USB HID documentation?

[Diez B. Roggisch]

ETP wrote:

> I have a little robot project I'm programming in python using the
> Lynxmotion SSC-32 servo controller via serial.  I'd like to use a USB
> game controller (PS2 style) to control the robot.
> 
> I've read a number of threads about the difficulty of using USB
> without extensive understanding of the way it works, but a few have
> stated that HID is different somehow.  I definitely do not have any
> USB knowledge, and I don't care to get into that.  However, if USB-HID
> is much simpler I would love to learn.
> 
> I have the python extensions for windows:
>      http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=78018
> but I haven't found any documentation on how to implement HID in
> python.  Can anyone give me some examples or links?

You seem to misunderstand HID. HID is a protocol over USB (and Bluetooth I
believe) that will create user input device events which are mapped to your
OS input layer. That means that whenever you e.g. attach a keyboard device,
it's keyboard events will generate key-strokes on screen.

There are various kinds of HID-devices, and gamepads/joysticks generate
certain events.

So you need to look up you OS game device API and use that. Then attaching
any compliant HID-device should work.

Diez