Re: Sending private data to a USB HID Keyboard

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Dave August wrote:
It's been a while since I've done any driver work or posted here but some of you may recognize my name.

I see a lot of the good old knowledgeable people are still here.

I have a client that's building a USB HID Keyboard. Besides all the usual functionality, of course they've put in a bunch of 'Value Added' stuff that gets activated by sending messages to the device.

So here's my basic questions, what's the best way to make some sort of API visible to User Mode programs.

Should I put together a Filter Driver with a control interface? If so upper or lower and who should I filter? What mechanism do I uses to send my private messages to the device?

Can I do this with some sort of UMDF?

I haven't gotten spec from the client yet so I have no idea if they have a private endpoint they are going to use or what. I think THEY are still in the dark on this too. FWIW They have a PS/2 version of this thing working so I'll bet they are just planning on using some off the shelf PS/2 to USB thingie so that kinda implies the private messages are just going to the same place the standard LED messages go.

Also what's the ramifications of this on Vista?

I want to thank Tanya for the URL she posted to the latest DDK.. It's D/Ling as I type..

TIA

Dave August



By far the easiest way is to implement feature reports. Feature reports can be sent even to keyboards which cannot be read or written. No drivers needed. Only Setup API for enumerating the HID devices and HID API for reading and writing feature reports.
http://www.codemercs.com our keyboard controllers work that way for programming the matrix tables.
A second endpoint breaks the USB boot protocol for keyboards and is therefore not the best solution.
.

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