# node-hid - Access USB HID devices from Node.js #

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* [node-hid - Access USB HID devices from Node.js](#node-hid---access-usb-hid-devices-from-nodejs)
  * [Platform Support](#platform-support)
     * [Supported Platforms](#supported-platforms)
     * [Supported Node versions](#supported-node-versions)
     * [Supported Electron versions](#supported-electron-versions)
  * [Installation](#installation)
     * [Installation Special Cases](#installation-special-cases)
  * [Examples](#examples)
  * [Usage](#usage)
     * [List all HID devices connected](#list-all-hid-devices-connected)
        * [Cost of HID.devices() and new HID.HID() for detecting device plug/unplug](#cost-of-hiddevices-and-new-hidhid-for-detecting-device-plugunplug)
     * [Opening a device](#opening-a-device)
     * [Picking a device from the device list](#picking-a-device-from-the-device-list)
     * [Reading from a device](#reading-from-a-device)
     * [Writing to a device](#writing-to-a-device)
  * [Complete API](#complete-api)
     * [devices = HID.devices()](#devices--hiddevices)
     * [HID.setDriverType(type)](#hidsetdrivertypetype)
     * [device = new HID.HID(path)](#device--new-hidhidpath)
     * [device = new HID.HID(vid,pid)](#device--new-hidhidvidpid)
     * [device.on('data', function(data) {} )](#deviceondata-functiondata--)
     * [device.on('error, function(error) {} )](#deviceonerror-functionerror--)
     * [device.write(data)](#devicewritedata)
     * [device.close()](#deviceclose)
     * [device.pause()](#devicepause)
     * [device.resume()](#deviceresume)
     * [device.read(callback)](#devicereadcallback)
     * [device.readSync()](#devicereadsync)
     * [device.readTimeout(time_out)](#devicereadtimeouttime_out)
     * [device.sendFeatureReport(data)](#devicesendfeaturereportdata)
     * [device.getFeatureReport(report_id, report_length)](#devicegetfeaturereportreport_id-report_length)
     * [device.setNonBlocking(no_block)](#devicesetnonblockingno_block)
  * [General notes:](#general-notes)
     * [Thread safety, Worker threads, Context-aware modules](#thread-safety-worker-threads-context-aware-modules)
     * [Keyboards and Mice](#keyboards-and-mice)
  * [Mac notes](#mac-notes)
  * [Windows notes](#windows-notes)
     * [Xbox 360 Controller on Windows 10](#xbox-360-controller-on-windows-10)
  * [Linux notes](#linux-notes)
     * [Selecting driver type](#selecting-driver-type)
     * [udev device permissions](#udev-device-permissions)
  * [Compiling from source](#compiling-from-source)
     * [Linux (kernel 2.6 ) : (install examples shown for Debian/Ubuntu)](#linux-kernel-26--install-examples-shown-for-debianubuntu)
     * [FreeBSD](#freebsd)
     * [Mac OS X 10.8 ](#mac-os-x-108)
     * [Windows 7, 8, 10](#windows-7-8-10)
     * [Building node-hid from source, for your projects](#building-node-hid-from-source-for-your-projects)
     * [Build node-hid for node-hid development](#build-node-hid-for-node-hid-development)
     * [Building node-hid for cross-compiling](#building-node-hid-for-cross-compiling)
  * [Electron projects using node-hid](#electron-projects-using-node-hid)
  * [NW.js projects using node-hid](#nwjs-projects-using-node-hid)
  * [Support](#support)

## Platform Support
`node-hid` supports Node.js v6 and upwards. For versions before that,
you will need to build from source. The platforms, architectures and node versions `node-hid` supports are the following.
In general we try to provide pre-built native library binaries for the most common platforms, Node and Electron versions.

We strive to make `node-hid` cross-platform so there's a good chance any
combination not listed here will compile and work.

