UWP app cannot find/connect to USB device

Question

I am trying to make a UWP app which connects to a USB device and then executes a series of commands, like retrieving data from the internal sensor (think of an accelerometer

Answer 1

It seems that I found one way to resolve this, which is a bit stupid, but hey, who asks me anyway...

I came across this one here on stackoverflow: Cannot create UsbDevice from DeviceInformation.Id

And it seems that my issue is indeed resolved when I use a .inf to refer to winusb as the driver. I have no idea why, so if any of you have an explanation, please let me know.

As above answer is referring to a blogpost that does exist anymore (I used the wayback machine to get to it), I'm posting the inf here, in case it helps anyone (but it's an ordinary inf)

;
;
; Installs WinUsb
;

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
Class     = USBDevice
ClassGUID = {88BAE032-5A81-49f0-BC3D-A4FF138216D6}
Provider  = %ManufacturerName%
CatalogFile = WinUSBInstallation.cat
DriverVer=12/12/2016,13.54.20.543

; ========== Manufacturer/Models sections ===========

[Manufacturer]
%ManufacturerName% = Standard,NTamd64

[Standard.NTamd64]
%DeviceName% =USB_Install, USB\VID_1267&PID_0000

; ========== Class definition ===========

[ClassInstall32]
AddReg = ClassInstall_AddReg

[ClassInstall_AddReg]
HKR,,,,%ClassName%
HKR,,NoInstallClass,,1
HKR,,IconPath,%REG_MULTI_SZ%,"%systemroot%\system32\setupapi.dll,-20"
HKR,,LowerLogoVersion,,5.2

; =================== Installation ===================

[USB_Install]
Include = winusb.inf
Needs   = WINUSB.NT

[USB_Install.Services]
Include =winusb.inf
Needs   = WINUSB.NT.Services

[USB_Install.HW]
AddReg=Dev_AddReg

[Dev_AddReg]
HKR,,DeviceInterfaceGUIDs,0x10000,"{9f543223-cede-4fa3-b376-a25ce9a30e74}"

; [DestinationDirs]
; If your INF needs to copy files, you must not use the DefaultDestDir         directive here.  
; You must explicitly reference all file-list-section names in this     section.

; =================== Strings ===================

[Strings]
ManufacturerName=""
ClassName="Universal Serial Bus devices"
DeviceName="OWI-535 Robotic Arm"
REG_MULTI_SZ = 0x00010000

Note that I left an arbitrary VID and PID in the driver, but I still have to connect with the VID and PID that the device tells me.

Answer 2

This is how to connect to a WinUSB device on UWP.

public async Task<IEnumerable<DeviceDefinition>> GetConnectedDeviceDefinitions(uint? vendorId, uint? productId)
{
    var aqsFilter = "System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid:=\"{DEE824EF-729B-4A0E-9C14-B7117D33A817}\" AND System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled:=System.StructuredQueryType.Boolean#True AND " + $" System.DeviceInterface.WinUsb.UsbVendorId:={vendorId.Value} AND System.DeviceInterface.WinUsb.UsbProductId:={productId.Value}";

    var deviceInformationCollection = await wde.DeviceInformation.FindAllAsync(aqsFilter).AsTask();

    //TODO: return the vid/pid if we can get it from the properties. Also read/write buffer size

    var deviceIds = deviceInformationCollection.Select(d => new DeviceDefinition { DeviceId = d.Id, DeviceType = DeviceType.Usb }).ToList();
    return deviceIds;
}

Here is a more complete answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/53954352/1878141

And, here is a class from the repo: https://github.com/MelbourneDeveloper/Device.Net/blob/master/src/Usb.Net.UWP/UWPUsbDeviceFactory.cs

Answer 3

In my case, the DeviceInterfaceGUID registry entry for the device was missing, which seems to be required so that the WinUSB device can be found and instantiated.

I added the entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_16D0&PID_0BD7\None\Device Parameters\DeviceInterfaceGUID with a random GUID like {86529001-c433-4530-a578-9a67adf1ffa9} (in my case 16D0 is the vendor ID, 0BD7 the product ID and None the instance). This can be done from the command line for example, by calling reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USB\VID_16D0&PID_0BD7\None\Device Paramet ers" /v "DeviceInterfaceGUID" /t REG_SZ /d "{86529001-c433-4530-a578-9a67adf1ffa9}" /f.

I am absolutely no expert in USB and have no idea why this is needed or why it was missing; but at least in my case adding a GUID helped, both on my Windows 10 Professional and my Windows 10 IoT Core (Raspberry PI 3B). Maybe see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/usbcon/usb-device-specific-registry-settings for more details.