Dr. Bott MoniSwitch ADC

[mac27]

Just sharing some images of this neat little device I acquired recently, the Dr. Bott MoniSwitch ADC, which is a KVM switch that allows you to hook up two ADC-based Macs to a single display and switch between them at the press of a button. It also allows you to share any peripherals attached to the display's USB hub.

These only work with the ADC LCD Studio and Cinema Displays, i.e., they are not compatible with the 17" ADC CRT Studio Display.

Information on these is pretty scarce, so I documented this NOS unit on my website with lots of photos and a video showing what it's like to use.

It's a very simple device, just some lights and a button on the front and some connectors and a power switch on the rear. It draws its power from ADC so there's no additional power cable needed. ADC can be a real pain sometimes but IMO it can also be great, and this is one example of that.

All hooked up with my G4 QS and MDD.

In addition to an ADB and DVI version, there was also a "Pro" ADC model (Macworld article) that allowed you to hook up to 4 displays. If anyone has one of these they'd be interested in parting with, I might be interested! These are great little space savers and I'm glad to have one in my collection now.

 

[bakkus]

Wow, I've never seen such a thing.
Really interesting!

 

[mac27]

A neat side note, according to the original product page on Dr. Bott's website (Internet Archive link) this was actually used by Steve Jobs to demo OS X at various Macworld keynotes. Would certainly be useful in case like that where you're switching between computers on the fly.

 

[PL212]

I have to think the real use case they're referring to was rapidly switching to another, identical computer -- being driven by an employee closely mirroring Jobs' actions -- in the case of an unexpected demo crash

 

[wottle]

I have a 4 port ADC / DVI switch from Gefen that has 4 DVI and USB inputs, and one ADC output. Allowing you to share a single ADC monitor (only the LCDs, though, since the CRT didn't support digital signals, and I believe the switcher didn't support analog signals (I could be wrong - never tried it).

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Very cool. A couple ADC kvms is something I NEED lol

 

[mac27]

I have a 4 port ADC / DVI switch from Gefen that has 4 DVI and USB inputs, and one ADC output. Allowing you to share a single ADC monitor (only the LCDs, though, since the CRT didn't support digital signals, and I believe the switcher didn't support analog signals (I could be wrong - never tried it).

Very cool, sounds like the same concept as the "Pro" ADC model by Dr. Bott. Having DVI inputs instead of ADC would make it much easier to use with a mix of Macs and PCs.

Yes, my understanding is that the 17" CRT uses only analog signaling over ADC; I haven't tried to use one of these switches with it myself either (yet). That will be neat to test at some point.

 

[wottle]

Very cool, sounds like the same concept as the "Pro" ADC model by Dr. Bott. Having DVI inputs instead of ADC would make it much easier to use with a mix of Macs and PCs.

Yes, my understanding is that the 17" CRT uses only analog signaling over ADC; I haven't tried to use one of these switches with it myself either (yet). That will be neat to test at some point.

The Dr. Bott's version looks like (by the marking on the back) it may work in either direction, given that one ADC port is marked "I/O" and the others are A/B/C/D. Also, looks like it has USB, but I'm not sure what that is for (power?).

Mine (https://www.kvm-switches-online.com...KyIrJlRAntpVz8xDmoobf-4ZnKWe3LVHw_-gWdOBXpglq)) only works to connect multiple computers to a single set of monitors. I'm not sure if it mirrors the displays, but the documentation on the link above show it using both the ADC and DVI output, but I don't believe the ADC connector has any way to send two signals, so I imagine it is just mirroring the display.

 

[mac27]

The Dr. Bott's version looks like (by the marking on the back) it may work in either direction, given that one ADC port is marked "I/O" and the others are A/B/C/D. Also, looks like it has USB, but I'm not sure what that is for (power?).

Mine (https://www.kvm-switches-online.com...KyIrJlRAntpVz8xDmoobf-4ZnKWe3LVHw_-gWdOBXpglq)) only works to connect multiple computers to a single set of monitors. I'm not sure if it mirrors the displays, but the documentation on the link above show it using both the ADC and DVI output, but I don't believe the ADC connector has any way to send two signals, so I imagine it is just mirroring the display.

The original product page for the MoniSwitch ADC Pro indicates that the USB port is for connecting a USB keyboard/mouse if you're using a DVI-based display with it instead of an ADC display. The switch gets all its power from the ADC bus, as does the non-Pro model. I really like that about it.

Not sure about the "I/O" marking's meaning though, re: working both ways.

It appears that the Gefen product only supports using one display output at a time, based on the language in the documentation you linked ("any combination of ... computers using one DVI or ADC display"; "simply plug your display [in]").