### Supported Platforms ###
- Windows x86 (32-bit) (¹)
- Windows x64 (64-bit)
- Mac OSX 10.9+
- Linux x64 (²)
- Linux x86 (¹)
- Linux ARM / Raspberry Pi (¹)
- Linux MIPSel (¹)
- Linux PPC64 (¹)

¹ prebuilt-binaries not provided for these platforms  
² prebuilt binary built on Ubuntu 18.04 x64

### Supported Node versions ###

* Node v8 to
* Node v14

### Supported Electron versions ###

* Electron v3 to
* Electron v11

#### Any newer version of Electron or Node MAY NOT WORK
Native modules like `node-hid` require upstream dependencies to be updated to work with newer Node and Electron versions. Unless you need the features in the most recent Electron or Node, use a supported version.


## Installation

For most "standard" use cases (node v4.x on mac, linux, windows on a x86 or x64 processor), `node-hid` will install like a standard npm package:

```
npm install node-hid
```

If you install globally, the test program `src/show-devices.js` is installed as `hid-showdevices`. On Linux you can use it to try the difference between `hidraw` and `libusb` driverTypes:
```
$ npm install -g node-hid
$ hid-showdevices libusb
$ hid-showdevices hidraw
```

### Installation Special Cases

We are using [prebuild](https://github.com/mafintosh/prebuild) to compile and post binaries of the library for most common use cases (Linux, MacOS, Windows on standard processor platforms). If a prebuild is not available, `node-hid` will work, but `npm install node-hid` will compile the binary when you install.  For more details on compiler setup, see  [Compling from source](#compiling-from-source) below.

## Examples

In the `src/` directory, various JavaScript programs can be found
that talk to specific devices in some way.  Some interesting ones:
- [`show-devices.js`](./src/show-devices.js) - display all HID devices in the system
- [`test-ps3-rumbleled.js`](./src/test-ps3-rumbleled.js) - Read PS3 joystick and control its LED & rumblers
- [`test-powermate.js`](./src/test-powermate.js) - Read Griffin PowerMate knob and change its LED
- [`test-blink1.js`](./src/test-blink1.js) - Fade colors on blink(1) RGB LED
- [`test-bigredbutton.js`](./src/test-bigredbutton.js) - Read Dreamcheeky Big Red Button
- [`test-teensyrawhid.js`](./src/test-teensyrawhid.js) - Read/write Teensy running RawHID "Basic" Arduino sketch

To try them out, run them with `node src/showdevices.js` from within the node-hid directory.

----

## Usage

### List all HID devices connected

```js
var HID = require('node-hid');
var devices = HID.devices();
```

`devices` will contain an array of objects, one for each HID device
available.  Of particular interest are the `vendorId` and
`productId`, as they uniquely identify a device, and the
`path`, which is needed to open a particular device.

Sample output:

```js
HID.devices();
{ vendorId: 10168,
    productId: 493,
    path: 'IOService:/AppleACPIPl...HIDDevice@14210000,0',
    serialNumber: '20002E8C',
    manufacturer: 'ThingM',
    product: 'blink(1) mk2',
    release: 2,
    interface: -1,
    usagePage: 65280,
    usage: 1 },
  { vendorId: 1452,
    productId: 610,
    path: 'IOService:/AppleACPIPl...Keyboard@14400000,0',
    serialNumber: '',
    manufacturer: 'Apple Inc.',
    product: 'Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad',
    release: 549,
    interface: -1,
    usagePage: 1,
    usage: 6 },
    <and more>
```

#### Cost of `HID.devices()` and `new HID.HID()` for detecting device plug/unplug
Both `HID.devices()` and `new HID.HID()` are relatively costly, each causing a USB (and potentially Bluetooth) enumeration. This takes time and OS resources. Doing either can slow down the read/write that you do in parallel with a device, and cause other USB devices to slow down too. This is how USB works.

If you are polling `HID.devices()` or doing repeated `new HID.HID(vid,pid)` to detect device plug / unplug, consider instead using [node-usb-detection](https://github.com/MadLittleMods/node-usb-detection). `node-usb-detection` uses OS-specific, non-bus enumeration ways to detect device plug / unplug.

