is it possible to Rename the HID Controller

[flow1986]

Hi,
i´d like to connect 4 Arduino-gamepads to my PC and my Raspberrry.
is it possible to change the HID name?
so that i don´t have:
arduino leonardo
arduino leonardo
arduino leonardo
arduino leonardo

but my own names?

[MHeironimus]

I have not been able to figure out how to do this yet, but it seems like it should be possible. I am leaving this issue open as a future enhancement. If anyone knows how to do this, let me know.

[ytmytm]

At one time I tought that recompiling boot loader would be enough:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=249011.0

But apparently not:
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=275686.0

However I never tried to do it myself.

[marekhalmo]

Have you tried to change the string in HID.h or HID.cpp ? I think i saw something like this somewhere in the Arduino IDE base libraries..

[trevorirwin]

I found some steps for changing the name, courtesy of this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrT7WXFEEZI

1. Go to control panel.
2. Open 'Devices and Printers'.
3. Find your controller , right click ~ properties.
4. Go to tab 'Hardware' , and open properties on HID-compliant...
5. Go to tab 'Details' and select on 'Property' ~ Hardware Ids.
6. Remember your value , VID_045E&PID_02A1 " Every controller has different value. "
7. Go to start , and open regedit.exe.
8. Go to :
   A. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_045E&PID_02A1
   B. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VID_045E&PID_02A1
9. Change OEM Name to your preferences.
10. Done!

However, this changes the name for ALL "Arduino Leonardo" devices. I'm not sure how to change the name for just one specifically. The joystick devices seem to identify to windows based on VID and PID. If there were some way to safely change these, it might be possible to name them individually.

However, based on some of my previous experiments, extreme care must be taken here. If you change the VID or PID of the hardware Leonardo, you run the risk of the Arduino IDE not recognizing it for sketch uploads anymore. There might be a way to modify it for just the joystick device, but I don't know enough about HID to say. Hopefully @MHeironimus or someone else with more talent than me can use this as a starting point.

[bjoernboeckle]

Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how it can be influenced from within the sketch.
But you can change the name globally by modifying the “boards.txt” file.

This will modify the name for all devices programmed. So if you want to have Name A, B and C for your devices you need to change the “boards.txt” to “A”, program the A device, then change the boards.txt to “B” then program the B device etc.

The boards.txt can be found in the Arduino installation folder, for instance:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\boards.txt

In case you’re device is reported as "Arduino Micro", then you need to change the “Arduino Micro” entry , in case its an Arduino Leonardo then change the appropriate usb_product entry.

For instance to change a Arduino Leonardo rename the entry:
micro.build.usb_product="Arduino Leonardo"
to
micro.build.usb_product="LuckyB's Joystick"

Result:

[MHeironimus]

@bjoernboeckle Thank you for posting your findings.

[maxx8888]

Hi,

Thanks for the Tip with the Product Name change. It was working perfectly for me also. However, the 3 Joysticks itself are still named Arduino Leonardo. Please refer to attached Pictures.

Therefore i'm still struggeling within my Flight Simulator to find correct Joystick, as i have connected 3 Leonardo Boards with 3 Joysticks each. Within Game, they are all named "Arduino Leonardo" :-)

[Dak0r]

You are legally not allowed to change the name and use Arduino LLCs USB Vendor Id,. So you have to buy a Vendor Id yourself, which costs $5.000: http://www.usb.org/developers/vendor/
I don't think it's an issue if you don't want to sell / release your product, though.

Here's an article about Vendor Ids for open source projects: https://www.oshwa.org/2013/11/19/new-faq-on-usb-vendor-id-and-product-id/
And here is a site that gives away pids for open source projects: http://pid.codes/

Anyway, i just found a hack to solve this issue WITHOUT having to recompile the boot loader (which is what most people say you need to do)

In the boards.txt change the usb_product and the vendor / product id.
e.G.

leonardo.build.vid=0x9999
leonardo.build.pid=0x9999
leonardo.build.usb_product="My Awesome Controller Leonardo"

If your device, is the first device connected to this computer with that vid / pid combination, it will be displayed with your usb_product name. (vid, pid, and product name are cached in the registry, so if the product that uses this vid / pid legally will later be connected to the same computer, it will also show your name.)
Note: If you use an id that is already used by another device, windows might tries to install the wrong driver.

It only shows "Arduino Leonardo" in the Game Controller Window, because you had an Arduino Leonardo connected to your computer before. On fresh installs, it would work without the vid/pid change, but it will show every Leonardo with your name then.

[MHeironimus]

@Dakor91 - Thank you for posting your findings.

[silveirago]

@Dakor91 Thank you very much for that info! It solved my problem.

[trevorirwin]

@Dakor91 Thanks for that! While the solution I posted earlier worked for renaming a single class of device, your solution is so much better because it allows my devices to identify differently to a single PC.

[JamesCoyle]

When I do as @Dakor91 suggested it shows up with the new name in the devices page in the new windows 10 settings but no longer gets recognized as a game controller for some reason... Any ideas?

Edit: it seems switching back to the default constructor instead of a custom wheel based one works. Gonna play around and see if I can narrow the issue down a bit.

Edit 2: The arguments passed to the constructor don't really actually seem to line up correctly with what you've listed in the readme. The X, Y, Z, options seemed to remove RX, RY, RZ instead. What you have as throttle appears as the Y axis on the steering joystick and is marked as the accelerator and enabling the accelerator actually shows a throttle slider. Disabling steering with just throttle and brake enabled for some reason shows the steering/accelerator joystick and rudder. Definitely something off with either your documentation or the implementation @MHeironimus.

[condac]

If I change the VID and PID it does not show up in Game Controllers in windows. It Shows up as a HID-compliant device and USB Input Device in device manager and under other devices it shows up as a serial device with no drivers. If I force the arduino drivers on the serial device it will work as a serial device but it still doesn't show up in Game Controllers. Any ideas how to fix this? I can have 2 different names if I change the PID to leonardos PID on one and the micro on another, but if i want more unique names changing the PID to a random value would be nice.

[condac]

There is a bug somehow. I uploaded an example to a new adruino with new random VID and PID and it works. So if i change the VID and upload my code first, my code does not work. But when I load it with an example and plug it in then i can reload it with my code and it works. Some how having this joystick initializer does not work ( the example for driving controller):
Joystick_ Joystick(JOYSTICK_DEFAULT_REPORT_ID, JOYSTICK_TYPE_MULTI_AXIS, 4, 0, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, true, true, true);
But if i change it to the example for gamepad it works fine. Or if i have used the gamepad example before on that VID it starts to work.