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by Grant Bennet-Alder,Apr 30, 2014 9:47 AM in response to Warwick Teale
Grant Bennet-Alder
Apr 30, 2014 9:47 AM
in response to Warwick Teale
Level 9 (60,884 points)
DesktopsWarwick Teale-
That sounds like a workable solution if SPACE is the issue.
For those prices, it seems cheaper to just buy some cheap displays and forget about the switch.
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Apr 30, 2014 10:15 AM in response to Warwick Tealeby Fravadona,1. Actually ATEN did two hardware updates on my CS1944. It works better but I can't recommend it to you because this KVM is only EDID passthrough and finaly, it's barely compatible with Macs.
2. There's only a few manufacturers providing hardware utilities for UNIX. If computing maintenance is required in your office then get an old cheap Windows PC (I have one for that, despite beeing a no-Windows guy)
3. I get correctly the EDID of the screen on whatever computer that have the focus.
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Apr 30, 2014 10:37 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alderby Warwick Teale,Hi Grant yes indeed! However the OFFICE desk "real estate" is a premium here at present. We'll do some more research before committing to the CS1944. I see Fravadona is not recommending it. We'll ring Taipei tomorrow and have a chat with the lads at ATEN assuming it's not a public holiday there too (May 1st!).
Thanks again mate!
Warwick
Hong Kong
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Apr 30, 2014 10:46 AM in response to Fravadonaby Warwick Teale,Hi Fravadona, thank you for your prompt reply.
Fravadona wrote:
1. Actually ATEN did two hardware updates on my CS1944. It works better but I can't recommend it to you because this KVM is only EDID passthrough and finaly, it's barely compatible with Macs.
Hmm.. that's a bit sad. As I said in my reply to Grant that we'll look into it more before buying.
Fravadona wrote:
2. There's only a few manufacturers providing hardware utilities for UNIX. If computing maintenance is required in your office then get an old cheap Windows PC (I have one for that, despite beeing a no-Windows guy)
3. I get correctly the EDID of the screen on whatever computer that have the focus.
yes that's a very good point however we have no desk workspace for any more screens and kbds/tablets.. it's tight. Hence we are looking to methods of also sharing these between more than one creative artist.. so it's looking tricky and SCREEN SHARING is out of the question due to the latency with the wacom tablets etc.. ...
windows , being the necessary evil it is for 3dsmax, rhino etc... has no friends here.. lol! just use it .. no more.
Thank for your info. we intend to ring the Aten lads in Taipei later today (May 1st) and see what they say about the "Mac incompatibility " you ,mention. This might be a show stopper.
We'll keep you posted.
B/r
warwick
Hong Kong
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Apr 30, 2014 10:51 AM in response to Warwick Tealeby Michael Bennett2,Warwick:
This is not going to work.
The Thunderbolt display will not operate as a DisplayPort display so a DisplayPort KVM or just plain switch will not work either.
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May 14, 2014 6:23 AM in response to Michael Bennett2by Warwick Teale,Hi Michael and others in this long thread that stated that won't work.., mateys I'll have to call you on this . Sorry lads it works extremely well!.
We have successfully implemented an:
- Aten CS1944 4-port USB 2.0 Dual View Mini DisplayPort KVMP™ Switch and
- an Aten CS1942 2-port USB 2.0 Dual View Mini DisplayPort KVMP™ Switch
with two Apple Thunderbolt displays (most recent) using the mini display port cables to physically (electrically) switch to the machines below from the apple thunderbolt cinema display's harness
It works amazingly well.!
The delay that Fravadona mentioned in an earlier is negligible.
We spent a great deal of time researching this and I plan to post a new thread on the subject once final testing is completed.
We connected the following with 100% success.
- Apple Thunderbolt Cinema display (Number 01) with Apple Extended USB keyboard and Wacom Intous-4 XL tablet with Aten CS1944 4x port
- 2013 MAcPro (the 1TB, 12 core one!) using a Thunderbolt 2 socket via a male-to-male mini display port cable
- 2014 Macbook Air via a male-to-male mini display port cable
- 2013 iMAC 's thunderbolt socket via a male-to-male mini display port cable
- 2013 Macbook Pro's 2nd thunderbolt socket via a male-to-male mini display port cable
- Apple Thunderbolt Cinema display (Number 02) with Apple Extended USB keyboard and usb mouse to an Aten CS1942 2 x port
- a 2nd 2013 Macbook Pro's 2nd thunderbolt socket via a male-to-male mini display port cable
- and more amazing a DELL high end rendering PC with an Nvidea Geforce GTX 780 graphics card's DISPLAY PORT (not mini DP) to a male mini display port. Amazing to see a Dell PC using an Apple Thunderbolt Cienma display at 2560 x1900 resolution to its usb ports. We replace dthe use of its DVI-D dual link wit hits DISPLAY PORT. works great! We can see the windows PC booting up.. amazing.. (I'm not used to windows )
The controller's (console) keyboard, tablet / mouse MUST be usb. for creatives this is fine. Can't utilise bluetooth... cannot pair them easily anyway.. USB wired must be used for the KVM function.
