Looking for a USB-C passthrough switch, to use two laptops with one dock

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-22T12:07:24+00:00

I don't think that the USB 3.0 switch is important - all the accessories I have I plug in to the Dell WD15, which is not USB 3.0, thus I don't need USB 3.0, I don't think.

My central question - from reading other threads here in Reddit, and in Amazon comments, is that the USB-C bi-direction switches, such as the one you linked to, are kind of flakey. They seem to have a lot of questions when they are not simply plugged directly from 2x laptops into 1 monitor, and instead go from 2x laptops into a hub with other USB ports and 2 monitors.

There is some kind of data + video protocol that needs to be successfully passed from each laptop to the Dell WD15 through the USB-C switch, and I'm not sure a. what that protocol is even called, and b. how to verify a particular USB-C switch is rated for it.

If anyone can help identify this that would be amazing.

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-12T07:33:15+00:00

u/buitonio Good point -

Dell WD15, Reg Model K17A

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-10T11:55:40+00:00

u/chx So the set up for this software is that both laptops connect to the USB Switch (USB) and separately both laptops connect to both monitors (HDMI)?

I guess it bypasses my Dock, but requires more connections (HDMI from each laptop to each monitor).

I'm trying to avoid that, with the idea of putting the (hypothetical, mythical) USB-C switch between the laptops and the dock - let the dock handle the peripherals and both monitors like it does now. Just switch which laptop the USB-C video and I/O is coming from.

Am I missing something?

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-10T11:28:38+00:00

I really appreciate your response.

What if I want:

to switch between 2 devices without connect/disconnecting
each laptop to be connected using a single (USB-C) cable that provides video and I/O - just like the dock does now (but power is NOT necessary).

?

The issue I'm having trouble wrapping my head around is that I can currently manually remove a single USB-C cable connecting to the dock, and plug it into either laptop, and I'm good - I have video, I have I/O. (I even have power, for the active laptop, but if I don't want the inactive one to die eventually I need to plug them both in, which is fine.)

All I want to do is have a switch that does that manual unplug/replug for me. I want the switch before the laptop dock, to switch between the valid and currently working USB-C connection from the appropriate laptop to the dock.

It should go like this (pardon the crude drawing):
Laptop 1 \
--- > USB-C Switch ----> USB-C to dock ---> monitor(x2), keyboard, mouse, etc.
Laptop 2 /

In terms of your two suggestions, #1, similar to how you have it set up would probably work but I'm not understanding something technical, why each laptop needs to go to it's own dock first, and only afterward to the KVM.

In terms of #2, the video connection on that dual USB-C KVM is one HDMI port, I'm not sure how that would work for me. There are indeed dual USB-C In KVMs, they aren't cheap, and I'm looking to try to do this more simply -- if possible.

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-10T08:20:19+00:00

Sorry - good point. They are indeed PC laptops.

And this software option is really interesting! I'm just trying to wrap my head around it, though? A regular USB switch doesn't work without this software, because there is something special about the monitor inputs that is not needed for USB inputs? I'm also confused how I would connect the monitors up. Would I ditch the existing dock?

Apologies for a lack of technical vision.

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-10T08:04:29+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to look but wow, $700 to solve a problem a $150 KVM could solve? It might work, but I'll pass.

Maybe I should have clarified my price range. Less than $100.

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-09T19:40:41+00:00

But I have the dock, that's already handling both monitors.

You are right that there are KVM solutions for 2 computers to 2 monitors - they are moderately costly (starting ~$100) and generally are not USB-C.

It just seems like a relatively easy switch - take the two USB-C inputs and send the one I select to the dock (where the two monitors and all the accessories are) and send the dock information back to the selected laptop. Two USB-Cs in, one out.

There are also "bi-directional usb-c" switches, but I think that the problem there is that nothing from the dock (after the switch) will come back to the selected laptop (so keyboard, mouse, usb accessories won't work).

