LabAdviser/314/Microscopy 314-307/TEM/Tips/MagicSwitch
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(content by Jens Kling @DTU Nanolab, November 2021)
MagicSwitch
The MagicSwitch allows to use one keyboard and one mouse for several computers. It consists of a physical switch box (black box on the table) and a software running on all relevant computers. The mouse just needs to move across the screen to the next monitor. Then both, mouse and keyboard will work on this PC.
As long as the software is not running in the background, the mouse can't be moved to the next monitor. This is for example the case when the user is not logged into the Support PC. In this case, switch the computer on the physical switch box by clicking on the Computer button. The display will show the number of the computer (typically 1 for microscope PC, 2 or 3 for the Support PC depending on the number of PCs on the microscope).
Troubleshooting
What to do when the mouse can't be moved to the other computer(s)?
Follow these steps until it's working again:
- Make sure the software is running on all PCs and all PCs communicate with each other (software icon shows a green screen).
- Switch to the other computer by using the physical button on the switch box.
- Close the MagicSwitch software on the PC which is not responding and restart the software afterwards.
- Close the MagicSwitch software on all PCs and restart the software afterwards on all PCs.
- Pull the power cable on the back of the switch box, wait 10s and plug it back in.
- Close the MagicSwitch software on all PCs, unplug the power cable on the back of the switch box, wait 10s and plug it back in. Afterwards restart the software on all PCs.