Thanks again for all the help. I bought the USB switch and works like a charm! Only thing that doesn’t work is host charging of the laptop, the docking station was charging the laptop as well when connected directly, so need another cable to charge that.
Yes exactly like that! Yeah my concern was that as well that USBA doesn’t support video. BUT, the docking station has a USB-C cable with a separate USB-C to A adapter, AND it works like a charm when plugged into my desktop via USBA. Perhaps the USBA standard has evolved.
So I’ll just plug the docking station as a USB device in the USB switch similar to how you’d plug in a keyboard.
As pictures are easier, I’ve quickly drawn my plan.
I emailed Targus as well and they said it would work. They did say the host charging will stop working, ie have to charge the laptop separately. That’s fine.
The problem with a KVM I believe is that my laptop only has a single USB out, and thus not support for 2 monitors; this is what the docking station enables me to do. There are KVM’s with docking station enabled, but couldn’t find them.
All very complicated to be honest! I was surprised my docking station works out of the box with my desktop.
Hi mate, thanks for your extensive answer. It is slightly different.
Currently, my monitors and keyboard and webcam are connected all to the docking station. From the docking station there’s one usb cable to the host, ie the laptop OR the desktop. So the desktop uses the docking station as well.
So right now to swap between desktop and laptop I have to swap the host USB cable from the docking station which is annoying.
Therefore, my plan is to plug that cable into the USB switch only. Then, a cable from the USB switch to the laptop and another one to the desktop. Then I can switch between desktop and laptop via the USB switch.
I’m on mobile now so can’t do a drawing.
Perhaps I could have done it with a kvm as well but the docking station was recommended by my work.
By changing the input on the USB switch. So usb from pc to switch. Usb from laptop to switch. Usb from switch to docking station. Hdmi, keyboard, mouse, camera from docking station. Pbtech has confirmed this will work.
I’m fairly sure it won’t let you switch which computer “sees” your dock.
Just curious why you think it won’t work? I’ve just asked PBTech as well, and they said it should work like I’m planning to.
I can use your setup as well, but that just means more cables to my monitors, plus changing inputs on my monitors is annoying. I’d like to have one button to press to switch between PC and notebook.
Thanks. I checked Tessmart and they sell KVM+ Docking in one. That will work, but I believe is unnecessary.
In my case, I believe I only need a USB KVM switch as I already have a docking station.
So my plan was to have a USB KVM, with one USB device connected: the docking station. Then, from the USB KVM there’s one USB cable to my laptop, and one to my PC. All peripherals (monitor/keyboard/mouse) are connected to the docking station.
Right now it all works by just swapping the usb cable from the docking station to the PC and vice versa. Monitors, keyboard, mouse are all connected to the docking station; the PC uses it as well. So a USB switch seems the easiest.
My plan is to only connect the docking station to the USB switch. The docking station handles keyboard/video/mouse. Not sure if that’s even supported :D
There’s only a single DHCP server, a Pihole, which also serves as DNS. Switch B is a cheaper switch, so that may be the culprit. I use it for heavy downloading from my Xbox and that is never a big issue. Speeds fluctuate from 100 to 900mbps (my max) but that’s not necessarily a switch problem.
Yep, thanks for checking, there’s only 1 DHCP server on my network. I’ve just moved it back to behind switch B and will do more investigation when the problem occurs again.
I’ve just moved it back to behind switch B, will do testing as you suggest.
The switch doesn’t have POE, the Unifi AP does use POE via its own POE injector.
Home Assistant. It’s a rabbit hole, but it’s great. I’ve got motion enabled lights, thermostats for “dumb” heaters, and I track device usage (tablet, xbox) of my kids.
Never heard of that, thanks. Our house is built on a concrete slab, so don’t think that will work?
I’ve been going to the Lower Hutt Riverbank market for some time but found out it wasn’t much cheaper than PnS and quality was also lower. Also tried some veg shops but prices were similar. We buy meat online, which is wild meat, and thus better for the environment: https://www.premiumgame.co.nz/
We do go to Gilmours for things like frozen fruit / veggies and nuts. It’s not cheaper for everything though.