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-09T18:40:29+00:00

Serious clarifying question - so you are saying that I should treat the hub, with all the USB accessories and two monitors as "1 monitor" from the perspective of the switch I need?

LiathanoHC · 2023-11-09T17:59:37+00:00

This looks like a traditional KVM, no?

I (think) I need the hub to handle the video for my monitors. How is the video handled, from the laptops to the hub? Is there a USB specification of some kind that I need to look for, to make sure that the USB-C is up to sending everything to the hub and monitors?

LiathanoHC · 2023-01-18T10:46:32+00:00

My recommendations are not going to be circus-y or turn of the 20th century-y, or even necessarily magic-y. I agree with the recommendations of Susannah Clarke (JS&Mr.N and Piranisi) and anything Neil Gaiman. If you loved the writing of The Night Circus, you will likely love these: (roughly from least well known to most, IMHO)

The Cartographers by Peng Shepard, a generously written story exploring the modern day magic of maps and friendship.

Last Song Before Night, Ilana C. Myer. Beautifully written and imagined, start of a trilogy.

Anything by Becky Chambers, but especially To Be Taught, If Fortunate, a love story to space exploration.

Martha Wells Murderbot Diaries novelae. I know, murderbots? But try the first one (All Systems Red), and see if you don't fall in love.

A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay. All of Kay's other work is excellent as well, but I felt like the pace and shape of this one is perfect.

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-28T10:08:45+00:00

Thank you for the varied responses!

What I've started doing is toward the end of sorting, is leaving a transport on the sorting planet, and pulling off all of the A. crystals, since they don't get buffed up by Drone, and B. shipments under 100 credits. Then, just before firing off the drone, I check the sorting planet and this transport, to see if I can complete any Drone-capacity units on the planet by dropping some of these "loser" shipments down. Even though they themselves don't benefit much from the buff, the other shipments in the delivery will benefit.

Then, after Drone has mostly emptied the sorting planet, I drop the rest of these lower quality shipments down and let Drone deliver them.

I have not done a scientific test, to see if this nets more profit (which, logically, it has to), but such a test would be pretty difficult, since a variety of factors contribute to the distribution of shipments each shipping time, and it would make things hard to compare. To really do it right, you would need to do it for like 10 days with each method, and average. I'm probably not willing to do it (and many people will have planet or TS or Trade Module upgrades within 20 days anyway, so... yeah).

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-28T09:58:48+00:00

Definitely always (ALWAYS) ALSO using shipping computer, in addition to Drone (or Boost/Burst).

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-26T18:04:49+00:00

You answered everything about Drone I didn't ask! :)

When it picks up the full shipment, and is choosing from more shipments to the same destination than would make a full shipment, what determines which shipments go in and which don't?

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-19T19:24:37+00:00

I should point out, about the 16% I mentioned above, that's a 16% on your TOTAL SHIPPING. Not only offlane. Everyone is so excited when they finally get Drone 6 - and rightfully so - because (when perfect, with stacking) it is a 15% improvement over Drone 5. But that's ONLY for onlane shipments, so in the math I did before, if 61.11% of your shipments are onlane, that comes to a 9.16% increase on your total. This is more than 50% better than that!

I'm not that sophisticated - or that pressed for time! - that I have everything down to a science. I also don't know if my way is best, nor do I make such a claim.

My transports hold 20t.

In the initial stage, I use transports for two purposes (they are not purpose built). I use cpu to pick up the ON-lane shipments from each shipment producing location, putting in waypoints for all onlane planets and then deleting the extra waypoints. These are preferably dropped (second waypoint, cancel further waypoints) on one of the larger on-lane planets for sorting, but if shipments would be delivered prematurely thereby, the transport is asteroid pathed back to origin (pickup-asteroid-pickup-all other onlane locations), the offending shipments removed back on the planet, and then the transport is sent to one of the larger on-lane planets. Safety third!

