Manage more mice using VB.net

Question

Hi All,

i have a lot of mice connected to the pc, i would like to create a program that recognizes which of these mice did the "click" action. I've been trying for days, but without success...

Can someone help me?

thanks

Skipper

Answer

This test identifies the device (VID/PID) on my OS (Windows 10, test with 2 mice) with RIDI_DEVICENAME (I commented the call with RIDI_DEVICEINFO because it reports always the same values for my 2 mice but you can uncomment it to check...)

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class Form1

    
    Public Shared Function RegisterRawInputDevices(ByRef pRawInputDevices As RAWINPUTDEVICE, uiNumDevices As UInteger, cbSize As UInteger) As Boolean
    End Function

    
    Public Shared Function GetRawInputData(ByVal hRawInput As IntPtr, ByVal uiCommand As UInteger,  ByRef pData As RAWINPUT, <[In], Out> ByRef pcbSize As UInteger, ByVal cbSizeHeader As UInteger) As Integer
    End Function

    
    Public Shared Function GetRawInputDeviceInfo(ByVal hDevice As IntPtr, ByVal uiCommand As UInteger, ByVal pData As IntPtr, <[In], Out> ByRef pcbSize As UInteger) As Integer
    End Function

    Public Const RIDI_PREPARSEDDATA = &H20000005
    Public Const RIDI_DEVICENAME = &H20000007 ' the Return valus Is the character length, Not the Byte size
    Public Const RIDI_DEVICEINFO = &H2000000B

    Public Const RID_INPUT = &H10000003
    Public Const RID_HEADER = &H10000005

    Public Const RIM_TYPEMOUSE = 0
    Public Const RIM_TYPEKEYBOARD = 1
    Public Const RIM_TYPEHID = 2
    Public Const RIM_TYPEMAX = 2

    Public Structure RAWINPUTHEADER
        Public dwType As UInteger
        Public dwSize As UInteger
        Public hDevice As IntPtr
        Public wParam As Short
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RAWINPUT
        
        Public Header As RAWINPUTHEADER
        
        Public Mouse As RAWMOUSE
        
        Public Keyboard As RAWKEYBOARD
        
        Public HID As RAWHID
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RAWHID
        Public dwSizeHid As UInteger
        Public dwCount As UInteger
        Public bRawData As IntPtr
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RAWMOUSE
        Public usFlags As UShort
        
        Public Structure Union
            
            Public ulButtons As UInteger
            
            Public usButtonData As UShort
            
            Public usButtonFlags As UShort
        End Structure
        Public Data As Union
        Public ulRawButtons As UInteger
        Public lLastX As Integer
        Public lLastY As Integer
        Public ulExtraInformation As UInteger
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RAWKEYBOARD
        Public MakeCode As UShort
        Public Flags As UShort
        Public Reserved As UShort
        Public VKey As UShort
        Public Message As UInteger
        Public ExtraInformation As UInteger
    End Structure

    Public Const WM_INPUT = &HFF

    
    Public Structure RAWINPUTDEVICE
        Public usUsagePage As UShort
        Public usUsage As UShort
        Public dwFlags As UInteger
        Public hwndTarget As IntPtr
    End Structure

    Public Const RIDEV_REMOVE = &H1
    Public Const RIDEV_EXCLUDE = &H10
    Public Const RIDEV_PAGEONLY = &H20
    Public Const RIDEV_NOLEGACY = &H30
    Public Const RIDEV_INPUTSINK = &H100
    Public Const RIDEV_CAPTUREMOUSE = &H200  'effective when mouse nolegacy is specified, otherwise it would be an error
    Public Const RIDEV_NOHOTKEYS = &H200  'effective for keyboard.
    Public Const RIDEV_APPKEYS = &H400  'effective for keyboard.
    Public Const RIDEV_EXINPUTSINK = &H1000
    Public Const RIDEV_DEVNOTIFY = &H2000
    Public Const RIDEV_EXMODEMASK = &HF0
    Public Shared Function RIDEV_EXMODE(mode As Integer) As Integer
        Return mode And RIDEV_EXMODEMASK
    End Function

