KMBox Net, KMBox B+, MAKCU, Teensy or Arduino: which input device to buy
The five devices that move the cursor in a DMA build, compared by controller, link type, soldering, setup difficulty and cost, with a table that matches each one to a use case.
Short answer
All five act as an ordinary USB mouse on the game PC and inject movement from the second PC. KMBox Net is the easiest and costliest, B+ its cheaper serial version, MAKCU the open middle ground, and Teensy 4.1 or Arduino the DIY end.
On this page10
How these input devices work
Each of these devices sits physically between your mouse and the game PC. Your real mouse plugs into the device, and the device plugs into the game PC and declares itself a USB mouse, so every movement and click from your hand passes straight through. Meanwhile the second PC reads the game through the DMA card and sends the device small movement commands over a separate link. The game PC sees one mouse on one port and never sees the second machine at all. The five devices differ in four ways: the controller inside, how the second PC talks to them, whether you need to solder, and the price.
How the five devices compare
The table compares controller, link, soldering, setup difficulty and relative cost. Start with the link column, because it decides which driver you install and which faults you are most likely to spend time fixing.
| Device | Controller | Link to the second PC | Soldering | Setup difficulty | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KMBox Net | ARM microcontroller, closed vendor firmware | Ethernet emulated over USB. Windows shows a USB Ethernet adapter on the 192.168.2.x subnet; there is no RJ45 socket on the box | None | Lowest. Set a static IP on the second PC, ping the box, give the cheat the IP, port and UUID | Highest |
| KMBox B+ / B Pro | ARM microcontroller, closed vendor firmware | USB serial through a CH340 bridge at 115200 baud | None | Low. Install the CH340 driver, force a low COM number, select the port in the cheat | High |
| MAKCU / MAKCM | Two ESP32-S3 microcontrollers, CH343 USB-to-UART bridge | USB serial through the CH343. Firmware accepts 115200 and can be pushed much higher if the cheat supports it | None on a pre-built board | Low to medium. CH343 driver, COM number under 10, baud rate matched to the cheat | Medium |
| Teensy 4.1 | NXP i.MX RT1062, Cortex-M7 at 600 MHz | USB serial on the device port. Ethernet is possible but needs a separate magjack kit soldered on | Yes. A 5-pin header onto the USB host pads, or the host pads wired directly | High. Solder, install Teensyduino, compile and flash, then configure | Low to medium |
| Arduino Leonardo + USB Host Shield | ATmega32u4 on the board, MAX3421E host controller on the shield | USB serial on the Leonardo's native USB port | Usually yes. Most host shields expect Uno pin mapping, so SPI has to be jumpered to the Leonardo's ICSP header | Highest. The shield stack is the part that bites | Lowest |
Cost is shown as relative rather than absolute, because street prices change and any figure we quoted would be wrong next month. The order from cheapest to most expensive has stayed the same for years.
Which one should you buy?
Find the row that truly describes your situation rather than the one you would like to describe it. Most first-time buyers belong in the last row.
| If this is you | Buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First build, you want it working this evening, budget is not the constraint | KMBox Net | No soldering, no serial driver, and the widest support in cheat menus. You pay for the shortest path to a working cursor |
| You want KMBox reliability and vendor support but do not need a network link | KMBox B+ / B Pro | Same vendor, same closed firmware, cheaper. Serial at 115200 is enough for normal use |
| The second PC is not sitting next to the game PC | KMBox Net | The control link is IP, so it tolerates distance and a switch in between. A serial device needs the cable to reach |
| You want most of the KMBox experience for less and will read a wiki | MAKCU / MAKCM | Open firmware, active development, parses the connected mouse's HID descriptor automatically, and is broadly supported in cheat menus |
| You solder, and you want to own the firmware and the USB identity it presents | Teensy 4.1 | Nothing else on this list gives you the descriptor, the report rate and the source code at the same time |
| Budget is the real constraint and an evening of fiddling costs you nothing | Arduino Leonardo + USB Host Shield | The cheapest way to get a working HID passthrough. Expect the shield wiring to take longer than everything else combined |
| You only want a radar, an ESP overlay or a loot list | None of them | Reading memory needs no input device at all. Buy one when you decide you want aim assistance, not before |
Warning
What an input device cannot do
No device on this list makes you undetectable, and any listing that says otherwise is telling you what you want to hear. A good input device removes the most obvious software signal: there is no driver, no injected code and no synthetic input API call on the gaming machine. The movement arrives as real USB traffic on a real mouse port. It does not remove the descriptor the device presents on the bus, the timing pattern of the movement it injects, or how your aim looks to a person reviewing a clip. Those are the three routes that matter, and hardware only helps with the first.
