Recently I had to switch a lot between work laptop and a government issued laptop and some folks turned me on to http://www.acrosscenter.com/ -- made it super easy to use the same keyboard and mouse across both devices (each having it's own display)
A workaround for the bluetooth keyboard: http://www.acrosscenter.com/ you can use a PC to act like a keyboard and send keystrokes to the GPi. It worked for me but was kind of a pain to setup and do it this way.
http://www.acrosscenter.com/ Free version will allow you to use it for 30 min or something and only mouse to test. Licence will cost you $80 per annum I think.
My video about this from 2 years ago showing how it works. https://youtu.be/7uP2rm6lIBQ
Please note that since that video Android/Dex got updates one or two. And like with every Android update something breaks with Dex so this app might not work at all on DeX now.
Like I wrote, the problem is that my laptop is in a vpn. This means that it can't communicate with other devices in my local network and going over the internet is way to slow. The only off-the-shelf program that I found that could've worked is AcrossCenter which can turn a bluetooth dongle into a bluetooth keyboard. However the problem here is that it was really janky and the trail version is basically not usable.
If you actually have a Thinkpad capable of running a somewhat modern OS, then you could use software to send the keyboard + mouse inputs to another device.
That may be an option if you just want the typing/trackpoint experience of the thinkpad, but input to another devices.
I'm succesfully using Across (http://www.acrosscenter.com/ ) to have my x250 running windows 10 send its key/mouse inputs to android devices at the press of a hotkey (connection happens via Bluetooth)
And there's probably a lot of other software options available, just search! ("software km switch" or "share mouse and keyboard" would be a good start)
Possible options I used or use with Note 9 and Note 10+ ('PC' later means Win10 PC OR mac with macOS):
- buy simple KVM switch, attach keyboard and mouse to it, attach Dex station and PC to switch. Don't use switch's video portion. Use switch's button (One I used have this button on long cable) to switch devices. I used Aten's cs22u
- buy http://www.acrosscenter.com/ 's software. Connect keyboard and mouse to PC. Use Across's interface to to connect S10e via Bluetooth, you wll be able to move mouse cursor from PC to Dex and use hotkey to move it back. Bluetooth required on PC's side. Sometimes Across just not work (it works much better on Macs). They also would like you to pay per year price for updates.
- if you keyboard and mouse are from Logitech - they usually can be connected to several devices (it's better to use Logitech Unifying adapters and not regular bluetooth). If your kb/mouse are NOT from Logitech - well, Logitech's devices are not very cheap. They are very good but not cheap.
- May be it's ok for you to NOT use Dex Station and PC can support another monitor? Connect Dex's monitor to PC as 2nd monitor and use DexOnPc in fullscreen mode? Image quality could be worse in some situations (USB3.0 cable improves situation a little but ONLY a little. My regular samsung's usb-c cable is 2.0. Upgrading to latest DexOnPc helps more) . Netflix (and other heavily-DRMed things) will not work.
- try to make DeskDock (search playstore) work for you without issues
My current setup (yes, tricky, there other reasons for such complicated setup):
I have had success with http://www.acrosscenter.com/ using my PC to act like a bluetooth keyboard, but it's a paid app. There is a 30 minute trial, and still has some functionality after 30 mins. You can reboot to get another 30 minutes. (I bought it, and have been using the heck out of it).
What you asking i quite interesting idea. So i done a bit of research.
There was an app called ShareKM which allowed one K&M combo to be used for PC and Android same time over Wifi. sadly this app is gone. Even side loading apk won't help.
Alternative to that is DeskDock app. You will need to enable USB debugging and have phone connected to PC. While phone connected to dex station, i tied to use male to male usb cable and connect dex station to pc - no luck. Feels like DeX is stopping usb debugging to start and connection fails.
Another option is software by the name of Accros - you will need to have a PC with bluetooth. According to there website. Connect android phone to PC+Bluetooth. After that android phone will think that USB keyboard and mouse that is connected to PC is actually bluetooth devices connected to android ( i hope this makes sense :) )
I haven't tried this yet - planing to have a go during weekend.
If you will try before me - please let me know if this works with DeX.
I've been looking for this for ages since I've had to use a Windows laptop at work. In a roundabout way, I've been looking for an app like 1keyboard for Windows. Basically, at the very least, finding an app that lets you use your Windows laptop keyboard as a virtual Bluetooth keyboard for iPhone.
The closest thing I've found is acrosscenter, but I haven't been able to get it to work for me. You should try it, maybe it will work for you!