User Manual
Secure KVM Switch API
Adder Technology Limited
Part No. MAN-000022
Release 1.0

Registered Address: Adder Technology Limited Saxon Way, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB23 8SL, UK
Adder Corporation 24 Henry Graf Road Newburyport, MA 01950 USA
Adder Technology (Asia Pacific) Pte. Ltd., 8 Burn Road #04-10 Trivex, Singapore 369977
© Adder Technology Limited February 22

Introduction

This guide explains how to use RS-232 to remotely control an Adder Secure KVM switch (AVS-2114, AVS-2214, AVS-4114, AVS-4214), Flexi-switch (AVS-4128), and multi-viewer (AVS-1124).
To control a switch using RS232, the user needs to connect a controlling device to the switch’s RCU port. The controlling device can be a PC or any custom device with RS-232 capability.
Remote controlling means performing actions that users could otherwise do only using the front panel, including:

• Switching channels
• Audio hold
• Selecting channels to display on left and right monitors (AVS-4128 only
• Switching KM control between left and right channels (AVS-4128 only)
• Selecting preset layouts and updating window parameters (AVS-1124 only)

Installation

This procedure shows how to connect a switch to a remote-control device. A suitable RS232 cable will be required with an RJ12 connector to plug into the RCU port with the pinout shown below:

Pinout for the RDU port:

• Pin 1: 5V
• Pin 2: Not connected
• Pin 3: Not Connected
• Pin 4: GND
• Pin 5: RX
• Pin 6: TX

Few modern PCs have an RS232 port, so it may be necessary to use a USB or Ethernet adapter.

Operation

Configuring Example Using the PuTTY open-source serial console utility. This procedure demonstrates how to switch channels via RS-232 using a remote control Windows PC.
Pre-configuration

1. Install PuTTY on the remote computer.
2. Connect a serial cable from the PC’s USB port to the switch’s RCU port.
3. Run the PuTTY utility.
4. Configure the Serial, Terminal, and Session settings, as per figures 1 to 3

Note: At this point, the device starts sending Keep-Alive events, every five seconds.
Keep-Alive events are transmitted by the switch periodically to communicate the current configuration. For example, to switch a KVM to Channel 4, the user types: #AFP_ALIVE F7 Then, every five seconds, the device sends the following keep-alive event: 00@alive fffffff7 as shown in Figure 4. The interval time of keep-alive events can be changed, using the #ANATA command followed by a time period operand in units of 0.1 seconds Thus:

• ANATA 1 gives an interval of 0.1 seconds

• ANATA 30 gives an interval of 3 seconds

KVM Switches
To switch channels, enter the #AFP-ALIVE command followed by a channel number operand. For example, to switch to channel 3, enter:
#AFP_ALIVE FB

Figure 5: KVM Switch Channel Operands

To toggle the audio hold button, enter the command #AUDFREEZE 1
Flexi-Switch
To switch channels, enter the #AFP-ALIVE command followed by a left/right side and channel number operand. For example, to switch to channel 3 on the left monitor, enter:

Figure 6: Flexi-switch Channel Operands
Other commands:

• Toggle the audio hold button: #AUDFREEZE 1
• Toggle KM focus between left and right sides
• Left: #AFP_ALIVE FEFFFF
• Right: #AFP_ALIVE FDFFFF

Multi-Viewer

Command Structure The command structure is comprised of the following 4 fields:

Where:

• There is a space between each field

• The pre-amble is either #ANATL or #ANATR, where:
  o #ANATL equals the key sequence Left CTRL | Left CTRL
  o #ANATR equals the key sequence Right CTRL | Right CTRL

• Commands require 0, 1 or 2 operands

• Command success: Upon successful command execution, the device returns the output: command + OK

• Command failure: Upon failure, the device returns the output: command + Error Message

• To initiate a new serial connection, enter #ANATF 1

Command-List
The command is a translation of the keyboard hotkey listed in an Appendix of the Multi-Viewer User Manual (MAN-000007).
Example translations are:

Figure 7: Example commands
The most common commands are likely to be loading a preset and positioning and resizing windows on the display. The general format of the command to move and resize a window is: #ANATL F11 END
**Where: