I want to be able to connect a computer A's USB port to computer B's USB port so as to make computer A act as computer B's keyboard.
Any idea how I would go about doing that?
I'm not looking for a ready-made solution (though if one already exists and is open-sources I
would not object), but for a starting point or a good resource.
I imagine I'd need to write a driver that simulates the keyboard's protocol, and I would also need to sort out the entire USB master/slave scenario.
Anyway, any help would be appreciated.
P.S.
I want to do it with the mouse as well, but I imagine it will be a very similar process, and I think (but I might be wildly mistaken) that starting with the keyboard will be easier.
I am really excited to have found something that will do this from Hagstrom Electronics. It take a serial input and sends a USB keyboard output to another PC. If you combine this with a readily available USB to serial adaptor, then you are golden.
http://www.hagstromelectronics.com/products/usbkm232.html
I have been searching for weeks to find this, so I decided to go back to some forums and share the discovery.
Linux has support for USB gadget mode, but I think you need special hardware for that. I.e. the USB port in a normal PC can not do gadget mode.
An alternative is to wire an LPT port to a PS/2 keyboard input, this is technically simpler.
If it wasn't for the USB, I'd connect the two via LAN and have a client/server C# program that emulates a keyboard / mouse (e.g. via DirectInput).
For the USB part as far as I can tell you'll need some hardware adapter. If you're into hardware development or at least unafraid of a soldering iron and some µc programming, have a look at http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/hidkeys.html where a HID stack for a small atmel chip is available for free. For this solution you'd need two atmega chips which communicate via I²C or SPI or such.
I'd recommend electrical separation of the two pcs, too. You never know if they share the same electrical ground or not.
Related
I wonder whether it is possible to emulate a specific bluetooth device like a Remote Controller for a TV or another device with my PC. I'd be okay with installing an additional hardware device for my computer (e. g. a BlueTooth PCIe card).
I imagined something like "recording" all single commands of my original remote controller using my Bluetooth card and afterwards use these recorded commands to turn on my TV for example.
Is something like this possible (with additional hardware maybe)?
Of course this is possible. Bluetooth is just a protocol and you can impliment it in your custom software to emulate all kinds of devices. If you need to emulate simple devices like keyboard or mouse, there are many ready solutions like this.
But if you have non standard device, there won't be any ready solutions and you will have to implement it yourself. What can help you:
If you have some kind of controller for PC and you want to emulate device with unknown protocol, you can use WireShark or other sniffer to understand what's going on.
There is an emulator called BT-Sim, but it is so poorly documented that I can't even guess what it does.
You can can take as example different android software like described in answers to this question.
You can check different program samples for PC like this.
For hardware you need only simple Bluetooth dongle. However, if you want to spy on some BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices, you can buy hardware sniffer like this.
(At least in Windows 10) Microsoft Store has an application called "Bluetooth LE Explorer" which is able to simulate different kind of Bluetooth GATT profiles as a peripheral.
I am working on a project where I need to attach a sensor to the computer like laser sensor or an infrared sensor, to use in a foul line detection. Basically the idea is, if someone steps on the foul line, the laser or infrared will be blocked by person's foot, and the laser/infrared won't be received by the receiver, causing the sensor to send a signal to the computer.
The problem is, I don't know where to start something like this. How would I go about attaching a sensor to a normal computer (like a normal PC that we use)? If someone could direct me into a direction or has any inputs, that would be really appreciated. Thanks a lot!
You may want to look at Arduino (http://www.arduino.cc/). It is an open-source microcontroller that can be used along with a computer and is designed to be hooked up to various types of sensors. It also has an extremely helpful, active support community.
There are several approaches to the task of bringing the sensor signal into a PC (to take advantage of PC's computing power, good user interface, connectivity to the web).
Look for integrated sensors that have an interface for attaching to a PC (RS-232, USB, Ethernet). For example, you may find something useful by googling photodetector USB.
There are I/O (input/output) devices for PC. They have analog and digital inputs and outputs. Look up LabJack, National Instruments USB-6008 and dozen other types of commercial USB I/O boxes.
Connect sensors to a microcontroller (uC), then connect uC to the PC through a USB or RS-232 or Bluetooth (the list goes on). This involves more hardware. You'll need to write firmware for the microcontroller too.
