NODE HID STREAM

Stream data from HID device in Node.js

Wraps node-hid in a node.js Stream.

HID devices, specifically, keyboard-like devices.

Available Streams are:

Hidstream: Stream data from node-hid.
Keyboard: Stream for keyboard-like devices.
KeyboardCharacters: for keyboard-like devices that streams characters.
KeyboardLines: for keyboard-like devices stream lines split on ENTER. Can be used to read from barcode scanners.

keyboard-like = (keyboards or barcode scanners)

Installation

You have to make sure you can install node-hid before you install this module.

npm install node-hid-stream

Usage

Hidstream

var Hidstream = require('node-hid-stream').Hidstream;
var hidstream = new Hidstream({ vendorId: 3233, productId: 3233 });

hidstream.on("data", function(data) {
  console.log(data); // Raw buffer from HDI device.
});

KeyboardLines

var KeyboardLines = require('node-hid-stream').KeyboardLines;
var lines = new KeyboardLines({ vendorId: 3233, productId: 3233 });

lines.on("data", function(data) {
  // The user has pressed w, a, s & d, ENTER (simultaneously (why? I don't know))
  console.log(data); //  "wasd"
});

KeyboardCharacters

var KeyboardCharacters = require('node-hid-stream').KeyboardCharacters;
var characters = new KeyboardCharacters({ vendorId: 3233, productId: 3233 });

characters.on("data", function(data) {
  // The user has pressed w, a, s & d (simultaneously (why? I don't know))
  console.log(data); //  "wasd"
});

Keyboard

var Keyboard = require('node-hid-stream').Keyboard;
var keyboard = new Keyboard({ vendorId: 3233, productId: 3233 });

keyboard.on("data", function(data) {
  console.log(data); // easily consumed data format!
});

Sample Data Event from Keyboard stream:

The user has pressed Ctrl + Alt + Del

{  // HidKeyboardPacket
  modifiers: {
    leftShift: false,
    leftControl: true,
    leftAlt: true,
    leftMeta: false,
    rightCtrl: false,
    rightShift: false,
    rightAlt: false,
    rightMeta: false
  },
  keyCodes: [ 76 ],
  keyChars: [],
  errorStatus: false
}

The user has pressed w, a, s & d (simultaneously (why? I don't know))

{  // HidKeyboardPacket
  modifiers: {
    leftShift: false,
    leftControl: false,
    leftAlt: false,
    leftMeta: false,
    rightCtrl: false,
    rightShift: false,
    rightAlt: false,
    rightMeta: false
  },
  keyCodes: [ 26, 4, 22, 7 ],
  charCodes: [ 'w', 'a', 's', 'd' ],
  errorStatus: false
}

HidKeyboardPacket

HidKeyboardPacket has additional convenience methods

shift() returns true if left or right shift key is pressed.
control() returns true if left or right control key is pressed.
alt() returns true if left or right alt key is pressed.
meta() returns true if left or right meta key is pressed.
mod() returns true returns true if any of the modifier keys is pressed.
empty() returns true if no key or modifier is pressed.

Contributions

This is based on hidstream from Emily Rose

Significant refactor contributed by @kubat

agirorn/node-hid-stream