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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: 0.201s | 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. bb88 ◴[26 Oct 25 01:10 UTC] No.45708273[source]▶
You can use two arduinos and connect them in such a way they are talking through the GPIO ports to each other.

You could do something similar with a couple of Raspberry Pi's or RPI nanos. It doesn't really matter as both can be configured as USB devices and to access their GPIO ports.

The trick is getting them to act as a USB device and then to have them send data over the GPIO ports.

Fortunately I don't think either of those should be super hard.