Often a simple USB switch with a physical button is used to switch USB devices between two different host computers. In many cases it would be nice to execute the host switch without physically pushing a button on the device. The Acroname Programmable USBHub2x4 hub allows a user to switch hosts programmatically without pushing a button.
Acroname’s BrainStem-enabled programmable USB-C-Switch can be very useful to help automate and monitor USB connections in test environments. USB-C-Switch handles USB connections differently than a USB hub and also introduces the MUX entity to the BrainStem function libraries.
In this blog post, we will illustrate the connectivity and control aspects and show a control example in Python.
Several customers have asked us whether or not a USB hub or a USB switch is right. There are important and distinctive differences between these two classes of devices, both architecturally and functionally. In many cases, both devices can be used in the same system to complement one another to achieve the required system functionality.