### Opening a device

Before a device can be read from or written to, it must be opened.
The `path` can be determined by a prior HID.devices() call.
Use either the `path` from the list returned by a prior call to `HID.devices()`:

```js
var device = new HID.HID(path);
```

or open the first device matching a VID/PID pair:

```js
var device = new HID.HID(vid,pid);
```

The `device` variable will contain a handle to the device.
If an error occurs opening the device, an exception will be thrown.

A `node-hid` device is an `EventEmitter`.
While it shares some method names and usage patterns with
`Readable` and `Writable` streams, it is not a stream and the semantics vary.
For example, `device.write` does not take encoding or callback args and
`device.pause` does not do the same thing as `readable.pause`.
There is also no `pipe` method.

### Picking a device from the device list
If you need to filter down the `HID.devices()` list, you can use
standard Javascript array techniques:
```js
var devices = HID.devices();
var deviceInfo = devices.find( function(d) {
    var isTeensy = d.vendorId===0x16C0 && d.productId===0x0486;
    return isTeensy && d.usagePage===0xFFAB && d.usage===0x200;
});
if( deviceInfo ) {
  var device = new HID.HID( deviceInfo.path );
  // ... use device
}
```

### Reading from a device

To receive FEATURE reports, use `device.getFeatureReport()`.

To receive INPUT reports, use `device.on("data",...)`.
A `node-hid` device is an EventEmitter.
Reading from a device is performed by registering a "data" event handler:

```js
device.on("data", function(data) {});
```

You can also listen for errors like this:

```js
device.on("error", function(err) {});
```
For FEATURE reports:

```js
var buf = device.getFeatureReport(reportId, reportLength)
```


Notes:
- Reads via `device.on("data")` are asynchronous
- Reads via `device.getFeatureReport()` are synchronous
- To remove an event handler, close the device with `device.close()`
- When there is not yet a data handler or no data handler exists,
   data is not read at all -- there is no buffer.

### Writing to a device

To send FEATURE reports, use `device.sendFeatureReport()`.  

To send OUTPUT reports, use `device.write()`.

All writing is synchronous.

The ReportId is the first byte of the array sent to `device.sendFeatureReport()` or `device.write()`, meaning the array should be one byte bigger than your report.
If your device does NOT use numbered reports, set the first byte of the 0x00.


```js
device.write([0x00, 0x01, 0x01, 0x05, 0xff, 0xff]);
```
```js
device.sendFeatureReport( [0x01, 'c', 0, 0xff,0x33,0x00, 70,0, 0] );
```
Notes:
- You must send the exact number of bytes for your chosen OUTPUT or FEATURE report.
- Both `device.write()` and `device.sendFeatureReport()` return
number of bytes written + 1.
- For devices using Report Ids, the first byte of the array to `write()` or
`sendFeatureReport()` must be the Report Id.


## Complete API

### `devices = HID.devices()`

- Return array listing all connected HID devices

### `HID.setDriverType(type)`
  - Linux only
  - Sets underlying HID driver type
  - `type` can be `"hidraw"` or `"libusb"`, defaults to `"hidraw"`

### `device = new HID.HID(path)`

- Open a HID device at the specified platform-specific path

### `device = new HID.HID(vid,pid)`

- Open first HID device with specific VendorId and ProductId

### `device.on('data', function(data) {} )`

- `data` - Buffer - the data read from the device

### `device.on('error, function(error) {} )`

- `error` - The error Object emitted

### `device.write(data)`

- `data` - the data to be synchronously written to the device,
first byte is Report Id or 0x00 if not using numbered reports.
- Returns number of bytes actually written

### `device.close()`

- Closes the device. Subsequent reads will raise an error.

### `device.pause()`

- Pauses reading and the emission of `data` events.  
This means the underlying device is _silenced_ until resumption --
it is not like pausing a stream, where data continues to accumulate.

### `device.resume()`

- This method will cause the HID device to resume emmitting `data` events.
If no listeners are registered for the `data` event, data will be lost.

- When a `data` event is registered for this HID device, this method will
be automatically called.

