Gfrktyl

I've got a WiiU/Swtich GameCube USB adapter that I'd like to plug into my computer (device 1) as well as my Nintendo Switch (device 2) and have both devices recognize that USB adapter and the controller plugged into it.

I have seen some products that allow you to switch between the two devices but they won’t work for what I'm trying to do unless I can trick it to broadcast data to both connections. It is not advertised on box as a feature so it is probably not possible.

Those switches look something like this Kensington ShareCentral 2 (K33900US) and can be picked up for $9 to $20 bucks at my local Fry’s electronics shop:

I was reading up on folks with similar situations and ran into this other Super User post, “Connect USB storage device to 2 computers at a time.” not exactly what I'm trying to do but it had lots of good information including this possible solution from @UğurKırçıl using 2 spliced USB wires.

Thats so simple -if you know a little bit soldering- first get one female usb socket then get two usb cable solder two cables GND,DATA+,DATA- pins together solder 2 piece diodes for 2 cables + pin then connect flash drive to female socket and connect 2 cables to 2 pc NOTE 1 : why we use diode , because we didnt want burn anything NOTE 2 : NEVER OVERLOAD FLASH DRIVE IN THIS MODE

Well I do know some soldering and the guy at Fry’s seemed to think it could work. He also suggested splitting the USB on the GameCube adapter and going that route.

So my question is the above answer describes a solution that would splice 2 wires together to produce a single female end and a 2 pronged male side. Would this cable configuration properly transfer USB data to both devices that it is plugged into? Why not do something like this if I have all the kit? Anything glaringly obvious I'm overlooking with USB 2.0 vs 3.0?

I also noticed that the answer shown above seems to only reference a few of the cables in the USB 3.0 diagram. So I am ssuming this description is for USB 2.0?

No, you cannot connect one (slave) USB device to two or more (master or host) USB systems. That's impossible given how the USB bus works. And that's why you have switches like the one you describe; if it was simpler, people wouldn't need those switches.

The "splicing two USB wires" hardware hack will only work as long as you don't power up the two master USB systems at the same time. If you do, at best neither will work reliably with the slave USB device, and at worst you'll damage the USB chips on the master devices

And that's just at the USB bus level, and ignoring any higher protocol levels (which also would need to allow two master devices).

I cannot say with 100% certainty, but very highly doubt this will work.

Electrically, you could connect the device that way, splitting the send and receive wires to the computer and the Switch. With two physical connections, it is possible the voltage could drop below necessary levels and cause connection issues.

However, the real issue is going to be at the software level. Specifically, with the device drivers and the USB protocol. There is two-way communication going back and forth from the computer and the Switch to the controller. I highly doubt the communication is going to be the same from both devices, not will it be synchronized.