usb

An Erlang application for interfacing with USB peripherals using libusb.

This application allows for discovering and communicating with USB peripherals by making use of libusb through a NIF interface.

Dependencies

This Erlang application library depends on:

• pkg-config (build only)
• libusb ≥ 1.0.16

Setup

You need to add usb as a dependency to your project. If you are using rebar3, you can add the following to your rebar.config:

{deps, [
    {usb, "0.2.0"}
]}.

Also ensure that usb is added as a dependency to your application, by updating your .app.src file:

{application, my_app, [

    {applications, [
        kernel,
        stdlib,

        usb  % <- You need this in your applications list
    ]}
]}.

Usage

Listing and querying devices

You can list currently connected USB devices, you can use:

> {ok, [Device|_]} = usb:get_device_list().
{ok,[#Ref<0.1223016592.607256583.114769>]}.

You can then query the device:

> usb:get_device_speed(Device).
{ok, high}
> usb:get_device_descriptor(Device).
{ok, #{
    class_code => 0,
    device_version => 532,
    manufacturer_string_index => 1,
    max_packet_size0 => 64,
    num_configurations => 1,
    product_id => 33028,
    product_string_index => 0,
    protocol_code => 0,
    serial_number_string_index => 2,
    sub_class_code => 0,
    usb_version => 512,
    vendor_id => 1452
}}
> usb:get_config_descriptor(Device, 0).
{ok, #{
    attributes => 224,
    configuration_number => 1,
    description_string_index => 0,
    extra => <<>>,
    interfaces => [
        #{alt_settings => [
            #{
                class_code => 3,
                description_string_index => 4,
                endpoints => [
                    #{
                        address => 129,
                        attributes => 3,
                        extra => <<>>,
                        interval => 1,
                        max_packet_size => 8,
                        refresh => 0,
                        synch_address => 0
                    }
                ],
                extra => <<9,33,1,1,0,1,34,179,0>>,
                interface_number => 0,
                protocol_code => 0,
                setting_number => 0,
                sub_class_code => 0
            }
        ]}
    ],
    max_power => 500
}}

Monitoring USB device hotplug

The following will start monotoring for USB device arrival and departure:

> {ok, Monitor} = usb:monitor_hotplug([enumerate]).
{ok, #Ref<0.731181930.70909953.42752>}

The enumerate option will create hotplug notifications about already plugged in devices. Without the option, only newly connected devices will be reported.

From this point on, the process monitoring USB hotplug will received one of the following messages:

• {usb, device_arrived, Device}
• {usb, device_left, Device}

where Device is an opaque reference representing a specific device. these references can be used to interact with the device.