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Ask HN: Advice for creating a USB device linking 2 computers

20 points WorldDev | 1 comments | 25 Oct 25 19:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source

I want to build a little device that connects two computers together via usb, and send keystrokes from one to the other.

(I would use it to use a laptop keyboard on a headless computers).

I am looking for an easy solution, it does not have to be the cheapest.

ChatGPT points me to Arduino, but as far as I can see, there's no arduino with 2 usb ports. It also points me to Raspery pi zero, but that's a computer, not a microcontroller, so not sure if it's suitable.

If anyone with experience can give me some pointers, it would be greatly appreciated!

1. brudgers ◴[25 Oct 25 20:21 UTC] No.45706672[source]▶
Intuitively, connecting two computers over USB seems like it should be easy.

The reason it is not simple is USB is asymmetric. There’s one host and multiple clients. And computers are approximately always built as hosts.

But if you are going to add hardware, a pair of usb network adapters (wired (or wireless)) has the same architecture.

And you won’t have custom software below the application layer. Good luck.