Specifications

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SERVSWITCH™ WIZARD
3.3.3 S YNCHRONIZED W IZARD S YSTEMS FOR CPU SWITH M ULTIPLE V IDEO O UTPUTS
Some business environments, such as engineering and financial services, often
make use of CPUs with multiple video outputs (as in, multiple video cards and/or
video cards with multiple video heads). This is because these environments
frequently require more “video real estate” than a single monitor can provide.
It can be hard to integrate such CPUs into a KVM-switched system, because most
KVM switches make no provision for the extra video output. But the ServSwitch
Wizard supports these CPUs, and here’s how: When you switch to a different CPU
channel, the Wizard transmits the same switching command out of its RS-232 port.
Any other Wizard receiving this command will make the same channel change. So
you can connect a CPU’s additional video outputs to additional Wizards, then
interconnect your Wizards’ RS-232 ports to create a synchronized switching system
that switches all video feeds coming from each CPU at the same time.
(Note that each Wizard in a synchronized system must be powered through a
power supply and not from the keyboard interface.)
Make sure that your “master” ServSwitch Wizard—the chassis that your keyboard
and mouse will be attached to—is unplugged and powered down. If possible, turn
off and unplug all of the devices that you want to attach to this Wizard. (If you have
to “hot-plug” any powered computers into your Wizard system, see Section 5.8.)
Connect your primary user equipment (your keyboard, your PS/2 mouse, and
the first of your monitors) to the appropriate “control port” connectors on the
master Wizard’s rear panel. If you have had to place the Wizard farther from the
user equipment than the equipment’s native cables will reach—up to an additional
distance of 30 ft. (9.1 m)—you can plug the native cables into ServSwitch Duo
User-Extension Cable. If you need to place your user equipment farther away than
that, you’ll need to use one of our ServSwitch brand KVM extenders.
Attach all other monitors you’ll be using to the control-port video connector on
the rear panel of another Wizard. As with your primary user equipment, use video-
extension cable or ServSwitch Duo User-Extension Cable to cross gaps up to 30 ft.
(9.1 m), or one of our ServSwitch brand KVM extenders for longer distances.
Connect the additional Wizards to your master Wizard with DB15 cable. If your
CPUs output only two video feeds, so that you only need to synchronize two
Wizards, connect the second Wizard to the first with a special male-to-male DB15
synchronization cable (available on a quote basis; see Section A.3 of the Appendix
for a pinout). But if your CPUs output more than two video feeds, you’ll need to
use pass-through, multi-drop, or preferably one-to-many DB15 cabling; call Black
Box Tech Support to discuss your application.