From a shell script it is relatively simple but requires knowing the right thing to send. /dev/hidraw devices are called "raw" because they are just that (I suspect) - from this article at a website called developerFusion, that I found, a long time ago, (specifically "figure 3") - that author reported that the device wanted a six-byte report to be sent to it to switch the 4 LEDs (one in each of the four "player" controllers) on or off. Briefly, they had found that, for six bytes 1-6, they were used:
Byte 1: don't care - suggest using 0x00
Byte 2: don't care - suggest using 0x00
Byte 3: 0x00 (off) or 0xFF (on) - Handset 1
Byte 4: 0x00 (off) or 0xFF (on) - Handset 2
Byte 5: 0x00 (off) or 0xFF (on) - Handset 3
Byte 6: 0x00 (off) or 0xFF (on) - Handset 4
So, after some experimenting I found that, for a "Buzz" Controller that the udev system(?) has named/symlinked to /dev/hidraw0 the following will flash each of the LED in sequence:
#!/bin/bash
delay=0.1
while [ true ]; do
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\x00\xff\x00\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\xff\x00\x00\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
echo -e "\x00\x00\xff\x00\x00\x00\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
echo -e "\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00" > /dev/hidraw0
sleep ${delay}
done
I
think the last ASCII "nul" character is required to end the string or it might be an artefact of the language that the author of that article was using (.NET / c#) that hid that seven bytes were being used not six - but then those languages are completely foreign to me. What I found was that if the right length string is not used, that last byte is left off - the string doesn't get recognised, at least after the first string sent which I think is consistent with a "fixed report length" requirement.
I wanted to make things simpler by using udev to provide meaningful names for just such devices so I created a /lib/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules file for my Debian Linux "Jessie" PC (using sysV "init" NOT "systemd"):
ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="end"
# Assign a unique number to a buzz symbolic link to any Sony Buzz controllers
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="1000", PROGRAM=="/sbin/unique_number /dev buzz", SYMLINK+="buzz%c", TAG+="buzz", OPTIONS+=last_rule
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="054c", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0002", PROGRAM=="/sbin/unique_number /dev buzz", SYMLINK+="buzz%c", TAG+="buzz", OPTIONS+=last_rule
LABEL="end"
and to provide a unique number - especial in the case where I plug in a hub with multiple Buzz controllers on and will have multiple devices added or removed at the same time, I used the following /sbin/unique_number which WAS derived from somewhere on SE - (I WILL accept edits to give valid attributions/copyrights...):
#!/bin/bash
# Copyright (C) 2015 by Stephen Lyons - [email protected]
#
# unique_number: This script is used to provide a unique suffix for a
# file in a given directory
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 location prefix\n\n" >&2
echo " Finds the first unused integer # suffixed file"
echo " of form prefix# in directory given by location,"
echo " and prints that number."
exit 1
fi
location="$1"
prefix="$2"
index=0
while [ -e "/var/lock/unique_number.lock" ]; do
sleep 0.1;
done
touch "/var/lock/unique_number.lock"
until [ ! -e "${location}/${prefix}${index}" ]; do
(( index++ ));
done
echo "$index"
rm "/var/lock/unique_number.lock"
exit 0
However, whilst this does provide /dev/buzz0, /dev/buzz1 as I wanted, this combination does not work to provide something that can replace /dev/hidraw0 etc. in the first script.