Obviously, which approach to choose depends on your skills (or willingness to acquire new ones), timing, budget, team structure (if it's a team effort).
You could use a photo-transistor and a Yocto-Knob. The Yocto-knob is an USB device able to quickly detect resistivity changes, you just have to connect the photo-transistor to it. Here is an application which looks pretty similar to yours: they use a light barrier to detect and photograph a fast object:
http://www.yoctopuce.com/EN/article/how-to-drive-a-camera-shutter-automatically
Is there a way to use one computer to send keystrokes to another by usb ?
What i'm looking to do is to capture the usb signal used by a keyboard (with USBTrace for example) and use it with PC-1 to send it to PC-2.
So that PC-2 reconize it as a regular keyboard input.
Some leads to do this would be very appreciated.
What you essentially need is a USB port on PC-1 that will act as a USB device for PC-2.
That is not possible for the vast majority of PC systems because USB is an asymmetric bus, with a host/device (or master/slave, if you wish) architecture. USB controllers (and their ports) on most PCs can only work in host mode and cannot simulate a device.
That is the reason that you cannot network computers through USB without a special cable with specialised electronics.
The only exception is if you somehow have a PC that supports the USB On-The-Go standard that allows for a USB port to act in both host and device mode. USB-OTG devices do exist, but they are usually embedded devices (smartphones etc). I don't know if there is a way to add a USB-OTG port to a commodity PC.
EDIT:
If you do not need a keyboard before the OS on PC-2 boots, you might be able to use a pair of USB Bluetooth dongles - one on each PC. You'd have to use specialised software on PC-1, but it is definitely possible - I've already seen a possible implementation on Linux, and I am reasonably certain that there must be one for Windows. You will also need Bluetooth HID drivers on PC-2, if they are not already installed.
On a different note, have you considered a purely software/network solution such as TightVNC?
There is a solution:
https://github.com/Flowm/etherkey
This uses a network connection from your computer to the raspi which is connected to a teensy (usb developer board) to send the key strokes.
This solution is not an out-of-the-box product. The required skill is similar to programming some other devices like arduino. But it's a complete and working setup.
The cheapest options are commercial microcontrollers (eg arduino platform, pic, etc) or ready built usb keyboard controllers (eg i-pac, arcade controllers,etc)
SEARCH THIS PROGRAM:
TWedge: Keyboard Wedge Software (RS232, Serial, TCP, Bluetooth)
then, MAKE YOUR OWN CONNECTION CABLE WITH:
(usb <-> rs232) + (NULL MODEM) + (rs232 <-> usb)
Connect 2 computer, write your own program to send signal to your (usb <-> rs232) unit, then you can control another computer under the help of TWedge.
The above mentionned https://github.com/Flowm/etherkey is one way. The keyboard is emulated from an rPi, but the principle can be used from PC to PC (or Mac to Whatever). The core answer to your question is to use an OTG-capable chip, and then you control this chip via a USB-serial adapter.
https://euer.krebsco.de/a-software-kvm-switch.html
uses a very similar method, using an Arduino instead of the Teensy.
The generic answer is: you need an OTG capable, or slave capable device: Arduino, Teensy, Pi 0 (either from Rapberry or Orange brands, both work; only the ZERO models are OTG capable), or, an rPi-A with heavy customisation (since it does not include USB hub, it can theoretically be converted into a slave; never found any public tutorial to do it), or any smartphone (Samsung, Nokia, HTC, Oukitel ... most smartphones are OTG capable). If you go for a Pi or a phone, then, you want to dig around USB Gadget. Cheaper solutions (Arduino/Teensy) need custom firmware.
I have a USB to parallel port device that i want to interface with through c++ on a modern windows OS (xp and newer).
I've done a little research but the information is a bit patchy when it comes to programming to one of these USB to parallel port devices (most of the information is dated and assumes that you have a parallel port built right into the motherboard, something my brand new computer doesn't have). One reference even says that it is not possible to interface with a USB to parallel port from a C++ program without some sort of software changes.
All i want to do is to is be able to read or write 8 bits to the parallel port through a USB to parallel port device on a modern computer running a modern windows OS (with ports being dedicated to reading or writing only).