### `device.read(callback)`

- Low-level function call to initiate an asynchronous read from the device.
- `callback` is of the form `callback(err, data)`

### `device.readSync()`

- Return an array of numbers data. If an error occurs, an exception will be thrown.

### `device.readTimeout(time_out)`

- `time_out` - timeout in milliseconds
- Return an array of numbers data. If an error occurs, an exception will be thrown.

### `device.sendFeatureReport(data)`

- `data` - data of HID feature report, with 0th byte being report_id (`[report_id,...]`)
- Returns number of bytes actually written

### `device.getFeatureReport(report_id, report_length)`

- `report_id` - HID feature report id to get
- `report_length` - length of report

### `device.setNonBlocking(no_block)`

- `no_block` - boolean. Set to `true` to enable non-blocking reads
- exactly mirrors `hid_set_nonblocking()` in [`hidapi`](https://github.com/libusb/hidapi)

-----

## General notes:

### Thread safety, Worker threads, Context-aware modules
In general `node-hid` is not thread-safe because the underlying C-library it wraps (`hidapi`) is not thread-safe.
However, `node-hid` is now reporting as minimally Context Aware to allow use in Electron v9+.
Until `node-hid` (or `hidapi`) is rewritten to be thread-safe, please constrain all accesses to it via a single thread.

### Keyboards and Mice
Most OSes will prevent USB HID keyboards or mice, or devices that appear as a keyboard to the OS.
This includes many RFID scanners, barcode readers, USB HID scales, and many other devices.
This is a security precaution. Otherwise, it would be trivial to build keyloggers.
There are non-standard work-arounds for this, but in general you cannot use `node-hid` to access keyboard-like devices.  

## Mac notes
See General notes above Keyboards

## Windows notes
See General notes above about Keyboards

### Xbox 360 Controller on Windows 10
For reasons similar to mice & keyboards it appears you can't access this controller on Windows 10.



## Linux notes
See General notes above about Keyboards

### udev device permissions
Most Linux distros use `udev` to manage access to physical devices,
and USB HID devices are normally owned by the `root` user.
To allow non-root access, you must create a udev rule for the device,
based on the devices vendorId and productId.

This rule is a text file placed in `/etc/udev/rules.d`.  

For an example HID device (say a blink(1) light with vendorId = 0x27b8 and productId = 0x01ed,
the rules file to support both `hidraw` and `libusb` would look like:
```
SUBSYSTEM=="input", GROUP="input", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="27b8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="01ed", MODE:="666", GROUP="plugdev"
KERNEL=="hidraw*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="27b8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="01ed", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
```
Note that the values for idVendor and idProduct must be in hex and lower-case.

Save this file as `/etc/udev/rules.d/51-blink1.rules`, unplug the HID device,
and reload the rules with:
```
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
```

For a complete example, see the
[blink1 udev rules](https://github.com/todbot/blink1/blob/master/linux/51-blink1.rules).


### Selecting driver type

By default as of `node-hid@0.7.0`, the [hidraw](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/hid/hidraw.txt) driver is used to talk to HID devices. Before `node-hid@0.7.0`, the more older but less capable [libusb](http://libusb.info/) driver was used.  With `hidraw` Linux apps can now see `usage` and `usagePage` attributes of devices.

If you would still like to use the `libusb` driver, then you can do either:

During runtime, you can use `HID.setDriverType('libusb')` immediately after require()-ing `node-hid`:
```js
var HID = require('node-hid');
HID.setDriverType('libusb');
```

If you must have the libusb version and cannot use `setDriverType()`,
you can install older node-hid or build from source:
```
npm install node-hid@0.5.7
```
or:
```
npm install node-hid --build-from-source --driver=libusb
```


## Compiling from source

To compile & develop locally or if `prebuild` cannot download a pre-built
binary for you, you will need the following compiler tools and libraries:

### Linux (kernel 2.6+) : (install examples shown for Debian/Ubuntu)
  * Compilation tools: `apt install build-essential git`
  * gcc-4.8+: `apt install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8 && export CXX=g++-4.8`
  * libusb-1.0-0 w/headers:`apt install libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev`
  * libudev-dev: `apt install libudev-dev` (Debian/Ubuntu) /
    `yum install libusbx-devel` (Fedora)