What you need with any of them
All five need everything listed here. Budget for these items before you compare prices, because buyers often overlook two of them.
- A physical mouse
- A wired mouse, or a wireless mouse's dongle, plugged into the device's host side. The device needs something to pass through
- Two cables
- One to the game PC (the HID side) and one to the second PC (the control side). Some devices need both connected simply to power up
- A game PC port
- A rear USB port, direct. The device has to look like a mouse plugged into a normal mouse port, which means no hub in the way
- A driver on the second PC
- CH340 for KMBox B+, CH343 for MAKCU, a USB Ethernet adapter for KMBox Net, and a USB serial device for Teensy and Arduino
- Cheat-side support
- The software you run must already speak that device's protocol. None of these is a generic interface you can substitute freely
- A DMA card and a second PC
- The input device moves the cursor. It has no idea where to move it. The card and the software are what supply that
Tip
Why the USB identity matters more than price
Every one of these devices appears on the game PC's USB bus with a device descriptor, which carries a vendor ID, a product ID, strings, a report descriptor and a polling interval. A device that ships with a stock or obviously development identity is in the weaker position. A device that presents the descriptor of the real mouse plugged into its host side is in the stronger one. MAKCU parses the connected mouse's HID report descriptor for you. A Teensy presents whatever you compile into it, which is the strongest position but also the most work. KMBox handles this in closed firmware, and how well it does so is a question for the vendor's release notes rather than something we can guess. If you read only one more guide on input devices, make it the one on descriptors.
What each option really costs
A Teensy or an Arduino is cheap to buy, but it then costs you a soldering iron, a USB host cable and a spare evening. It usually also costs you one board that looks bricked and turns out to have a cold joint. A KMBox is expensive to buy and then costs you nothing else. If your time has any value, the DIY options are only cheaper when you already own the tools and enjoy the process. Enjoying the process is a perfectly good reason to choose one, but saving money on a first build usually is not.
What to check before you buy
- The cheat you plan to run lists this exact device by name in its input menu
- You know which port on the device goes to the game PC and which goes to the second PC
- You have a wired mouse, or a wireless dongle, to plug into the host side
- The game PC has a free rear USB port that is not behind a hub
- If the device needs soldering, you own an iron and have soldered a header before
- You really want aim assistance, because a radar-only build needs none of this
Common questions before buying
Which of these is the safest?
They cannot be ranked that way, because price does not buy stealth. What matters is the USB identity the device presents, whether its movement looks like human movement, and how you play. A cheap device with a cloned descriptor and sensible smoothing is in a better position than an expensive one left on its default settings.
Can I use an input device without a DMA card?
Physically yes, and some people use one with screen-capture aim assistance on a single PC. In a DMA build, however, the card supplies the coordinates, so without it the device has nothing to act on.
Do I need one of these for a radar or ESP build?
No. Reading memory and drawing an overlay needs only the card, the second PC and a screen, so add an input device when you want the setup to move your cursor.
Can one device drive two game PCs?
No. Each device has a single HID output and presents itself to one host, so two game PCs need two devices.
Is KMBox worth the extra money over MAKCU?
Yes, if your priority is a working setup tonight with vendor support. If you are comfortable installing a CH343 driver, matching a baud rate and reading a project wiki, MAKCU does the same job for less. Neither choice changes what the game sees in any way you can rely on.
Will a device bought for one game work with another?
The hardware does not depend on the game, because to the game PC it is simply a mouse. The game-specific part is the software on the second PC, so check the status board for your title before you buy anything.
Sources
The device-by-device comparison is our own, because no published document compares these commercial boxes on cost, wiring or setup difficulty.
- 01Microsoft Learn, USB device descriptors
the vendor id, product id and strings every one of these devices presents to the game pc
learn.microsoft.com
- 02MAKCM firmware, GPL-3.0
that makcu and makcm run open esp32-s3 firmware which reads the attached mouse's hid report descriptor
github.com
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