James, in the comments, gave me the idea yesterday that my monitor might have more ports on it (I've already been using the one on the side). So I checked—with a flashlight, craning my neck in ways it was not designed to bend—and sure enough, way back in an indentation where they face the wrong way, it does. Has two, in fact. Plugged the mouse into one, and it works. So that allowed me to free up a Thunderbolt port, because I had one in use that was only serving as a small, cheap hub for the mouse, and as a card reader. Which in turn allowed me to plug in my fancy dedicated card reader, which is awesome.
The monitor requires two ports, one Thunderbolt and one USB. At least, I think it does. Honestly, it's an absolute wonder that I ever got this monitor hooked up and working in the first place. Take a look at the only place in the manual where it tells you how to do it:
For god's sake. I can't make hide nor tail o' that even when I concentrate. That's useful for telling someone how to do it only if they already know how to do it. Anyway, the monitor works with two separate cables going from it to the computer, and if one of them is extraneous to purposes, or if a different single cable could replace the two I'm using now, I'm sure I will never know.
Power-ful wisdom
I'm very happy with my all my photography-related gear and stuff right now, I'll tell you that. The late Mark L. Power, one of my teachers at the Corcoran School of Art, told me a secret once that I've never forgotten. I was acting lab manager, and hung around school a lot, and thus, heard a lot of student complaints. I figured out some possible responses the school might make to some of them, and presented them to Mark one night when he was waiting for some prints to wash. He listened patiently. Then he said something to the effect that over years of teaching—he was one of the founders of the program at the Corcoran—he had discovered that when students had something they were excited to be working on, they didn't complain. The complaints proliferated when a person was sitting around fallow, not excited, not working on anything—didn't have a project, wasn't excited visually, wasn't shooting, wasn't engaged. "Whenever someone complains about anything, I ask them what they're working on." Whatever the complaint, work is what cures it. Even if it doesn't seem to be related. So if I'm not happy with my photography, it's up to me to figure out how to get up, get out, and get going.
I'll tell you about my super-duper card reader when B&H reopens after Succos, because Amazon doesn't sell it. (I need to attract all the affiliate sales I possibly can, even though I hardly ever think of that.)
Mike
Original contents copyright 2024 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
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Quite an hilarious illustration - something of the Heath Robinson about it. Reminds me of asking GPT to draw a diagram of how it works - "Data Retrosal", "Data Retrurisal", "Componne and Generation" all feature in the latest effort, as well as "Data retrulsal knowldaeus Annassis". That said, if I were asked to draw a diagram of the workings of my own mind I couldn't really do any better...
Posted by: Patrick Dodds | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 03:32 AM
Use a USB-A-to-USB-B cable (similar to a printer cable), thusly: connect the "B" end to the "upstream 1" port on your monitor, and connect the "A" end to one of the "A" ports on your new Mini. That will at least 'double' that port for use with low-speed devices like a mouse, keyboard, etc.
The monitor connection is independent and I'd usually favor using HDMI. Contact me for a free natter at E2ECT.com if you need more help!
Posted by: Antony Gravett | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 10:10 AM
Hi Mike! The two upstream USB ports allow you to connect to two different computers. If you only have the single computer, you can eliminate one of the USB cables. The monitor is simply acting as a USB hub. The three downstream ports can then use the single upstream port to talk to the computer. Have fun!
Posted by: Lawrence Plummer | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 01:24 PM
... continuing from the previous comment. In the OSD menu for USB, you can assign upstream 1 or 2, to two different video inputs. This allows you to use the two USB cables in order to have the monitor switch between two computers. Thus your mouse and keyboard would switch over to the other computer, when you switch video inputs. See pages 12 & 14 of the manual. Sorry, besides photography, I've also been a sw engineer for 45+ years!
Posted by: Lawrence Plummer | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 01:34 PM
I had a bit of a laugh reading this, as I went through a similar drill with my PA272W monitor last week, trying to hook up a new computer to it. The new computer had some video ports I'd never heard of before, and the NEC manual seems to be more about The Naming of The Parts than a practical guide to setting up the monitor. Rooting around in the monitor's shipping crate (trip down to the basement) coughed up a patch cord that fit the bill, and I finally got it running. I can even switch between the computers, just by pressing a button on the front.
Posted by: Chuck Albertson | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 01:40 PM
As you say, the diagrams are a mess. However, if the monitor has an input for a Thunderbolt connection from your computer, you should not need an additional USB connection. USB function is built into the Thunderbolt specification. That should free up an additional port on your computer.
If you connect to the monitor from your computer with HDMI or some of the other possibilities, then the USB connection would be necessary.
Posted by: Henning | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 04:07 PM
While I have not gone through the instructions for your monitor, my assumption from the way dozens of others work is that it really only requires being connected through the Thunderbolt port, and the USB connections are purely to enable the USB ports on the monitor to work. So, if you want to plug your keyboard, mouse, card reader, whatever, into the monitor, then you will need to plug the monitor into the computer's USB port to pass those connections along, as it contains a basic USB hub. If you'd rather plug your keyboard, mouse, card reader, whatever, directly into the computer, you may do so while not bothering to connect the monitor to the computer over USB, thus freeing up a port or two.
Posted by: Stephen S. | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 04:16 PM
Yesterday I bought a Braun 9 series shaver with the cleaning station machine. Their instructions are like hieroglyphics without the Rosetta stone.
It's got three different cleaning self modes. How do I select them? An hour later after endlessly searching YouTube and the Braun website and everywhere else, ends up, you can't.
It makes the decision itself and just shows you what your going to be getting. Minimalism gone mad.
There's a post idea - Examples of minimalism gone mad. Apple. Tesla...
Posted by: Kye Wood | Saturday, 19 October 2024 at 05:17 PM
No need to crane your neck. Just turn on your phones flashlight/torch and shoot some video of the back, sides and bottom of your monitor.
Posted by: Jim Arthur | Sunday, 20 October 2024 at 12:31 PM
I would like to know what advantage (if any) there is to a wired mouse and keyboard. Mine are wireless, and they have never had any glitches. They work perfectly. Does charging the battery once every few months bother you, or is there another problem?
[I'm sure I do lots of things as a result of problems I used to have that would no longer be problems today. For instance, I still prefer primes because early zoom lenses sucked (the Leitz family wouldn't allow Leica to manufacture zooms, for example. That's why the first Leica R zooms were made by Minolta). That's no longer true today, but I still stick with the decisions I made and the habits I formed decades ago. I also seldom photograph wide open because on traditional spherical lenses the open aperture was often badly compromised; lenses when I was young were sharpest two to four stops down--for practical purposes in those days, 35mm lenses were best at ƒ/8. Maybe bluetooth works fine today but I got sick of it at some point and there you have it. --Mike]
Posted by: Edward Taylor | Sunday, 20 October 2024 at 09:08 PM
“I can't make hide nor tail o' that even when I concentrate.”
Is that an Americanism? We usually say ‘head nor tail’.
[Pardon me. I mixed two expressions. "neither hide nor hair" is used when one can't see or find something, and "neither head nor tail" when something can't be understood. --Mike]
Posted by: Robert | Monday, 21 October 2024 at 05:43 AM
Mike does the monitor rotate to portrait mode? If it does then you may only need a small flashlight to see the ports on the back.
I had the same problem you have until I discovered, by accident, I could rotate the monitor.
Posted by: John Krill | Monday, 21 October 2024 at 01:20 PM