Question for dock owners

[Have Some Die]

I’m currently using a Jsaux dock. Overall I’m happy with it except for one minor issue. My TV doesn’t have enough HDMI ports for all my devices, so my dock is connected via a 3 port switch. The switch is the type that does not have its own power supply or a remote. It gets power from the HDMI sources and has a button for cycling through sources. Because it has an attached cable to plug into the TV that’s very short it has to stay behind the TV. Luckily this isn’t a living room type setup so I can reach back and press the button, but if I’m sitting down I really don’t want to have to get up to do that. The switch also has auto-sensing input selection that changes input when a device is plugged in or turned on. Before the Steam Deck dock, I had a Nintendo Switch dock plugged in (I swapped docks because I don’t use the NS anymore) and that dock played nicer with the HDMI switch. Specifically, the switch didn’t see the dock as powered on unless the NS was in the dock, powered on, and unlocked. This made switching between gaming and watching TV much easier than it is now. The Jsaux dock seems to be seen as powered on so long as the HDMI and USB-C power are plugged in, meaning the presence and condition of the SD have no impact on the automatic input switching. So my question to Valve official dock owners is which of my docks does your dock mimic? Can I leave the dock plugged in all the time and expect the HDMI switch to sense when I plug in or power up or wake up my SD? Or is it effectively the same behavior as the Jsaux dock?

[ReBoot]

I can tell from experience with a similar HDMI switch that it worked with Valve's dock. I could turn on the Deck, turn on the projector and a few moments later, I had SteamOS on my wall. I am not quite sure how much those switches diverge in their behaviour though.

[Have Some Die]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

I can tell from experience with a similar HDMI switch that it worked with Valve's dock. I could turn on the Deck, turn on the projector and a few moments later, I had SteamOS on my wall. I am not quite sure how much those switches diverge in their behaviour though.

I’ve had a few over the years (pre-steam deck) and as long as it isn’t an external powered one, they all pretty much behave the same. Honestly I wish I had one of those because the one I used to have also came with a remote for input selection and 5 input ports. But even if I still had it, I have no available power outlets to plug it in.

[ReBoot]

My HDMI switch got no power-in to begin with, it feeds on (up to) 3 HDMI inputs and provides one output, that's it. No other ports whtasoever.

[Toddimyre]

In my experience, the answer is a bit of both. While connected to a wall, the dock remains powered completely. I found this out when I plugged in a set of USB lights that remained powered whether or not the Deck was in place. However, if the Deck is asleep, the dock does appear to enter a powered off state. This has been observed by using a keyboard with back lighting and the the monitor entering standby. DP, however, appears to be an exception to the rules. DP consistently wakes up my current monitor from standby roughly every 30 seconds or so. Switching to HDMI fixes the problem; however, HDR seems to break the, more or less, seamless connection. I'll have to do more testing with it.

[Have Some Die]

Originally posted by Toddimyre:

In my experience, the answer is a bit of both. While connected to a wall, the dock remains powered completely. I found this out when I plugged in a set of USB lights that remained powered whether or not the Deck was in place. However, if the Deck is asleep, the dock does appear to enter a powered off state. This has been observed by using a keyboard with back lighting and the the monitor entering standby. DP, however, appears to be an exception to the rules. DP consistently wakes up my current monitor from standby roughly every 30 seconds or so. Switching to HDMI fixes the problem; however, HDR seems to break the, more or less, seamless connection. I'll have to do more testing with it.

Sounds like overall the dock behaves similarly to my dock. Thanks for the info.