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Using USB to Separate Computer and Keyboard/Mouse?

Posted by Cliff on from the gaining-some-distance dept.

Klaus Thorn asks: "As a member of a technical team that plans a radio station with several audio-editing cabins I'm thinking about separating the noisy heat-producing computer from the cabin using one VGA cable and one USB cable. The computer is in the computer storage room. In the cabin there is (besides LCD) an USB hub with keyboard, mouse, soundcard and CDR-drive. Has anyone tried this? I need to know whether this all-USB-solution is clean and stable or a bunch of problems. I need to know what distance I can put between cabin and computer-storage room. Let's assume USB 2.0 and amplifying USB cables and Windows XP."

"One more detail: When the admin changes some hardware in the computer store room he does not want to run to the cabin to push a button. He could plug out the USB cable and plug in another USB cable that is connected to mouse and keyboard in the same room. After he's finished he could exchange the usb cables again (to the one leading to the cabin). This is only sensible if the computer will accept all four USB devices without driver reinstall and reboot. Anyone tried this or can predict wether this will work?"

3 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Some mods I'd make by bluGill · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While I understand the value of putting all comptuers in a server room, I think that you would be better of to just have the computer in a closet outside the room, or in a soundproof (yet well cooled...) cabinet inside. I'm not convinced you will be changing hardware often enough to make pushing a button in each cabin a problem. Software updates are a different issue, and those you might change often.

    I strongly recomend you keep most of your disks in a file server, and store all files on that. With SAMBA (windows networking can work too) to share as needed. Keep the harddrive noise far away because it is on the network. Also puts the componants you most want to replace in a central location next to the comptuer they are connected to, and lusers can't touch that machine.

    Extended cables work ok at best, but you are introducing potential problems with them. By having the comptuer just outside you can run a few more cables inside the room, and still get off just as good.

    Drop the USB cd drives for ieee1394 (firewire). A little more complex, but you have a solution that was designed for data drives from the start. If you have a lot of money fibre channel would be nice, but odds are you don't.

    USB in theory allows you to plug multipul devices in. I'd expiriment with a usb hub local to the machine for pluging a second keyboard/mouse into without unpluging the one in the remote room. Dual monitor graphics cards exist, I'd consider putting one in each machine, so you don't have to unplug the remote monitor. Remember unpluging cables is what damages them, so you want to avoid that. Monitor are not always hot-plug, so you don't want to unplug them anyway. Or, instead of the complexities of the above, will VNC or similear solve all console admin needs?

    Expiriment first. Try all the technology on one computer (that you can borrow for the purpose) first, to make sure it will work ok. If there is a problem that you can't overcome you don't want to have bought a large setup only to find it won't work.

    One other thing I'd be tempted to try is some custom mini-ITX boards in a custom case. Use flash for booting, and set it read-only so that lusers don't go breaking the configuration. (better yet boot from the net, but that isn't easy) Provides most of the outputs you want, and use the network for all your admin. With the right heatsinks and case design they make no noise. When you do have to do a hardware change, you pull a spare off the shelf, make the change, test it, then bring the whole system to the cabin and replace the old on.

    Not all these ideas are compatable. Only you know your exact setup, so only you know what will work for you.

  2. Re:Stable, sure, by computersareevil · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Audio editing in real time over VNC.
    You slashdot posters crack me up.

    Obviously you understand neither the sumitter's need nor VNC. Realtime is not a problem on a private network.

    You unintelligent snobs crack me up.

  3. Re:usb by Schmucky+The+Cat · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Nobody cares that it's a master slave relationship. Especially for HID. Why would you want a keyboard that had a special peering relationship with the box?

    Bandwidth is not limited for the purpose. He has 400Mbps to play with for hi-speed devices. If he's only got full speed, he's got 12Mbps, which (since it's pretty much dedicated) is enough to stream several uncompressed audio channels.

    USB uses a single IRQ for the host controller. Devices don't use any irq or dma resources on the host machine. On any modern machine with a decent chipset (not *cough* via) you've got IRQ steering and APIC. I deal with IRQ issues on USB about once a year. And I develop USB device drivers, so I'm talking about a few thousand test boxes.