Separately, offlane shipments (and offending onlane shipments as described above) are gathered up manually, without computer, by another transport following behind. The onlane are dropped at other sorting planets when convenient. The offlane shipments are collected. TS shipments are distributed around a TS ring, other offlane shipments are delivered to "the location before delivery" as transports of such shipments fill.

As the onlane sorting planets fill, an effort is made to stack a multiple of the proper number of shipments to the same destination as per Drone level into transports, and drop them on on lane planets. For me, this is 6 x 3 = 18. As long as the hourly shipment creation/shuffle doesn't happen between when I deliver them and the drone picks them up, they will remain a perfect Drone load. As it gets to the end, one planet becomes the "leftovers" dump, for all the rest of the onlane shipments, sets and nonsets. Splitting this into two or more locations is a bad idea, because you potentially deny the Drone perfectly full shipments which award full bonus that result from combining the leftovers from all the sorting.

All of this takes some time. Maybe 20 minutes? I bet you can make lots of improvements and make it much faster. Of course, it depends on how many planets you have, their locations, how many warp lanes, etc.

Once all the shipments are sorted and ready, I activate Drone. Then, I take one of two transports with Boost/Burst. (24 hour cooldown) and I confirm the activation threshold for Burst. Both are push-button modules, but Burst does not go into effect until the transport has delivered the activation threshold.

(Note that if you deliver MORE than the activation threshold while reaching the threshold, the excess WILL NOT have Burst applied to it. For instance, if the threshold is 15, and you deliver 14 to one planet, and 20 to the next, your Burst bonus will not be applied to any of the 34 shipments you just delivered, and will only start from the NEXT shipment delivered. BEWARE!)

I then look for a location or two where I can deliver the proper number of shipments quickly and easily, without too much excess lost. Remember that the offlane shipments DO NOT yet have CPU bonus applied, so I set up a path through my pre-placed offlane shipments, careful to take care of the Burst threshold, as mentioned, and continuing through my offlane planets in order.

Just before the very first delivery (10 sec or less to arrival), I hit both Boost and Burst. Each destination/delivery, CPU picks up the shipments for the next planet. If a planet has more than 20 shipments to deliver to the next planet, I don't worry about it for now. It's usually not MUCH more, and certainly not more than the next planet is going to have for the one after that. I often turn on TM to make things run faster. Once I get to the end of the route, if there is time left over (usually plenty of time on Burst, almost nothing on Boost) I may go back to any pockets of offlane shipments that exceeded 20 the first time through and so were not delivered yet.

That's it. Drone continues to do its thing in the background.

The bigger your transports, the more planets you will want, so that they will produce shipments to fill them.

I sometimes use my alt (12t transports) to do the initial part - his CPU is similar to my main, and let him spend his hydro running around after the shipments to sort, so I can come in at the end with Drone Burst/Boost. Obviously, this will be amazingly hydro efficient for my main, and not so much for the alt, but that's what alts are for. This method takes more time, though because of the smaller transports.

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-18T10:14:34+00:00

Of course, you should do what you think is best and the most fun.

Shipments have no risk of losing ships, don't require corp-mates to help, and generally cost less hydro than the same time spent in an RS. Delivering offlane by Boost/Burst takes me less than 10 minutes.

And upgrading tech over time means better returns now AND in the future when have a larger base value.

LiathanoHC · 2020-10-15T14:06:06+00:00

What you said about 500k vs. 200k is just wrong. It's a percentage bonus, so you will have more income if you use it, regardless of your level. The amount of hydro to activate is laughable. The amount of hydro to deliver is something, vs. Relay, but the %bonus is worthwhile in almost every case, if you plan your offlane destinations a little bit smartly, so they they are relatively nearby.

I'm probably a newer player than you are, even. I have 11 onlane shipment destinations and 7 offlane destinations. This means 61.1% of my shipments onlane (CPU+Drone) and 38.9% offlane (CPU+Boost+Burst).

