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DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

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Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#91
post #81
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very nice to not require the computers to connect over the network.

This was a concern for me, that is why i've used Synergy over VPN and it worked quite well. It also works on networks where you can't reach the other pc's that way.

I initially used synergy at work between two computers and a coworker teased me about the security implications, so I found it very little effort to pipe over an SSH tunnel

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#92
I used to use Synergy for this until switching to Wayland, which isn't supported. Last time I checked there was a project called RKVM attempting to do the same thing for Wayland but it was very buggy at the time. I should check again to see if there has been any progress.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#93
This is awesome and it looks like the exact solution I've been looking for. That said, I'm way out of my depth when it comes to building this. What would it take to get a step by step tutorial on how to build this thing? I read through the readme, and there's some good info there, but a few things went over my head.

Never used a Pico board, only exp is with a Tensor board that came out a few years back.

Any further advice on where / how to get started with is would be appreciated?

Also great work, the transition looks super smooth.

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#94
post #82
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an awesome idea, man. I wish I thought of that. I learned about about that screen hopper project only yesterday, and it just confirmed my theory - whatever I try to do, somebody smarter than me already made, only better, smoother running and with nicer features :) I play no games whatsoever so absolute coords would be perfectly fine, but one of the items on the to-do list is to make it configurable.

IMO the hardest part of open source is documentation and packaging so hats off to people like you who take that final step from tinkerer's project to open source! Also props to you for the galvanic isolation and actually designing a circuit lol. I'm sure there's even more keyboard/mouse switching projects out there, there's just no good acronym or search query to find them. You could search for "KVM" but it's just do…

Your project is practically an example for Teensy boards. I made this exact gadget 10 years ago :)

Ultimately my friend was explaining his 'mouse jiggler' vbscript and I thought 'how can I make this a hardware version' this led to a design and once you have a design it is easy to query google for design hints at the component level "usb hid microcontroller" "usb passthrough [teensy|arduino]" "usb init host controller [teensy|arduino]" "mouse path [teensy|arduino]" etc etc

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#95
This looks great. I have a work PC and personal PC on the same desk but cannot install anything on the work PC. Would be great to declutter my desk with this.

Unrelated - surprised JLCPCB does not have a way to share a link to a PCB so folks can buy a board without needing to upload the files themselves. Maybe I am missing it?

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#96
I had the same need and ended up using a USB Hub that required manual clicks to switch between devices. All software-based or network-based switches were a no-go in my case. I love the idea of a hardware-based switch that allows for seamless transitions between devices.

Who will pick up the gauntlet and allow those of us without a soldering iron to buy a ready-to-use box?

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#97
post #8
post #6

I bought 4 USB hubs just to switch the keyboard and mouse, it's just so annoying how most devices are so terrible. Randomly you have to physically detach the hub several times a day. If you plug webcams and/or USB mics, it only gets even worse. I'm using Synergy software and it works well, but I still want a proper KVM that can allow for webcams, mics, audio, etc. Features like moving only a group of plugged devices…

> KVM users are underserved for sure. 100% I want to share keyboard, mouse and monitor between a PC and a MacBook. A KVM with DP+USB on one side and Thunderbolt on the other doesn’t seem to exist.. I feel like this has to be a common use case :( I know I could break out on a dock first, but I have a particularly high-res monitor which most of the docks baulk at, or only support at 30Hz

I share two monitors and audio equipment between a desktop and a windows laptop (dell XPS) using a "dumb kvm" that wrangles a few USB outputs and two DisplayPort inputs. the laptop only has USB-C output so it connects to a fancy thunderbolt dock borrowed from a friend which then goes to the KVM. I have a third monitor only connected to the desktop with a laptop stand in front of it for a third screen

It takes a couple seconds to switch but otherwise works flawlessly unlike my previous solution of shitty dongles, switching dual input monitors, and moving a usb hub input cable between machines. I also considered rebuilding the desktop to have a thunderbolt output and buying a thunderbolt switching KVM but I couldnt make it work

desktop - kvm - fancy dock - laptop Full diagram: https://imgur.com/a/ah54fjd

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#98
post #96

I had the same need and ended up using a USB Hub that required manual clicks to switch between devices. All software-based or network-based switches were a no-go in my case. I love the idea of a hardware-based switch that allows for seamless transitions between devices. Who will pick up the gauntlet and allow those of us without a soldering iron to buy a ready-to-use box?

[deleted]

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#99
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does absolute mouse work? The mouse hw just reports delta x/y and has no idea how the corners of your screen map to your desk surface. So it sounds like special hw. or very frequent recalibration of “corners” after moving mouse when machine is off or lifting+moving (which would essentially be what would happen when using it on machine 2)

It is not putting your mouse itself in absolute mode (only graphics tablets really operate in absolute mouse mode). It's just outputting absolute mode reports to the host. Absolute mouse HID report has a logical/physical min/max, not just delta. Regardless of size of screen, min/max correspond to the boundaries in absolute mode. So it's just keeping track internally of the incremental relative accumulation of your mo…

As I understand GPIO speed is limited and below usb 2.0 speed if I am not mistaken. So what is the maximum speed of this setup? How ‘gaming” gaming mouse can be?

Re: DeskHop – Fast Desktop Switching

#100
post #13

> Ever tried to move that YT video slider to a specific position but your mouse moves too jumpy and suddenly you are moving your hand super-carefully like you're 5 and playing "Operation" all over again? On YouTube specifically, you can scrub through a video frame-by-frame using the , (comma) and . (period) keys, no custom hardware required. :-)

I wish there was a solution for Android. Sliders for fine grained selections are horrible in touch interfaces.

You can pull the slider up for finer control, though every now and then they tweak how well this works so YMMV
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