Monitor/Keyboard & Mouse Switchbox thing?

I'm looking to purchase a switchbox thing so I can have multiple computers hooked up to one monitor and just have to flick a switch to switch between them....I was wondering if anyone has and links to good sites that sell them?

PReferably UK based

Thanks in advance!

 

A m8 of mine has a belkin 1 which was about £40 - forgot where he got it from but it's possible it may have been from PC World or something.

 

You mean a KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch?

For what they are, they are very expensive!

 

KVM Switch! Thats exactly what I'm after.

And after a quick look at the Belkin site I've found one I like for fairly cheap (£20).

Thanks guys

 

Yes they can be quite expensive indeed. A friend of mine paid over 60e for a 4-port one.

 

I had been looking for something like this a few years ago, and gave up because of the astronomical prices. Wouldn't it be possible, much less exponentially cheaper to make one's own device?

 

Well, bear in mind you have to switch a lot of wires - about 25 - per PC. And it has to be properly shielded (the VGA part, anyway).

 

I once thought about making my own switch but I hate soldering so I never got around to doing it, but I did have a nice idea about building one IMO.

Building one from scratch would be a lot of work and I couldnt find a suitable switch at the local eletronics stores with all the necessary pins for this project.
My idea was to hack one of those printer switches(DB25) for this.
It comes in a nice box, the switch already comes with all the wires soldered(around 100 wires for a 4-port switch!!) and the DB25 plug is right for the job.
VGA(15pin)+Keyboard(5pin)+Mouse(5pin)=25 pin
Dont forget that both VGA, Keyboard and Mouse plugs have some unused pins and some common ones so the DB25 plug has more than enough pins for this.

You just have to replace each of the DB25 ports on the box with a VGA+2xMini-Din plug.

Have fun! :smt023

 

Better keep all the pins and keep the seperate grounds seperate.