[mmh0000]

All of this is being insanely overcomplicated.

Throwing more complexity at a simple problem might be "fun" from a nerd's POV, and, TBH, building this USB device sounds fun. But entirely unneeded while introducing more points of failure.

A simple solution to your problem:

1. Get a monitor with a built-in USB hub (nearly all of them?). Consider getting a USB-C monitor to reduce the number of cables to 1.

2. Don't use Bluetooth (for a keyboard, for multiple reasons, like needing the keyboard available in early boot). Get a keyboard/mouse with an external USB dongle like Logitech's Unify or Bolt, Corsair's SLIPSTREAM, or any of the other billion options that exist.

3. Plug keyboard/mouse into monitor, plug random computers into monitor. Bam. Unified mouse and keyboard without any pairing.

[derefr]

So your solution to solving one tiny flaw with the GP's otherwise-working setup is to... throw away their monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and spend lots of money (many times more money than an RPi-with-a-hat costs) to replace them?

All because you're offended by the complexity of... what?

• The idea of a device that acts as a stable host for Bluetooth devices, while presenting as a wired USB hub to an upstream USB host controller?

• The particular implementation here, which is a hacky proof-of-concept of the idea (and which could, in practice, be reduced to a single chip embedded into any USB-C-dock product if there was demand)?

• The entire concept of Bluetooth?

---

Also, I would like to point out that, given that this is HN, it's more than even odds that the GP:

• likely has multiple monitors (so using a monitor with a built-in hub is likely untenable);

• and also, that their laptops are probably Macbooks, and their mouse and keyboard are therefore very likely a Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad [for which there is no 1:1 substitute that does non-Bluetooth wireless while still having the same level of macOS support/integration];

• and that, given what they've said, they're likely already using a Thunderbolt hub to talk to those multiple monitors + all their USB devices through "one cable" (and all they really want is to add one more USB connection to this dock to make it act like a "Bluetooth dock" too);

• and that they likely have a big deep sit-stand desk, that they'd be cluttering/making it hard to put things on the 90% of the free "middle space" on, if they had to run actual wires from the keyboard and mouse over to the dock.

[FredFS456]

A cheap USB switch would also work, that would reduce the switching to switching monitor inputs and pressing the button the USB switch

[seiferteric]

I did this for a while but was a bit annoyed with the delay since it "unplugs" and "plugs" in the mouse/keyboard each time you hit the button. What I ended up doing is buying a used KVM switch with DDM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_device_mapping) which allows pretty much instant switching.

[jwells89]

Be careful with these though, a lot of USB switches (most readily available ones, even) aren't wired correctly and can result in current flowing from one computer to the other.