Datacom > Peripheral Switching & Sharing

What’s the difference between electronic and manual switches? Are the benefits of electronic switches worth the price increase over manual switches?

As you might imagine, the inner workings of manual switches are far simpler than those of electronic switches. When you turn the dial of a manual switch, internal connections are physically moved. This is great for less complex applications, but it can cause voltage spikes that can damage particularly sensitive equipment such as laser printers.

Because electronic switches do their switching with solid-state components, you have more control in advanced applications. For example, our AC-powered, code-operated, and fallback switches offer numerous options for out-of-band management of critical network resources. They give you the remote control your operation may need. You can control your high-end applications and sensitive equipment via computer, modem, or even touch-tone phone—a convenience simply not available with manual switches.

Mechanical—A mechanical switch is operated by a knob or by push buttons and uses a set of copper or gold-plated copper contacts to make a connection. The internal resistance created by this type of connection will affect your signal’s transmission distance and must be taken into account when calculating cable lengths.

Electronic—Although electronic switches are controlled by knobs and pushbuttons like mechanical switches, the switching is accomplished with electronic gates not mechanical contacts. Electronic switches don’t have the internal resistance of a mechanical switch—some even have the ability to drive signals for longer distances. And since they don’t generate electronic spikes like mechanical switches, they’re safe for sensitive components such as HP® laser printers. Some electronic switches can be operated remotely.

Matrix—A matrix switch is a switch with a keypad for selecting one of many input ports to connect to any one of many output ports.

Port-Contention—A port-contention switch is an automatic electronic switch that can be serial or parallel. It has multiple input ports but only one output port. The switch monitors all ports simultaneously. When a port receives data, it prints and all the other ports have to wait.

Scanning—A scanning switch is like a port-contention switch, but it scans ports one at a time to find one that’s sending data.

Code-Operated—Code-operated switches receive a code (data string) from a PC or terminal to select a port.

Matrix Code-Operated—This matrix version of the code-operated switch can be an any-port to any-port switch. This means than any port on the switch can attach to any other port or any two or more ports can make a simultaneous link and transfer data.