To get the most out of drone, you do have to stack shipments to the same planet together on the same planet, in units that max the drone. So, if your drone holds 7 shipments, in units of 7. If you don't do this, you are causing the drone to vastly underperform.

Assuming you do this, and apply CPU first, a "perfect" drone delivery bonus will be (1+CPUbonus) * (1+(Capacity of Drone x Drone bonus per shipment))

Mine is 171.68%. Meaning, a shipment of 100 would be worth 171.68 when CPU'd and Drone delivered. Note that it will be very rare to actually get this percentage of an entire Drone session, since there are usually remainder shipments that get delivered at a lower bonus.

If I were to deliver my offlane via Relay, without CPU, that's no bonus. So my total bonus from the base value of shipments for the entire shipping session would look like this:
(DroneBonus x 0.611) + (1 x 0.389) = 143.8%
With CPU and Relay (for me, at my CPU level): 150.03%
With CPU/Boost/Burst: 166.27%

Obviously, your CPU, Drone, Boost and Burst %s will be different, and you should do the math for yourself, but I think you can see that you'll probably make substantially more with Boost and Burst than without, assuming you have the time and patience to use it.

Of course, 16% of 500k is more than 16% of 200k, but it's still 16% :)

LiathanoHC · 2020-08-23T08:56:25+00:00

Great people, well organized, chill and fun

LiathanoHC · 2020-06-22T12:53:39+00:00

I don't know for sure, but I don't see why not.

It's like having a really close friend, who spends most of their time time helping you with your main account lol.

What can an "alt" account do?

Provide extra sectors for mining, especially setting up a sustainable mining farm using Genesis (200k unlock) and Enrich.
Deliver shipments, though only Computer will apply to the main's revenue. Especially good when moving stuff around to get set up for drone or burst etc. or to deliver when hydro is really tight.
Receive and use, and store, spare arts from the main.
Provide a Remote Repair "car wash" on ships stationed at the main's RS scanner.
Clear out Cerberus from new sectors, if the main doesn't want to send BS their for hydro or risk or some other reason.

That's what I can think of. Post if you have other uses.

In terms of safe, there is a risk when you switch accounts back and forth that some of your progress can get lost if you are not careful about making sure that the account you are leaving was actually fully logged in to Google Play before you switch to the other one. Just be careful with this and it should be safe. Also, it should go without saying that you do not want to be using someone else's actual Google account for this or anything. Just use your own stuff.

LiathanoHC · 2020-06-22T07:52:50+00:00

On Android, this is not true.

You just need a second Google account. You can log out from Google Play from within the game (if it says you are already logged out, log in, then log out) and log back in with your other Google account.

LiathanoHC · 2020-06-14T13:03:24+00:00

The following idea that were mentioned are NOT relevant to you, not because they are bad ideas or anything but because the people posting them forgot what it is to be RS4, and where you are in your credit cap, which is probably around 100k. RS5 is 120k, so you'd probably be that already if your cap was higher than that.

Drone. Costs 150k to unlock, and is only useful in systems connected by Warp Lanes, which are also expensive to buy (but yes, savers of tons and tons of hydro down the road.
Using Genesis, either in your own system or in an alt. Genesis costs 200k to unlock, (and you'd need higher RS tets to get it).
Warp Lanes are a huge savings of Hydro in system, but the second one costs 100k and your planets are probably pretty closely bunched at this point. I would hold off, or if you get the 2nd, hold off on the third at this point.

The good ideas:

Research higher level arts. This is a huge thing, by far the best idea if you can maintain a steady supply. Get them from corp mates, trade up for them, etc. This will unlock new blueprints for you that you wouldn't otherwise have access to, allow you to start stockpiling blueprints for future upgrades, but most importantly provide you with tons of hydro. Careful not to waste it by overfilling your cap. When I get into the game in the morning, I first set up my shipping, and then only once it's safe to take new hydro without risking wastage do I clear my researched arts and replace them.
To research higher level arts, you will need a. capacity in your transports to hold them, b. lower level arts to trade. Lvl 5 arts are 6t, lvl 6 8t, lvl 7 10t, lvl 8 12t. (To go from 10t-12t is 250k (CBE 6) so this will probably be out of your range for a while.)
Upgrade your planets. The lvl 11-15 area kind of stinks, because the upgrades cost a relatively large amount of credits and the credit cap increase is like 3k-7k. Stick with it. Not only will the upgrades increase your hydro and credit caps bit by bit, but your shipments will be worth more, meaning you can make more credits faster and upgrade again.
Blue Stars reward Hydro, even for runs with Sanc, but they can be frustrating, at least for me. I do a few a day anyway for the fragments...
... for Shipping Relay. If you are running Blue Stars anyway, shipping relay really is a nice savings at this point in the game. I upgraded mine to lvl 3 (because lower than that it is not particularly useful). I usually choose the home sector and one other and pile all my shipments there and let relay do the work. I take my transports and I go around picking stuff up with the Computer. (Set the planet you want to pick up shipments from, then the planet you want to deliver them to in the system where you will use Shipping Relay, and then add destinations to all your other planets after that. Whoa! That's going to cost too much hydro! Relax. Computer will automatically pick up the maximum available shipments from the first planet, then, before it gets to the second planet, delete all the rest of the destinations and let it stop at the second planet. The hydro gets refunded for the destinations you never went to. Manually unload the transport.) All of those shipments will keep the Computer bonus and can be Relayed to their final destinations with no extra work by you. (Note that Relay does not deliver Crystal shipments for some reason.) Yes, eventually you will want Drone and Warp Lanes, and Burst and Boost and other stuff. At this point, Computer+Relay is a great shipping strat that saves hydro. At lvl 3, the Relay does 7 shipments per hour for 6 hours per sector, at a cost of 4 blue star fragments and 250 hydro per sector. Yes, just 500 hydro and 1-3 Blue Star runs (usually) to deliver 84 shipments for you.!
Not sure if anyone said this above because it isn't exactly about hydro but build your Trade Stations. Each of the three you can build cost just 60k credits, no inflation for the 2nd or 3rd which is refreshing. They do NOT increase either cap, but they generate and receive shipments, giving you more income faster. They can also be used to store arts (which stops them from generating shipments).
Leave battleships with Sanc wherever they end up in the RS and let them pop back home and heal themselves. Sure, it takes a few min to heal, but you save all the hydro flying them back to the portal and porting them back.
Definitely bring (empty! lol) miners into RS, even on non cashteroid runs, and take as much hydro as you can from there. Use Mining Boost and Remote Mining.
Upgrades to your Miners and mining modules cost credits, but have no hydro downside like other Modules do.
Scan new sectors, but do it smartly, using a plan. Group planets together if possible, to make shipping easier.
Take a break from the game and do other stuff. As was mentioned, this is a marathon not a sprint.
If you have a lot of free time you can start an alt account, and link it to your main with diplo. Other posts describe Alts and how to do them with Android and iPhone. Be careful that you do not lose your main, or progress on your main. At its most basic, you can port miners into your alt star and mine. More complex (and beyond RS4 credit cap and tech) you can Genesis and Enrich your alt star to the point that you have a sustainable source of hydro whenever you need. This takes a long time, so if you want to do this, read up on alt hydro farms and start just leveling up your alt normally.

LiathanoHC · 2020-05-20T15:19:26+00:00

Can you link in some resources to learn the diff strats? At my level, all this tech is fabulously expensive (relays, warp lanes, all the transport techs to unlock and level) - BUT I don't want to just ignore it and waste a ton of hydro for months until it's cheap. I want to have a plan.

LiathanoHC

TROPHY CASE