[rescue] Re: Closet trading

[Gavin Hubbard]

>Message: 9
>Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 19:02:41 -0700
>From: "James Birdsall" <jwbirdsa at hotmail.com>
>Subject: [rescue] Closet trading
>To: "The Rescue List" <rescue at sunhelp.org>
>Message-ID: <Law10-OE16XZR5uLJQc0002a5ec at hotmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>I'm looking for any of the following, from Apex/Avocent, or anything that
>does the same job:
>
>ELC-11ST Sun video/kb/mouse to VGA/PS2
>ELC-12KM Mac video/ADB to VGA/PS2
>ELC-11RVA RS/6000 video to VGA
>ELC-11RVB HP video to VGA
>
>I have my SS2 hooked up to my KVMs now with an ELC-11ST. I'll need to do
>some keyboard tweaking in X, but that's OK, and in general it rocks,
>particularly the "getting rid of two big-ass monitors in a cramped
>apartment" part. I'm especially interested in the -12KM or similar beasts:
>Suns, RS/6000s, and HPs can always run serial, but Macs can't.


FWIW the ELC-11RVA and ELC-11RVB are actually the same part but with
different adaptor cables for the EL/11RV video adaptor unit. The HP unit
has an HD15-HD15 cable and the RS/6000 unit has an HD15-3W3 cable.

Belkin do a cheapish Sun to PC conversion box but IMO it is a piece of
cheap junk (for emergency use only).

I agree with your comments about console consolidation. One of the best
investments I ever made was in an Apex Switchback console extender (now
called the Apex/Avocent LongView). It can run KVM and audio signals through
several hundred feet of UTP cable. This means you can put all your noisy
systems in the machine room and run a remote console from your office
without laying any new cabling (assuming you have a spare UTP line between
the two locations). The Switchback unit I have even allows for a local
console in the machine room if you want to work in there. The video quality
is very good - my remote console is around 60 feet from my machine room and
I cannot see any video distortion on a Philips LCD panel running at 1280x1024.

Regards,

Gavin