[mremes]

I have been switching my USB peripherals (dongles mostly) and display ports for a while now within my desktop setup, and just now become aware of existence of these. I'm wondering how does this kind of switching work with e.g. Bluetooth.

EDIT: Apparently, based on HN search, many HN users have realized the same within the past few years.

[5bolts]

I don't think i've seen one that can handle bluetooth devices, unless maybe you plugged a bluetooth dongle into the switch?

i'd go more with multi device keyboards and mice. like the logitech mx keys for example. have mine paired to 3 devices currently - easily toggle between them with a switch on the keyboard. Granted its not as seamless but sometimes i just want to quickly respond to an email on my personal rig while still watching work queues.

they also have mice/trackballs with the same tech - although the mxmaster mouse has the switch on the bottom so not as convienent.. and the mx ergo trackball only toggles between 2 devices.

other options if screen realestate isn't as important are things like the genki shadow play. While targeted at gamers - it works great as an HDMI input device. I use mine to work on raspberry pi projects on my main system. Its view only - won't pass control through it, but sometimes thats all you really want.

and on the other end of the spectrum, full display port KVM's like these from Level 1 techs:

https://store.level1techs.com/products/14-kvm-switch-quad-mo...

display port 1.4: 2 computers, 4 screen switching

[mremes]

Thanks for sharing! I actually have MX Mechanical keyboard in my setup, which uses Easy-Switch function, but I might need to get multiple dongles. As far as I have understood, in a KVM setup it's one port to connect from a target device to the switch, which is rather a convenience.

Of course, you might run up into a problem that you actually don't want to plug some devices into the switch when switching to another PC (for example some audio equipment)... So in a dream device, there would be switches on-off switches for ports (or groups of ports) and target PC enum switch. Probably some modular approach would work for making groups of ports switchable.

EDIT: https://www.avaccess.com/eu/product-category/kvm-usb-extende... (link to the manufacturer's e-commerce site) seems to have a good repertoire of KVM extenders.

EDIT1: Bluetooth support is still the missing piece in these...