Using the wacom interface of the DR1000S to control a Windows machine

[Cliffe]

How can we use the wacom interface of the DR1000S to control a Windows machine?

I have been looking at this for the last couple of hours because I think it may be possible. However, I can’t afford to spend any more time on it at the moment so I thought I would share what I have found and maybe someone else can give it a shot.

I guess the steps involved would be to
1: find the wacom driver files
2: find a way of sending all the relevant information via the mini usb
3: interpret that information on the windows side of things
Note: this may all be a wild goose chase if wacom don’t have *compatible* Windows drivers to handle that last step.

Doing this sort of thing would be much quicker if there was a port of a console program such as xterm.

Step 1: find the wacom driver files

From /proc/bus/devices:

I: Bus=0013 Vendor=0020 Product=0001 Version=0100
N: Name="iOn Keyboard"
P: Phys=ttymxc3/serio0/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input0
U: Uniq=
H: Handlers=kbd event0
B: EV=100003
B: KEY=3fc0 0 8000400 10004000

The device file is:
/dev/input/event0

Interestingly the vendor number does not match any in:
PCI and AGP Vendors, Devices and Subsystems identification file.
http://www.clavister.com/support/utilities/vendors.txt
or
List of USB ID's
http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids

Step 2: find a way of sending all the relevant information via the mini usb

I hoped this would be as simple as redirecting /dev/input/event0 to a file representing the usb. There are a few more steps than that.

USB always has a host and a client. The Reader is the client.

Currently the Reader uses the mini usb for making the card available to the host.

Resources:
http://www.linux-usb.org/gadget/
http://liyiadam.blogspot.com/2006/12/usb-gadget.html
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded/USBClient

So I guess after the user says “No” (I am not connecting to the computer to manage my files), then (based on that first link) we might be able to use gadgetfs to avoid having to write a kernel module: (mount -t gadgetfs gadgetfs /dev/gadget) and use that to send the wacom information. Perhaps with: /dev/input/event0 > /dev/gadget/[whatever file represents the usb]

Keeping in mind:
The kernel would need the gadgetfs module compiled and loaded (loading: modprobe gadgetfs).
It may be necessary to make sure the vender id etc match a known wacom USB ids.
There may be a few steps for setting up the gadget.
I think /dev/loop/0 and /mnt/card may be used for the current sharing of the SD card.

Step 3: interpret that information on the windows side of things

If we are lucky and the information is in the form which is output from other wacom tablets then, hey presto, we should be in business. It may simply be possible to alter the device id info to match a wacom product. If not then well, writing a driver could be hard. But if it is standard and we can trick it into thinking it is another wacom model then that would be cool!

It would be great if someone else would give this a go!

Cheers,

Cliffe.

[Grimulkan]

I would say getting the data out via USB is the hardest and most important thing to do. The rest can be worked out. Writing a Win32 (or other) app to grab and process the data should be straightforward, as should dumping the Wacom data. We don't really need to process the Wacom data directly, its possible that this is piped in through standard GTK or X events that we can write a GTK/X-only app to grab and dump to a device. The trick is getting the data out via USB.

On a side note, why is this interesting? Bamboo and Intuos pads are not very expensive after all. If we can get some feedback on the eInk screen however, then we're doing something the Cintique does, which is a different story.

[Cliffe]

Grimulkan, you have a point, a bamboo is cheap compared to the DR1000S. However, why spend hundreds of dollars on a device, when I have a nifty wacom Linux device handy? In my opinion it would be very cool to be able to use it as interface to a PC.

Making the USB output compatible with an existing wacom driver would be highly advantageous as all the existing wacom software and compatible graphics software would work without any hassles. Writing a new Windows driver/app would involve interpreting the raw information and things like pressure sensitivity would have to be considered.

I doubt you would need to touch any GTK or X components as the raw information coming straight from the device (represented as files such as /dev/input/event0) may be more likely to be the information wacom devices usually send via USB. Maybe we should ask the wacom Linux guys (http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net). We might be able to get away with writing the output “driver” as a bash script or a simple c program. It should simply be a matter of setting up and sending the information via the gadgetfs.

I will probably get a chance to have another look at this next weekend. In the meantime it would be great if any progress anyone else makes was shared here.

Is there any chance someone could port a terminal program to the DR1000S at some point? It would make the process of experimenting with the device files etc *much* quicker.

As for getting feedback onto the DR screen, that could be a cool feature to look at implementing after the output is sorted out. If it is possible a screen refresh every few seconds may be appropriate. In my opinion the ability to use it as an interface to a PC would be more useful; as if the device is hooked up to a PC then a local screen with a higher refresh rate (which may be more suited to the tasks done on a PC) would typically be available.

[Cliffe]

It seams using it as an input device for a Linux PC would be straight forward. The iLiad community did it : https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15144

Although I do have a Linux machine, I do my graphics work on a Windows machine. So I am still keen on getting this working.

[marcel06]

Hi,

I just have the same idea in mind, using my DR1000 to control my Windows 7 applications, especially having Corel Painter in mind. Did you find a solution a the end?

Thank you,

[Cliffe]

Originally Posted by marcel06

Hi,

I just have the same idea in mind, using my DR1000 to control my Windows 7 applications, especially having Corel Painter in mind. Did you find a solution a the end?

Thank you,

No I lost interest in the idea, and I am actually planning to buy a Wacom tablet soon. Other ways it could be done is using VNC or by modifying synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/). Since iRex is no more I am not going to spend any more time on the idea. However, if you get something working please share! Thanks.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by Cliffe

Is there any chance someone could port a terminal program to the DR1000S at some point? It would make the process of experimenting with the device files etc *much* quicker.

I was re-reading the message on USB and found this question. Are you looking for this?

[Mackx]

And this thread about usbnet might also be interesting.

[pbarrette]

Hi all,

I realize that this thread is rather old now, but I've attached the binary kernel module gadget that the ASUS EeeNote uses to accomplish precisely this task.

It appears to be dependent upon a pxa3xx processor, but perhaps it could be reverse engineered to give you some ideas on implementing this for the iRex devices.

It appears that the relevant command is:
insmod g_wacom_tablet.ko handle_mode=[X]

[X] is either 0 or 1 and appears to determine the orientation as either landscape left or landscape right.

pb

[catharsis]

would it work for DR800 also ?

[pbarrette]

Hi catharsis,

You can try, but I think it's very likely that the module won't install at all and you'll just get an error message.

I provided the kernel module hoping that it may give some clues to the developers here on how to implement it on the iRex devices.

[pbarrette]

Hi All,

ASUS has released the kernel sources for the EA800, which also include the source code for their Wacom USB gadget.

The source can probably be modified to work on the iRex devices as well. If so, this would provide you with the ability to use the iRex devices as Wacom input tablets on the PC.

The sources are available here:
ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/EeeNote/...sourcecode.zip

pb

[Mackx]

Hi pb,

Thanks for posting the link. Unfortunately I have to divide my 'DR-time' between hacking the firmware, xournal and translations, so I decided not to jump into the usbnet/wacom from PC issues right now.

Marcel