| Finally, there's a simple and affordable answer to every network administrator's biggest annoyance: finding and lugging around "crash carts" with a monitor, keyboard and mouse to administer servers and other headless machines. Epiphan Systems' KVM2USB product is a compact device that conveys the VGA stream from any host computer to a laptop, while emulating the laptop's keyboard and mouse outputs. KVM2USB is a truly portable crash cart. Now, all you need to take with you on administrative site visits is your laptop, the KVM2USB device (roughly the size of a box of paperclips) and the accompanying cable. KVM2USB works with virtually any computerized machine or embedded system, including: - Windows, Macintosh, Unix computers and servers
- Medical devices, scientific and lab equipment
- ATM machines
- Slot machines and VLTs
The product provides a simple, lightweight and rapid means of conveying VGA images from host machines to a laptop and simulating the laptop's keyboard and mouse outputs. This allows administrators and technicians to quickly and easily connect to - and administer - headless machines without hassles. As a compact external device, KVM2USB is easy to use and to transport. About the size of a box of paperclips, it is easily plugged in and requires no additional power so you don't have to locate a spare electrical outlet onsite. The product ships complete with all required hardware and cabling. Software development kits are also available for specialized applications. KVM2USB Connection Diagram
Technical Specifications 
Frequently Asked Questions 1. Will KVM2USB work with USB 1.0 or USB 1.1? 2. How can I verify whether my system has USB 2.0? 3. How many frames per second can KVM2USB capture? 4. Does KVM2USB reduce the resolution of the images it captures in order to transfer it over the USB bus? 5. Can KVM2USB work on Windows NT, Windows 3.x/95/98/SE/ME? 6. The video mode that I am using is not listed in the list of supported modes for KVM2USB. Can KVM2USB capture it? 7. What Linux kernel does KVM2USB support? Is the driver's code open source? 8. Images grabbed from some sources appear to be slightly shifted right or left. How this can be fixed? 9. Can I connect 2 or more KVM2USB to one computer and capture signals simultaneously? What is the resulting rate of capture for each KVM2USB? 10. My system does not have PS/2 connectors for a keyboard and mouse. Can I still use KVM2USB with a PS/2 adapter? 11. My system doesn't allow me to hot-plug a keyboard or mouse. How can I use KVM2USB? 12. I have Japaneese keyboard. Can I use IME (Input Method Editors) with KVM2USB? 1. Will KVM2USB work with USB 1.0 or USB 1.1? No. KVM2USB transfers substantial amounts of data for each captured frame. As USB 1.x buses are very slow (12Mb/s), they do not provide sufficient bandwidth for KVM2USB. USB 2.0 buses have a much higher transfer rate (480Mb/s), which allows the KVM2USB device to acquire and transfer several frames per second. 2. How can I verify whether my system has USB 2.0? Please use this procedure to verify that your system has USB 2.0. 3. How many frames per second can KVM2USB capture? It depends on the resolution of your screen, the screen refresh rate, operation system and the speed of the computer that is acquiring the images. Typical results are between 28 and 2 frames per second. 4. Does KVM2USB reduce the resolution of the images it captures in order to transfer it over the USB bus? No. KVM2USB captures and transfers every pixel of the original VGA frame in 16-bit per-pixel RGB format. In this respect, KVM2USB provides better quality than a VGA-to-video converter paired with a Composite or S-Video grabber. You can see comparisons of screen shots taken with KVM2USB here. 5. Can KVM2USB work on Windows NT, Windows 3.x/95/98/SE/ME? No. Unfortunately, many of those systems have very poor support - or no support at all - for the USB 2.0 bus. 6. The video mode that I am using is not listed in the list of supported modes for KVM2USB. Can KVM2USB capture it? Please contact us. We are always looking for ways to improve our system and may be willing to add support for this mode. 7. What Linux kernel does KVM2USB support? Is the driver's code open source? Although we provide a Linux SDK (API for driver and examples) we do not provide source code for the driver itself. Please contact us if you need a driver compiled for a specific kernel version or kernel setting. 8. Images grabbed from some sources appear to be slightly shifted right or left. How this can be fixed? KVM2USB has an automatic algorithm that crops visible images from the VGA frame. The algorithm may make a mistake, however, and be off by a few pixels. Please use the procedure described on this image to correct cropping. 9. Can I connect two or more KVM2USB to one computer and capture signals simultaneously? What is the resulting rate of capture for each KVM2USB? Yes, you can connect two or more KVM2USB devices and capture multiple signals simultaneously. You will need to run the KVM2USB application for each KVM2USB device attached. You will, however, notice a significant difference in frame rate for each additional active KVM2USB. The higher the performance of your computer, the better the possible frame rate. Our internal testing on a Dell Dimension 2400 (Celeron 2.4GHz processor, 512mb RAM) at 1024x768 with two KVM2USB devices, yielded average frame rates of 7.1 fps and 4 fps. In contrast, a Pentium 4, 3.0Ghz desktop with 512MB of RAM at 1024 x 768 yielded average frame rates of 9.52 fps and 5.85 fps. Please note that you must start the KVM2USB application after connecting each KVM2USB. 10. My system does not have PS/2 connectors for a keyboard and mouse. Can I still use KVM2USB with a PS/2 adapter? Yes we have tested several PS/2 to USB adapters and they function well. The determining factor will be your system's support for USB keyboard and mouse functionality. 11. My system doesn't allow me to hot-plug a keyboard or mouse. How can I use KVM2USB? You will need to shut down the system prior to attaching the KVM2USB. 12. I have Japaneese keyboard. Can I use IME (Input Method Editor) with KVM2USB? By default KVM2USB emulates US keyboard. However, if you are using non-US keyboard almost all keys will work. You can even use IME, if you map IME activation key to different keystrokes on local and remote PCs | 
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