if a PS2 splitter works then I can't see why there would be a problem. Anyone at either "workstation" would be able to mess with the machine so 2 ppl using it at once would get annoying but otherwise - see no reason why not.
 
Saitrix, we do something very very similar.

In a factory environment, we have a large piece of machinery being controlled by a PC which needed to be operated from either side of the equipment.

The cables were only a couple of metres long, so we just used PS/2 and VGA splitter cables. In your situation, a powered splitter might be a better option.

It all worked fine for us, except for an old cherry keyboard which didn't want to play so we replaced it.

There are reverse KVMs out there, but they're generally not made these days and don't give any advantage over splitters.
 
NDJ88 said:
Saitrix, we do something very very similar.

In a factory environment, we have a large piece of machinery being controlled by a PC which needed to be operated from either side of the equipment.

The cables were only a couple of metres long, so we just used PS/2 and VGA splitter cables. In your situation, a powered splitter might be a better option.

It all worked fine for us, except for an old cherry keyboard which didn't want to play so we replaced it.

There are reverse KVMs out there, but they're generally not made these days and don't give any advantage over splitters.
Click to expand...

That is excellent news. It is a similar thing with me, so a nice basic setup will be perfect for it. Will get on and order the bits required, but I will see if I can get a powered ps2 splitter. I have already found a perfect powered vga splitter.
 
It might be worth mentioning that for us, the system was running XP.

The problems we had with cherry keyboards was that as soon as they were both used at the same time, they'd both stop working.

So as long as there was only one person attempting to operate the machine it was fine, but as often happens, when there is a problem we had people dashing over from both sides of the machine and then neither of them could do anything until the PC had rebooted.

So if you do get similar problems, try different hardware!
 
Ahh thats handy to know, I have got hold of a ps2 splitter so I can try testing different keyboards etc tomorrow. The current keyboard is a special built in one but I looked and it is just connected using a standard ps2.

I have found a decent selection of bits I need, the best part being I found a 10m cable that has vga and 2 ps/2 connectors on either end. So I will only have to feed 1 cable between the two positions, which is perfect.

Needing to reboot the pc is bad due to the potential for data loss which we just cannot have. Will have to trial all of this then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom