So... hardware multiboxing?

[jak3676]

I got my "USB Synchronous K/M Switch" today (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NZSZFL8). I think I was wrong to call it a "multicaster" above - that seems to refer to video display & aggregation. I'll just refer to is as the KM switch from here out. ***edit: nodoze makes good points below, I'll go with "KM Synchronizer" for simplicity and clarity***

So far I'm just testing it out by itself, on a single PC, without loading WoW at all. I think step 1 is to make sure it works as expected on its own.

Just plugging it into a PC and Windows 10 pops up a notification that its configuring a new USB device for a second, then windows pops up a 2nd notification that my USB Composite device has been configured and it working correctly. This is without any input devices plugged into the KM switch.

Here's screen shots of Windows settings, Device Manager and the Windows Event log from when I plugged it in - all seem as expected.
https://gyazo.com/c195cd983ba96433eaff5c7135de18a9
https://gyazo.com/f1c2899e174bf1af9a6faaa943085fc7
https://gyazo.com/670f8e9b7b1a68e758d2374c8ee8f8a8

Next I moved my Microsoft Sidewinder x8 mouse from its direct connection to my PC to going through the KM switch. Initially everything seems fine - left-click, right-click and scroll wheel work exactly as expected. I can even still change the mouse's DPI setting on the fly with the buttons on top of the mouse. But my PC no longer recognizes that I have a Microsoft mouse installed at all.

Before (Mouse plugged directly into PC)
https://gyazo.com/b66237ce36e1499d1a97a97cb67c704b

After (going through the KM Switch)
https://gyazo.com/322f02637a4f2575df21b853436dbaed

This did mean that my 2 side/thumb buttons reverted back to their default settings (page forward and page backward) instead of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V where I had them set on the Microsoft IntelliPoint software (I have to use the older v2.3 IntellePoint which last got its update for Vista - the newer versions don't have support for my very old Sidewinder mouse). This was supper annoying and I lost most of my last edit because I inadvertently hit the "page back" button on my mouse without having saved this edit. Lesson learned - save often while testing. (you'd think I would have learned this lesson well enough over the last 45 years...)

At some point while testing, I also plugged the Sidewinder mouse into the keyboard slot on the KM Synchronizer. That didn't seem to matter at all - mouse still worked as expected, but I did not test thoroughly. It does make me curious if there's any actual difference between the mouse and keyboard input slots, or they're both just standard USB 2.0 slots? But unless someone has a reason why this may matter, I'm not going to bother trying to figure it out.

Next I tried my Razer Basilisk v2 mouse - wired through the KM Synchronizer. Quick tests look the same as the Sidewinder - that is all the basic mouse buttons work fine, but Razer Central does not detect that I have a Razer mouse plugged in at all. So the mouse works as though you don't have any drivers installed - the dpi up/down buttons before the scroll wheel continue to work to increase/decrease dpi sensitivity. The 2 thumb buttons are also set to page forward and page backward and the thumb clutch is set to drastically increase the mouse's dpi setting ("sniper mode"). This does make me wonder where these thumb buttons are getting their settings and if that's adjustable somewhere that would work through the KM synchronizer (maybe even in WoW key bindings directly?) because I cannot edit these setting with either Microsoft's or Razer's utilities.

Mouse Testing Conclusion:
Overall the mouse testing worked about as expected - the KM Synchronizer works fine: All the buttons on both mice I tested still functioned, I don't notice any perceivable lag or other performance issues, but I do loose driver specific programming on both mice.

Next up will be my Razer Tartarus Pro keypad and an old USB 10-key keypad before moving on to some dual-PC testing. My thought is make sure I understand its basic functionality in Windows on 1 and 2 PCs then let some others look at that data before introducing it to WoW.