grifcat is a command-line utility to read input from
a Griffin Powermate device. The powermate is a simple 1 axis knob
with integrated button. Very handy little toy.
This tool makes it easy to use the powermate from inside of a script or the like. It has a simple machine readable output that's designed for easy parsing. It replicates a bunch of data offering it up in both text and numeric form.
Using grifcat version 0.2 enables you to control the LED built into the base of the Powermate as well. Now you can use grifcat to turn your griffin into an output device as well.
Inside the source to grifcat you will find a brief description of the Powermate control protocol as I've been able to work out, variously poking around and reading other code found online.
grifcat will work under any platform that libusb works on, this means Mac OSX, Linux, etc.
NOTE: If you are using the powermate under linux, you need to
be sure that your distribution isn't auto-loading the powermate kernel
module. Use the lsmod utility and look for powermate
in the output. If there, you need to run the command rmmod powermate. Otherwise grifcat will not be able to attach to the device.
I bought my powermate from ThinkGeek. I'm sure there are other retailers out there though.
How do I use grifcat?
This is very, very easy to use. First, download the program, compile it by typing 'make', then run it. NOTE: You must have libusb and libusb-dev packages installed to build the program.
- List all griffin powermates
$ sudo ./grifcat --list 077d:0410 Griffin Technology PowerMate on USB bus 002 device 010
- Dump griffin state changes
sudo ./grifcat 0001 801401 BtnUp Cw 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0002 801401 BtnUp Ccw 0 -1 0 1 1 0 0 0003 801401 BtnDown Nc 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0004 801401 BtnDown Ccw 1 -1 -1 1 2 0 1 0005 801401 BtnDown Cw 1 1 0 2 2 0 1 0006 801401 BtnUp Nc 0 0 0 2 2 1 1
- Dump state changes minimally
sudo ./grifcat --minimal 0 1 0 -1 0 1 0 -1 1 0 1 1 1 -1 0 0
Where do I get it?
The current version is 0.2.1 (2005-09-03).
You will need libusb installed to use this. Since it is source, you'll need the 'developer' version of the package from your distribution. (Debian/Ubuntu: libusb-dev.)
- Changelog
- http://www.technocage.com/~caskey/grifcat/download/CHANGELOG
- bzipped tar (11KB)
-
http://www.technocage.com/~caskey/grifcat/download/grifcat-0.2.1.tar.bz2
http://www.technocage.com/~caskey/grifcat/download/grifcat-0.2.1.tar.bz2.asc
You can download the source for all versions here. Each package has a GPG signature signed by the distributor, Caskey L. Dickson. You can get a copy of my key for verification here. For those without GPG, here are the checksums of the distribution. These are available in the file checksums.txt in the download directory.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 2510eb4610871bfffd7478f80dacc737 grifcat-0.1.tar.bz2 9e28e19d1de1991f91ee6c872cd2a771 grifcat-0.2.1.tar.bz2 48a72e8b4227b7d91ae4629db9143a31 grifcat-0.2.tar.bz2 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: http://www.technocage.com/~caskey/pubkey.txt iD8DBQFDGW7oPU2b1GM6XVsRAkL/AJ9zBfKSqsZZIFGXJtvPw7NEE1P5VwCcD5cZ cvOLvnUrC1vhPqFKunON9vM= =1xwk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Who would waste their time on this?
acdctl is written and is maintained by Caskey L. Dickson.