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we COULD not enable the controller's apple expended keyboard and any USB devices that were plugged into teh apple cinema display amd then using the USB from the display's harness.
There are some very small procedural matters once it's working.
Switching can be manual or using a unique keyboard sequence.
The Aten CS194x's documentation is very good and cater primarily for MAcs and then the other platform.
There's no software needed.
The Aten CS1944 and the Aten CS1942 cost locally here in Hong Kong $HK4300 and $HK3300 respectively. Prices vary ofcourse!
Summary
- This solution of KVM switching recent Apple machines and even a high end PC rely on this use of display port (display port [dp] and mini Display port [mdp]) interfaces
- as most well read | informed readers and posters on these forums know, that aside from the form factor , display port (DP) signals are accommodated by Thunderbolt. Thus these any DP/MDP deviecs MUSt be down stream from thunderbolt devices or at least connected to a separate thunderbolt pot on modern/recent macs.
- the 2013 Macpro's work fine in MACOSX 10.9.2 mode and also with a Bootcamp Windows 8.1pro as well.
- There are workarounds/implementations for HOST based DVI-D single and dual links (such a a pc hardware). Using obvious adapters will not work because some of the pins are only activated for a DVI-D as a display and not a host.... beware of this!
- switched audio.
- didn't test FACETIME camera.
- obviously can't be used with bluetooth stuff.
- In any case this is an industrial strength solution for those with lots of machines access needs, that can't tolerate latency of screen sharing or software emulation over a network (editors and detailed creatives, engineers etc) will not do.
- this is far cheaper than implementing a simple 10Gbe solution and using network screen sharing and is real time (no latency with image nor keyboard and tablet/mouse)
- The Aten CS1944 4-port USB 2.0 Dual View Mini DisplayPort KVMP™ Switch and Aten CS1942 2 x port USB 2.0 Dual View Mini DisplayPort KVMP™ Switch is a very very very good solution.
Post your results for others to see.
Warwick
Hong Kong
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May 14, 2014 6:49 AM in response to Warwick Tealeby Fravadona,Hi Warwick, I'm glad to see that it works for you.
Regarding the "latency" of the switching that I commented you, I made a video for explaining the problem to ATEN's R&D, here it is : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x15y8ql_aten-s-cs1944-macbookpro-blink-issue_te ch
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May 14, 2014 9:52 AM in response to Warwick Tealeby Michael Bennett2,Well, so much for relying on Apple's FAQ. I guess the DisplayPort portion of the Thunderbolt Display works. Your "down stream" comment doesn't apply, because there's no DisplayPort *display* attached to the chain.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3189887?tstart=0
The FaceTime camera and the rest of the ports on the back of the Thunderbolt Display should not work at all.
The real question is, when you switch displays, does the Mac think the display has disappeared and move the menu bar?
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May 15, 2014 5:23 AM in response to Michael Bennett2by Warwick Teale,Hi Mike, yes I'd agree with your correction/contention as it's factually true (and the explanation in that link) I made the point merely to demonstrate the situation at hand.
Michael Bennett2 wrote:
The FaceTime camera and the rest of the ports on the back of the Thunderbolt Display should not work at all.
Yes without question as there's simply no Thunderbolt connection to the Apple Thunderbolt Cinema Display and these items/functions are NOT required/ expected to be switched in any regard.
FWIW The MBpros utilise their alternate Thunderbolt port for other Thunderbolt peripherals (no MDP's) .
The real question is, when you switch displays, does the Mac think the display has disappeared and move the menu bar?
No. it's rock solid .. menus bar etc is precisly where it should be.
Indeed the switched Mac's screen is correct in every aspect that we have see so far. To be fair there is a 1 second delay between switching. the USB switched keyboards and tablets are immediately responsive.
If the ATEN CS194x switch (eS) are powered off OSX will prompt initially for the keybad type ("press the key next to the SHIFT key") . Within a few seconds it is reinstated.
For the non - Apple Dell PC wi the GTX 780 Displayport-to-MDP, it takes several seconds to come back if the PC has "gone to sleep".
To be balanced, we have NOT been able to test with several pairs of monitors. The ATEN CS194x devices have DUAL MDports for each host and controller. In this regard I am also curious of the result of the switch .. even with the recent Mavericks application full screen / mission control enhancements.
Generally the ATEN CS194x is an excellent and very pleasing solution for switching Apple Tbolt-CDisplay's, amd T/Bolt macs and other DP and MDP devices using a 'KVM" deployent to a set of compounding procedural issues involving the specific work environment..
Lastly I shall certainly post here and in a thread I intend to start, should the ATEN CS194x switches fail or exhibit recalcitrant behaviour
Warwick
Hong Kong