Is there any quick and easy way of doing this? Some sample code would be greatly appreciated.
Also, how many of these USB to parallel ports can I interface with my computer? Am i limited to 3 due to some sort of legacy addressing or can i have as many as my USB and CPU are able to support?
Working off VC++ 2008, running Windows 7 x64 with a Core i7 860.
Edit: a bit more information...
I've tried using inpout23 along with some prewritten test program. It compiled just fine and ran just fine claiming to have both read and written to a parallel port. I had my USB to parallel port connected to the computer and that port connected to a cable in which i had identified, stripped and soldered each of the 25 wires onto a sort of plug for quickly plugging into a breadboard for testing. None of the output pins had changed to what the program had said was written to them (instead they were all set to high and never changed).
I've done this in the past and I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that it always worked (sometimes with tweaking), which is a tribute to the electronic manufacturers of designing extremely robust protocols. Apparently the USB to parallel converters all provided the hardware port emulation.
The bad news is that performance was awful on the 'bitbanging' interface models. If you do not mind slow updates this is not an issue at all. I used it for programming uControllers and soon the price of serial or USB programmers was overcome by my impatience.
Just use the windows API to read/write the LPT or COM ports and it works (slowly).
I've worked with a USB-to-serial port adapter before and I guess USB-to-parallel should be the same. You should have got a driver along with the adapter - this does most of the work for you, hiding the USB interface and presenting it to the OS as a traditional parallel port. For example, when I plug my adapter into the USB port, it just shows up as COM4 in Device Manager. I'm guessing yours will show up as LPT1 or something. From there on, it's a matter of using the standard Windows API to access these ports. (see Communications Resources on MSDN)
Misteriously I succeed with the USB to LPT-DB25 Wire bought in ebay.com.
We should connect a LED between the /LF Line Feed and GND pins.
After discard the USB registers in order to find that one associated to the USB Cable, we should build an API (Application Programming Interface) to interact with the outputs/Registers.
I'm going to try to attach a picture to have a look how I managed it:
Does anyone know how a bluetooth device could pick up the discoverable devices' device IDs in range?
I am ideally looking for the simplest solution that involves the smallest implimentation of the bluetooth protocols.
A starting point would be good, I just wish to create a device that can store all the device ids of nearby bluetooth devices with minimal power consumption, preferably just using radio frequencies and not SDP and whatever else.
If you can't help me with this, please can you help me find good reading material for low level bluetooth (step by step) communication. The reading online is so high level that I cant work out what is actually sent, when.
Laalto nailed the answer from the Bluetooth spec/stack POV, but your question implies your looking for a stand-alone Bluetooth device - not just a laptop app scanning surrounding devices.
I can only speak for the BT chips that the company I work for manufactures (Cambridge Silicon Radio - CSR) but our chips can do that pretty much out of the box. Our chips have an on-board Virtual Machine sandbox that allows access to the firmware functions and Bluetooth stack of the chip. You can easily write a C code app to run in the virtual machine sandbox, on chip, that periodically scans for discoverable devices around, grab their ids and then download them when connected via USB or Serial, or maybe over BT when a device connects to the listener directly.
www.csr.com and www.csrsupport.com for chips, dev-kits, design references, etc.. etc...
You probably want a module with the extra HW (UARTs, USB etc...) as well as just the chip but you could implement this with something the size of a BlueTooth USB or probably smaller.
It would really help to know more about what your trying to achieve, why you want something that just scans the surrounding bluetooth devices and how big the device needs to be.
Sorry if this sounds like advertising. For balance: Broadcom make BT chips too!
The Bluetooth specs from http://www.bluetooth.org are a good starting place for low-level information. You need an account to access the specs, but you can create one for free.
Basically what you need to do is to go into Inquiry mode periodically and grab the response packets as they arrive. The more time you spend in Inquiry mode, the more likely you will discover devices in range: discoverable devices enter the Inquiry Scan mode only relatively rarely; it takes some time (10.24s at least with older Bluetooth versions) to scan all the possible frequencies in the Inquiry/Inquiry Scan frequency hopping schemes. And even then you can have suboptimal radio conditions.
For implementation I suggest you at least start with existing Bluetooth libraries such as BlueZ and do not attempt to create your own from scratch.