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I'm looking for a cable or device which would allow a conventional USB signal to be sent to 2 or 3 computers---AT THE SAME TIME. So, NO, a standard "USB hub" or a splitter cable which allows more than one USB device to be connected to the SAME computer is expressedly NOT the solution. The latter is the OPPOSITE of what I'm looking for. The USB input hub which requires hitting a switch to move from one computer to another doesn't fit the bill either since the transmission isn't simultaneous.
Ideally I'd like to have a programmable USB keyboard, or an input device like the Razer Nostromo, to be able to send input to multiple computers all at the same time. I think any gamer can envision the potential benefit of such a setup.
I know the USB protocol is not designed this way and i've been advised that you could "fry" all the computers trying to do this by just rewiring some cables. So I'm thinking it wouldn't be a simple as "just" a cable... you'd need some kind of box maybe even with a dedicated microprocessor which would "repeat" the incoming USB signal and then send multiple copies of it to the computers attached at the outgoing ports.
Anyone seen or heard of anything like this? If not, I think there's a potential market here for someone capable of hardware design, which unfortunately ain't me.
On a vaguely related note, anyone here remember THE THUMPER? The company's long gone and I can't even find this item on eBay. THE THUMPER was a little black box (literally) that took a 9-volt battery and had one single switch on it. When you pressed the switch it would repeat an input key ("thump") on any computer you had attached it to---repeat endlessly until you shut off the switch---or the battery died! The earliest version came with a PS2 keyboard connection; before the company went belly-up they designed a USB version. They also had a flavor which "thumped" a mouse-click (so you had to hover your mouse cursor over the exact spot you wanted thumped) and another that was hard-coded to repeat the ~ (tilde) key. The latter design was superior since you could just assign any hot key you like to ~ and it would keep hitting that key and you didn't have to worry about moving your mouse cursor.
The damn things weren't cheap at the time, $80-90 apiece, IIRC. Probably why the company went out of business. But they were darn useful for tradeskills and anything else requiring endless clicking, at least back in the days before MQ. Also wouldn't violate EULA as long as you didn't do your thumping "unattended". Of course, we all know nobody here would walk away from the computer and leave the THUMPER unattended, right?
Ring a bell for anyone? Thump..... thump..... thump..... thump.....
Ideally I'd like to have a programmable USB keyboard, or an input device like the Razer Nostromo, to be able to send input to multiple computers all at the same time. I think any gamer can envision the potential benefit of such a setup.
I know the USB protocol is not designed this way and i've been advised that you could "fry" all the computers trying to do this by just rewiring some cables. So I'm thinking it wouldn't be a simple as "just" a cable... you'd need some kind of box maybe even with a dedicated microprocessor which would "repeat" the incoming USB signal and then send multiple copies of it to the computers attached at the outgoing ports.
Anyone seen or heard of anything like this? If not, I think there's a potential market here for someone capable of hardware design, which unfortunately ain't me.
On a vaguely related note, anyone here remember THE THUMPER? The company's long gone and I can't even find this item on eBay. THE THUMPER was a little black box (literally) that took a 9-volt battery and had one single switch on it. When you pressed the switch it would repeat an input key ("thump") on any computer you had attached it to---repeat endlessly until you shut off the switch---or the battery died! The earliest version came with a PS2 keyboard connection; before the company went belly-up they designed a USB version. They also had a flavor which "thumped" a mouse-click (so you had to hover your mouse cursor over the exact spot you wanted thumped) and another that was hard-coded to repeat the ~ (tilde) key. The latter design was superior since you could just assign any hot key you like to ~ and it would keep hitting that key and you didn't have to worry about moving your mouse cursor.
The damn things weren't cheap at the time, $80-90 apiece, IIRC. Probably why the company went out of business. But they were darn useful for tradeskills and anything else requiring endless clicking, at least back in the days before MQ. Also wouldn't violate EULA as long as you didn't do your thumping "unattended". Of course, we all know nobody here would walk away from the computer and leave the THUMPER unattended, right?
Ring a bell for anyone? Thump..... thump..... thump..... thump.....
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