Software Emulated USB-C Docking Station?

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/UsbCHardware

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  • display-switch

    Turn a $30 USB switch into a full-featured multi-monitor KVM switch

  • tl;dr For normal "desktop computers" USB controllers and related hardware are not capable of capturing video (no hardware to decode DP input into something that computer can interpret) or emulating USB devices ( https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/283147, shows exceptions like some USB OTG capable Raspberry Pi models). But if you absolutely cannot use "remote desktop" or semi-hardware KVM (https://haim.dev/posts/2020-07-28-dual-monitor-kvm/ https://github.com/haimgel/display-switch) and similar approaches - you could add a cheap HDMI capture device to get video signal from the laptop to desktop and some hardware device that emulates USB mouse/keyboard.

  • RaspberryPi-Joystick

    A virtual HID USB joystick created using Raspberry Pi

  • Also, controllers that are usually used for USB on the desktop computer side are not capable to emulate USB devices, but there are specialized devices for that (random web search results - https://www.hagstromelectronics.com/usbtousb-shp.html, http://goodfet.sourceforge.net/hardware/facedancer20/, I would also dig into Raspberry Pi with USB OTG + software https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/82850/use-raspberry-pi-as-keyboard-mouse-output-to-control-server since it's cheap and easily available, there are probably better options). There are exceptions - e.g., Raspberry Pi Zero is also a "computer" but USB OTG capable https://github.com/milador/RaspberryPi-Joystick https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/283147.

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NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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