### FreeBSD
  * Compilation tools: `pkg install git gcc gmake libiconv node npm`

### Mac OS X 10.8+
  * [Xcode](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12)

### Windows 7, 8, 10
  * Visual C++ compiler and Python 2.7
      * either:
        * `npm install --global windows-build-tools`
        * add `%USERPROFILE%\.windows-build-tools\python27` to `PATH`,
         like PowerShell: `$env:Path += ";$env:USERPROFILE\.windows-build-tools\python27"`
      * or:
        * [Python 2.7](https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/)
        * [Visual Studio Express 2013 for Desktop](https://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs#d-2013-express)


### Building `node-hid` from source, for your projects

```
npm install node-hid --build-from-source
```

### Build `node-hid` for `node-hid` development

* check out a copy of this repo
* change into its directory
* update the submodules
* build the node package

For example:

```
git clone https://github.com/node-hid/node-hid.git
cd node-hid                                        # must change into node-hid directory
npm install -g rimraf                              # just so it doesn't get 'clean'ed
npm run prepublishOnly                             # get the needed hidapi submodule
npm install --build-from-source                    # rebuilds the module with C code
npm run showdevices                                # list connected HID devices
node ./src/show-devices.js                         # same as above
```

You may see some warnings from the C compiler as it compiles
[hidapi](https://github.com/libusb/hidapi) (the underlying C library `node-hid` uses).  
This is expected.

For ease of development, there are also the scripts:
```
npm run gypclean      # "node-gyp clean" clean gyp build directory
npm run gypconfigure  # "node-gyp configure" configure makefiles
npm run gypbuild      # "node-gyp build" build native code
```

### Building `node-hid` for cross-compiling
When cross-compiling you need to override `node-hid`'s normal behavior
of using Linux `pkg-config` to determine CLFAGS and LDFLAGS for `libusb`.
To do this, you can use the `node-gyp` variable `node_hid_no_pkg_config`
and then invoke a `node-hid` rebuild with either:
```
  node-gyp rebuild --node_hid_no_pkg_config=1
```
or
```
  npm gyprebuild --node_hid_no_pkg_config=1
```


## Electron projects using `node-hid`
In your electron project, add `electron-rebuild` to your `devDependencies`.
Then in your package.json `scripts` add:

```
  "postinstall": "electron-rebuild"
```
This will cause `npm` to rebuild `node-hid` for the version of Node that is in Electron.
If you get an error similar to `The module "HID.node" was compiled against a different version of Node.js`
then `electron-rebuild` hasn't been run and Electron is trying to use `node-hid`
compiled for Node.js and not for Electron.


If using `node-hid` with `webpack` or similar bundler, you may need to exclude
`node-hid` and other libraries with native code.  In webpack, you say which
`externals` you have in your `webpack-config.js`:
```
  externals: {
    "node-hid": 'commonjs node-hid'
  }
```

Examples of `node-hid` in Electron:
* [electron-hid-test](https://github.com/todbot/electron-hid-test) - Simple example of using `node-hid`, should track latest Electron release
* [electron-hid-toy](https://github.com/todbot/electron-hid-toy) - Simple example of using `node-hid`, showing packaging and signing
* [Blink1Control2](https://github.com/todbot/Blink1Control2/) - a complete application, using webpack (e.g. see its [webpack-config.js](https://github.com/todbot/Blink1Control2/blob/master/webpack.config.js))


## NW.js projects using `node-hid`

Without knowing much about NW.js, a quick hacky solution that works is:

```
cd my-nwjs-app
npm install node-hid --save
npm install -g nw-gyp
cd node_modules/node-hid
nw-gyp rebuild --target=0.42.3 --arch=x64  // or whatever NW.js version you have
cd ../..
nwjs .
```


## Support

Please use the [node-hid github issues page](https://github.com/node-hid/node-hid/issues)
for support questions and issues.
