Wanting to add a second computer

[rboerner]

Originally Posted by WayneJohn

I have the Displaylink Pluggable USB 3.0 Dual 4k already. I'm wired up to two 34" widescreen curved monitors, with a third standard widescreen. This is all driven by my Lenovo laptop, and I have full resolution that I require on all three screens. 4 screens if you include the laptop itself.

I have an existing desktop that is wired to one of my monitors directly that I toggle to using the source switch on the monitor itself.

I will be acquiring a Surface laptop with a dock (2.0 version). I am wanting to use as many of the existing monitors that I can with this laptop as well. I also am trying to determine how to do this without having to toggle the source on the monitors if I can. I'm thinking A/B switch at best, monitor toggle at worst.

I'm not sure if I can get away with some wiring magic here, or if I need another device. My brain hurts, and I'm hoping for some expert advice here.

The attached diagram details the connections and ports that each device has. The Surface dock is what I'm trying to integrate.

Much thanks!

Wayne

Diagram: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11f8...ew?usp=sharing

Thank you for the extremely detailed and helpful diagram :-)

My understanding is that Plugable offers a product that may help in this instance in the form of their USB 3.0 Sharing Switch --> https://plugable.com/products/usb3-switch2

The USB 3.0 Sharing Switch allows you to share a single DisplayLink-based docking station between two computers. Plugable made a video that demonstrates this here --> https://youtu.be/pwfAAn9e1jE

Adding the USB switch to your setup should allow you to 'switch' between the Lenovo Thinkpad and the Microsoft Surface computer and the Plugable docking station with two monitors.

The configuration described above presumes that you will continue to use the source video input switching method described in your diagram in order to allow your desktop computer to use the LG 34GN850 display.

Where things get tricky is in regard to using all three external monitors with your Lenovo Thinkpad and the Microsoft Surface computer.

I believe a workaround that would allow you to use all three monitors with both the Lenovo laptop and the Surface computer would be to:

A. Connect both the LG 34GN850 and the Samsung C34H890 to the Plugable docking station

B. Purchase an additional USB 3.0 DisplayLink video adapter to connect the Samsung SE450 display to one of the USB 3.0 ports within the Plugable dock. An example of a Plugable product that would do so is the Plugable UGA-3000 adapter --> https://plugable.com/products/uga-3000

This should allow you to use all three monitors via a combination of the Plugable docking station and the Plugable USB video adapter.

This new configuration in combination with the USB 3.0 Switch should in theory meet your requirements in order to allow you to use all three monitors with both the Lenovo laptop and the Surface computer.