APPENDIX: Cable and Connector Guidelines
Appendix:
Cable and Connector Guidelines
IMPORTANT NOTE
The maximum cable lengths supported vary widely between devices and cables. It might be possible to use cables that are longer than those specified below with certain PCs and peripherals, but this cannot be guaranteed. If you experience problems, try using shorter cables.
A.1 Cabling: Keyboard, Monitor, and Mouse to ServSwitch Duo
All of the shared devices plug directly into the relevant ports at the rear of the ServSwitch Duo. If you use a PC/AT style keyboard you will need a PC/AT (5-pin DIN female) to PS/2 (6-pin mini-DIN male) adapter. (These are readily available from Black Box.) User Extension Cables can be used to increase the distance from ServSwitch Duo up to 30 ft. (9.1 m; see Section 3.3); many keyboards and mice will operate at distances up to 65 ft. (20 m), but do not count on this.
A.2 Cabling: ServSwitch Duo to PCs
Video: HD15 male to HD15 male, wired as a standard VGA PC-to-monitor cable. There are two types commonly available. The better type, which will carry video very well, are constructed with coaxial cable cores. The not-so-good type—cheaper cable more suited for data communication—is often used, but can degrade video quality, especially over longer distances. Avoid using “data cables” longer than
6 ft./2 meters unless video quality is not important in your application. Good coaxial video cables may be run at distances up to 165 ft. (50 m) with little loss of video quality, but the longest we recommend going—unless you use the ServSwitch Duo Extender (KV6EXT; see its manual for details)—is 100 ft. (30.5 m) over the video strand of our CPU Extension Cables (see Section 3.3).
Keyboard and PS/2 mice: 6 pin mini-DIN male to 6 pin mini-DIN male with all lines connected straight through (1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc.). If the PC has a 5-pin DIN PC/AT style keyboard connector, you will need a PS/2 to PC/AT keyboard adapter, 6-pin mini-DIN female to 5-pin DIN male. (One of these is included for each four CPU ports on your Switch; if you need more, they are readily available from Black Box.) Keyboard and mouse cables, such as the keyboard and mouse strands of our CPU Extension Cables (see Section 3.3), should be no longer than 100 ft. (30.5 m).
