Digital Arts & Crafts Studio
USB Debugging

The Digital Arts & Crafts Studio from Fisher-Price is a USB-based drawing tablet-with-buttons. It comes with proprietary software for Windows. I'd like to get it working with Tux Paint, an Open Source drawing program for kids, for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.

I'm currently trying to use libusb, a userland library for talking to USB devices. I'm doing development under Linux, but the library supports Windows and Mac, so adding this capability to Tux Paint should also be cross-platform!

November 8, 2007 — I'm as far as finding and opening the device, but seem to fail when trying to read input via interrupts. I'm very new at USB and libusb. My initial attempt was with libhid, but people tell me this device is so simple, that libhid is overkill and using libusb should be plenty.

Some files:

• uname_a.txt
  Output of "uname -a"; e.g., what Linux kernel I'm running. (I'm on Kubuntu 7.10)
• 55-daacs.rules
  Some udev rules to put the device into a group that allows normal (non-root) users to talk to the device.
• daacs-dmesg_connect.txt
  "dmesg" output upon connecting the device.
• daacs-syslog_connect.txt
  Snippet from /var/log/syslog upon connecting the device.
• daacs-lsusb_vvv.txt
  "lsusb -vvv" output for the device.
• daacs-proc_bus_usb_devices_when_usbfs_mounted.txt
  Snippet from /proc/bus/usb/devices for the device (after mounting the usbfs)
• daacs-test.c
  Source to the test app that I'm trying to write to listen to events from the tablet.
• Makefile
  Makefile to build the test app.
• daacs-test-output.txt Output of the test app.

If you can help, find me (usually "kendwork") on the "#tux4kids" IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, or email me at: bill@newbreedsoftware.com, or post a message to the "tuxpaint-devel" mailing list.

With a baby and a full-time job, I usually have time to play with this device on my train trips to and from work, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, ~7am-10am and ~7pm-10pm, Pacific time. (Currently PST, so -0800 off UTC.)

Thanks!