Applies to: Docklight Scripting, Article ID: dl_faq040
You can use Docklight Scripting to access HID “Custom Class” devices and other HID input devices like game controllers that are not exclusively reserved by Windows. Docklight Scripting allows you to send HID Output Reports or receive HID Input Reports.
In Docklight you can choose between a HID report-based approach that shows you the individual outgoing / incoming report frames. Or an application-layer approach (“protocol mode”, “P”) where Docklight only shows the actual payload data, e.g. a text-based protocol you implemented. In “protocol mode”, HID report details like Report ID or trailing zero bytes are not shown in the TX/RX communication data.
NOTES:
* You cannot access Mouse/Keyboard devices that are a standard Windows input device. Windows immediately opens these for exclusive access and does not allow a second client application to control them.
* Docklight opens HID devices using “Access Mode = Shared”. You can tap into other application connections and use Docklight to view the device responses, but you will not see the reports the other Windows application (besides Docklight Scripting) sends to the device.
* The current standard release supports Output Reports and Input Reports. Send/Get Feature Reports will be reported in the next (free) update, and a preview of the functionality is already available – please see the Docklight Customer Support download link and the “HID Feature Reports” link below.
* A quick way to obtain a list of all HID devices available on your PC are the hidtest.exe and testgui.exe tools. These are part of the popular HIDAPI project, which Docklight Scripting also uses. We have pre-compiled and tested these tools for you and provide a download package with code-signed executables, see the hidapi_test.zip link below. (Another useful application for finding your HID device is Uwe Sieber’s UsbTreeView / USB Device Tree Viewer at https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html ).
Docklight Troubleshooting – HID Feature Reports
Download Docklight Scripting V2.4.x Customer Support Version