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Comment by nfriedly | Hacker News Reader

The GPD Pocket 3 has a KVM module that lets you do exactly this: it has HDMI & USB-C inputs and then it acts as a display, keyboard, and mouse for whatever machine it's connected to: https://gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

There's also the up-and-coming Minisforum V3 tablet that has a video input so that it can act as an external monitor, but I don't think it'll be able to share it's keyboard and mouse.

I agree with you, though, it really would be nice if this were a more common feature.

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Not much of a hardware guy so don't know if this is at all plausible, but it'd be nice to see that as an extension port on the framework laptops.

That surely is the advantage of having modular ports. This is a fairly niche application so I can see why it's not a standard option, but for those who want it it could be a real game changer.

That’s a neat concept. Are there any products that take a video input and USB A connection, combine into USB C and act as a KVM?

I can’t even think what that would be called, TBH. It’s hard to search for.

Something like this maybe? Can use USB C or HDMI+USB A depending

https://www.amazon.com/Dopesplay-Wireless-Portable-Touchscre...

I've had some success searching "lapdock" as well, they're marketed towards using them with smartphones it looks like but can't see why you couldn't plug it into a server or computer as well.

I had one of those - not that exact one, it was great but I forgot it on the train one day.

The expansion ports on FW laptops are just backed by the same USB-C/TB4 ports you’d have on any other laptop. I don’t think the expansion form factor would make it any easier unfortunately

Oh no I didn't think it'd make things easier to implement, it's just that the need for a port is quite niche so it's unlikely you'd see it on many laptops, but if you have modular ports that justification is obviously far less a problem

But as I say, I don't know if a KVM module can be implemented over USB-C

It would be even better if Framework laptops could do that since they’re all about parts reuse.

Wow what a cool little piece of hardware! If it was just a bit smaller and had a radio for it, it would be an amazing phone

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