How to send inbound USB data to two computers
The user has a Symbol LS3578 bluetooth scanner, which is paired to a dock, and when he scans a barcode, the data is sent from the dock to the PC via USB cable. That works great. I think the PC sees the dock or the scanner as a HID keyboard, but note that we never have to install drivers. Win7 apparently just "sees" the device and understands how to handle it.
But now he is adding a second PC with a separate app, and that app needs the same barcode data--without him having to scan twice and flip a USB switch, etc. I'm trying to find something like a USB Y splitter that will allow that inbound data from dock to PC to go to BOTH PCs simultaneously. So far I can't find anything like this. Is there any such thing available? Or is what I need to do even possible? TIA
But now he is adding a second PC with a separate app, and that app needs the same barcode data--without him having to scan twice and flip a USB switch, etc. I'm trying to find something like a USB Y splitter that will allow that inbound data from dock to PC to go to BOTH PCs simultaneously. So far I can't find anything like this. Is there any such thing available? Or is what I need to do even possible? TIA
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Can one scanner be paired to two PCs? I know the LS3578 scanner can pair to a PC and send data while completely bypassing the dock and USB cable. It seems like if I could pair the scanner to *two* PCs (with Bluetooth support) at the same time, that should work...unless that is another one of those things that is not supported in the world or Bluetooth. Does anyone know for sure whether this setup has a prayer of doing what I need it to do?
You can pair a device with multiple hosts; but only one will be active at a time. But once you've done the pairing, switching between the two should just be a "point and click" operation on the scanner ... so you could Scan; Switch; Scan to send the same barcode info to both hosts.
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I agree with the other two EE. What you are trying to accomplish probably can't be done and if it could you would have inconsistent and unreliable results.