    
    Public Structure RID_DEVICE_INFO_MOUSE
        Public dwId As UInteger
        Public dwNumberOfButtons As UInteger
        Public dwSampleRate As UInteger
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RID_DEVICE_INFO_KEYBOARD
        Public dwType As UInteger
        Public dwSubType As UInteger
        Public dwKeyboardMode As UInteger
        Public dwNumberOfFunctionKeys As UInteger
        Public dwNumberOfIndicators As UInteger
        Public dwNumberOfKeysTotal As UInteger
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RID_DEVICE_INFO_HID
        Public dwVendorId As UInteger
        Public dwProductId As UInteger
        Public dwVersionNumber As UInteger
        Public usUsagePage As UShort
        Public usUsage As UShort
    End Structure

    
    Public Structure RID_DEVICE_INFO
        
        Public cbSize As UInteger
        
        Public dwType As UInteger
        
        Public mouse As RID_DEVICE_INFO_MOUSE
        
        Public keyboard As RID_DEVICE_INFO_KEYBOARD
        
        Public hid As RID_DEVICE_INFO_HID
    End Structure

    ' "C:\WINDOWS\System32\rundll32.exe" C:\WINDOWS\System32\shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL C:\WINDOWS\System32\main.cpl

    Private Sub Form1_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim rid As RAWINPUTDEVICE = New RAWINPUTDEVICE()
        rid.usUsagePage = &H1 ' HID_USAGE_PAGE_GENERIC 
        rid.usUsage = &H2 ' HID_USAGE_GENERIC_MOUSE 
        rid.dwFlags = RIDEV_INPUTSINK
        rid.hwndTarget = Me.Handle
        Dim bRet As Boolean = RegisterRawInputDevices(rid, 1, Marshal.SizeOf(rid))
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub WndProc(ByRef m As Message)
        If m.Msg = WM_INPUT Then
            Dim ri As RAWINPUT = New RAWINPUT()
            Dim nRiSize As UInteger = Marshal.SizeOf(GetType(RAWINPUT)) ' 40
            Dim inputData As Integer = GetRawInputData(m.LParam, RID_INPUT, ri, nRiSize, Marshal.SizeOf(GetType(RAWINPUTHEADER)))
            If (inputData <> -1) Then
                If (ri.Header.dwType = RIM_TYPEMOUSE) Then
                    Console.WriteLine("hDevice : {0}, Button Flags : {1}", ri.Header.hDevice, ri.Mouse.Data.usButtonFlags)
                    Dim nStringLength As Integer = 512
                    Dim pStringBuffer As IntPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(nStringLength)
                    Dim nRetSize As Integer = GetRawInputDeviceInfo(ri.Header.hDevice, RIDI_DEVICENAME, pStringBuffer, nStringLength)
                    If (nRetSize <> -1) Then
                        Dim sDeviceName As String = Marshal.PtrToStringUni(pStringBuffer)
                        Console.WriteLine("Device Name : {0}", sDeviceName)
                        'Dim nLength As Integer = Marshal.SizeOf(GetType(RID_DEVICE_INFO))
                        'Dim pBuffer As IntPtr = Marshal.AllocHGlobal(nLength)
                        'nRetSize = GetRawInputDeviceInfo(ri.Header.hDevice, RIDI_DEVICEINFO, pBuffer, nLength)
                        'If (nRetSize <> -1) Then
                        '    Dim rdi As RID_DEVICE_INFO = CType(Marshal.PtrToStructure(pBuffer, GetType(RID_DEVICE_INFO)), RID_DEVICE_INFO)
                        '    Console.WriteLine("Mouse ID : {0}, Number of Buttons: {1}", rdi.mouse.dwId, rdi.mouse.dwNumberOfButtons)
                        'End If
                    End If
                    Marshal.FreeHGlobal(pStringBuffer)
                End If
            End If
        Else
                MyBase.WndProc(m)
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

Answer

Thanks Castorix, i already have the mouse ID, but how could know when i use the first one or the second one?

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Manage more mice using VB.net

2 answers

This test identifies the device (VID/PID) on my OS (Windows 10, test with 2 mice) with RIDI_DEVICENAME (I commented the call with RIDI_DEVICEINFO because it reports always the same values for my 2 mice but you can uncomment it to check...)