Keyboard and Mouse Switch

The Plc Kid

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The Plc Kid
Join Date
Feb 2009
Location
Macon, Georgia
Posts
3,233
Doea anyone know of a company that makes a physical switch to enable and disable a ps2 or usb mouse and keyboard.

We us FT View Se running on versaview panel pc's in most places in our plant. Most units have keyboards and mouse for maintenancxe use. All operator functions can be used from the touch screen. We ahve problems with operators palying with the keyboards and some of the enclosures are not setup to add the keyboard lockbox add on enclosure.

I am looking for a physical switch or some way to do it with software easily. Is there a 3rd party software maybe. My google search has not turned up much more than using wireless keyboard which is not an option here or use of a kvm which would open a larger can of worms.

I would think someone would make something to do this.

Anyone else had this issue?
 
For USB you might be able to find a USB hub that doesn't draw power from the USB port but rather an outside PSU. Just cut the power to the PSU and voila, no more USB input.
 
I use ultra vnc to remote in to the units but they keyboard and mouse is for local access / work and the boss is adamant that we have a physical keyboard and mouse at each unit.

Some of them i have in the keyboard enclosure boxes that are lockable but on some of the enclosures it is just not possible.

I was hoping to find some kind of ps2 on/off switch that could be placed in the main enclosure which is kept locked.

Just trying to pacify the boss. He does not use any method himself but you know how that goes.
 
Look up "PS2 Rotary switch box". A word of warning, PCs using PS2 keyboards aren't always as friendly with disconnections as USB. The linked example has a "keyboard lock up" button. I have no idea how it accomplishes it, but it's probably for that purpose.

http://homeavcables.com/ca294-2rs.html

I use rotary (dumb) switch boxes for Ethernet (RJ45), VGA (DB15), and other applications, but haven't used such a device for keyboards.

The Plc Kid said:
Doea anyone know of a company that makes a physical switch to enable and disable a ps2 or usb mouse and keyboard.

We us FT View Se running on versaview panel pc's in most places in our plant. Most units have keyboards and mouse for maintenancxe use. All operator functions can be used from the touch screen. We ahve problems with operators palying with the keyboards and some of the enclosures are not setup to add the keyboard lockbox add on enclosure.

I am looking for a physical switch or some way to do it with software easily. Is there a 3rd party software maybe. My google search has not turned up much more than using wireless keyboard which is not an option here or use of a kvm which would open a larger can of worms.
Click to expand...
 
you can just peal the outer of the cable and cut the red cable and place an ordinary switch, the mouse is supplied with 5vdc from the computer and red is + and black is -
 
Thats my take also Bob.

We have ikey keyboard/mouse combo units already installed and in use which he is pleanty happy with. They area problem for me though as production people tend to play more when they have a keyboard. Running FT View it is easy to messy things up and more difficult to get them fixed again.

That is why i am looking for a solution to disable the keyboard when not in use. Unplugging them was not simple enough for the boss. Works for me. Go figure.
 
What about the PS2 switch box I mentioned above? Wasn't that exactly what you were looking for?
 
I don't think a KVM switch is capable of "disconnecting" the keyboard unless you can trick it into thinking that another computer is connected. They do have a nice PS2 emulation feature that mitigates problems with disconnecting/reconnecting devices.
 
I have a pair of VB.NET apps that I made (client and server) that will allow you to remotely lock the mouse and keyboard on the computer that client is running on. Of course it was intended to goof with my coworkers so it does some other stuff too, but you are more than welcome to give it a shot and see if it works for you.

If it does work, I can strip out the other functions so it just locks the mouse and keyboard, or you can use them.

I've pretty much only tested it on XP, Vista 32 and W7 64.
 
ha ha - awesome!
dmroeder said:
I have a pair of VB.NET apps that I made (client and server) that will allow you to remotely lock the mouse and keyboard on the computer that client is running on. Of course it was intended to goof with my coworkers so it does some other stuff too, but you are more than welcome to give it a shot and see if it works for you.

If it does work, I can strip out the other functions so it just locks the mouse and keyboard, or you can use them.

I've pretty much only tested it on XP, Vista 32 and W7 64.
Click to expand...
 

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