You need to get two pieces of hardware: a microcontroller with two USB ports and an HDMI capture USB dongle that works with VLC direct show capture.
I’m using an ESP32-S2-DEVKITC-1, but there are many different other choices:
https://www.digikey.com/short/rm80t4z3
You can find USB 3 HDMI capture dongles at Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3CavHh1 (paid link)
or https://amzn.to/3GjZarp (paid link)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
You can also donate directly to me, thank you for your support.
After you load the Arduino sketch to the microcontroller you are able to send the keyboard and mouse inputs from the host to the guest via serial communication. I selected the Espressif ESP32-S2-DevKitC-1 because it has two USB ports. But any microcontroller that can be made to work with a serial port on one USB port and a HID keyboard and mouse port on another USB port should work. I used Arduino 1.8.16, under Linux the compilation is very fast, but under Windows not so much. At this point in time, to get the S2 working I had to install the ESP32 beta V2.0 board version.
The KVM program does the rest, like showing the video and sending the mouse and keyboard over serial accordingly. I started to program the software under SharpDevelop (RIP), but I had to move to Visual Studio 2019 to download all the dependents (like libVLCsharp) via NuGet. The compiled version is available as a download on GitHub.
To use the system just connect the UART USB and USB portion of the USB HDMI dongle to the host and connect the HID USB and the HDMI portion of the USB HDMI dongle to the guest.
Start the program, resize the window, select the com port, select the USB video device, and press connect button. The ‘menu’ key (it’s left next to the right CTRL key) releases the mouse and keyboard from the KVM window or you can just press ALT + F4 to close the program.
socat -d -d pty,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/ttyV0 pty,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/ttyV1
This creates two virtual serial ports with the names /tmp/ttyV0 and /tmp/ttyV1 and connect both together. Now I just need to direct the output and input of Grbl to one of the virtual serial ports:
./grbl_sim -n > /tmp/ttyV0 < /tmp/ttyV0
To test if this works I can use a command line terminal program like miniterm and connect to the other virtual serial port
miniterm.py /tmp/ttyV1
Now that everything is working I can finally test the new SourceRabbit GCode Sender program. ]]>
>>> $$
$0=10 (step pulse, usec)
$1=25 (step idle delay, msec)
$2=0 (step port invert mask:00000000)
$3=2 (dir port invert mask:00000010)
$4=0 (step enable invert, bool)
$5=0 (limit pins invert, bool)
$6=0 (probe pin invert, bool)
$10=3 (status report mask:00000011)
$11=0.050 (junction deviation, mm)
$12=0.002 (arc tolerance, mm)
$13=0 (report inches, bool)
$14=1 (auto start, bool)
$20=1 (soft limits, bool)
$21=0 (hard limits, bool)
$22=1 (homing cycle, bool)
$23=1 (homing dir invert mask:00000001)
$24=25.000 (homing feed, mm/min)
$25=250.000 (homing seek, mm/min)
$26=250 (homing debounce, msec)
$27=3.000 (homing pull-off, mm)
$100=87.489 (x, step/mm)
$101=87.489 (y, step/mm)
$102=640.000 (z, step/mm)
$110=4000.000 (x max rate, mm/min)
$111=4000.000 (y max rate, mm/min)
$112=650.000 (z max rate, mm/min)
$120=15.000 (x accel, mm/sec^2)
$121=15.000 (y accel, mm/sec^2)
$122=15.000 (z accel, mm/sec^2)
$130=204.000 (x max travel, mm)
$131=204.000 (y max travel, mm)
$132=54.000 (z max travel, mm)
ok
Getting a projector is only half or 1/3 the cost of your home cinema system. Don’t forget the surround sound system, this will cost a lot too. You may be able to save money by projecting against a white wall. I did this in 2001 and it looked very good (I suggest to create a black boarder around the picture, this gives a good contrast!). However a real screen is good to have too, I use a manual screen in my bed room and I have a automatic screen in my living room. If you get a high end programmable remote you can configure it the turn the projector on, put the screen down, turn the DVD on and turn the surround sound system on and set it to DVD – all with the press of just one button (same goes for turning things off). You will need some cable too, check http://www.monoprice.com/ for a cheaper options. Depending on your setup cable can be expensive too.
Good page to get an idea what projectors are available:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/
My first projector 800×600 (4×3) $2500 10 years ago, ;-), + cheap ~$50 / 5.1 surround sound system and manual ceiling mount screen (~$150): http://www.projectorcentral.com/Philips-cSmart.htm
Pro long lamp life, optical zoom
Con no optical lens shift (only digital), 1000 ANSI lumen
My second projector 1280×720 (16×9) $1000, + mid price ~$600 / 7.1 surround sound system and automatic ceiling mount screen (~$600): http://www.projectorcentral.com/Panasonic-PT-AX200U.htm
Pro optical zoom and lens shift, 2000 ANSI lumen
Con short lamp life
I got the AX200U from http://www.visualapex.com/ and I would buy from them again.
Right now I would look for features in this order:
optical zoom (gives freedom of installation on Y axis, the distance from the projector to the screen)
optical lens shift (gives freedom of installation on Z axis and X axis (ceiling mount or on table and corrects if not exactly center))
3D support
low price
long lamp life
