How to make direct slot swapping usable with the ShuOne 8 port KM Synchronizer

[Wootenblatz]

Update 11/15/2020 - I'm including an additional shortcut (#9) I have not been using but others may find helpful. I am also going to include some new information in Part 3 regarding what I've learned while testing different peripherals with this device.

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If you're focusing on hardware based multiboxing like I am, you probably have heard of the device I'm going to talk about or have bought one already. If you have not heard of it, the ShuOne synchronizer is available on Amazon in the US with the Amazon stock identification number (ASIN) of B07NZSZFL8. Search for that and you'll find the device right away.

As far as 8 port KM sync devices go, so far this one seems like the most affordable option that is readily available from a reliable seller and has many of the features we need. It supports syncing a keyboard and a mouse to all 8 ports, a single port and an arbitrary number of ports. By default mouse sync happens with "absolute positioning" which is another way of saying "This device is going to reset your mouse cursor position if it thinks one or more clients has a mouse cursor in a different position from the rest". This is important to talk about in-depth and I'll get to it in more detail later in this post.

With that said, there are some challenges involved in making it work efficiently if you want to run a full party in World of Warcraft. First off you should know that almost every KM Synchronizer is going to obscure the input devices that are connected to it. This is not a pass through connection. When you plug your Keyboard or Mouse into the device, all of the PCs are going to see a generic HID compliant mouse, not your Razer, Steel Series, Logitech, Corsair or any other brand of device. This means that if you need to set things up with software (DPI, key bindings, macros, lighting etc...) you need to plug the peripheral directly into your PC, do that configuration work and plug it back into the ShuOne when you're done.

On to the device itself! I'm going to start off by just covering the keyboard shortcuts that the device responds to. I am only going to cover the keyboard shortcuts.


I'll end up referring to these a lot in the future, I'd guess. From now on if I refer to "Shortcut #1" or "Shortcut #3", I'm talking about this numbered list.

1. Tap scroll lock twice and hit the 0 key - This turns on synchronization to all devices
2. Tap scroll lock twice and hit any other number key - This does something differently depending on if full sync is on or off
   
   • If sync is on - The PC on this port will be removed from the sync pool. If you want to sync to every port except 2, you'd press the following keys: SCRLCK, SCRLCK, 0, SCRLCK, SCRLCK, 2
   • If sync is off - Switch directly to the PC on that port
   
   
3. Hold down CTRL and press left or right arrow - This will cycle to the next or previous port on the device. If the system is in Sync mode, CTRL RIGHT ARROW will always jump to port 1
4. Hold down the windows key and press a number key - This switches directly to that port regardless of the sync state. *This is not useable while multiboxing by default* (I'll cover how to address this later) - (11/15/2020) See Shortcut #9 for another option.
5. Tap scroll lock twice and hit F12 - Turns on absolute mouse positioning mode
   
   • This is the default mode, and not what we want in some cases. It works great for interacting with NPCs and clicking buttons for quest items, opening chests, gathering and clicking your action bar buttons
   • Trying to move and steer while all ports are synced will result in wild camera adjustments randomly
   
   
6. Tap scroll lock twice and hit F11 - Turns on relative positioning mode
   
   • This mode prevents wild camera angle adjustments when all ports are synced, which is what we want
   • Relative mouse positioning mode is locked to the Y axis for mouse tracking. If you want full range of tracking (X and Y axis) you have to hold down ` (tilde key).
   
   
7. Tap scroll lock twice and hit R - This resets the KM Sync device in case you get something a little messed up
8. Tap scroll lock twice and hit M - This enables serial screen switching with the mouse
   
   • If you are on port one and you move the cursor far enough to the right to be off screen, you switch to port 2. Keep going right and you hit port 3, port 4, etc...
   • Tap scroll lock twice and hit M again to turn serial screen switching off
   
   
9. Hold ALT and hit K - This will change Shortcut #4 so that you can use the ALT key and a number to switch to a slot instead of the windows key. You can avoid the workarounds with PowerToys or RegEdit by switching this setting. You lose the ability to use ALT 1 through 5 (or however many numbers you need for how many PCs you run).

The image below is for a section in Part 2.