What Is a Peripheral Device?
A peripheral device is a hardware device (other than your computer/tablet/smartphone) that can be integrated into your Azumuta workspace. A peripheral device can send and receive information to and from your Azumuta workspace in real-time. It’s used to support your production activities on the shop floor.
In a manufacturing setting, peripheral devices are found everywhere. For example:
- Printers that print labels and barcodes
- Weighing scales used to measure the weight of objects
- Digital torque wrenches that are used for tightening tasks
- And countless other devices
How a peripheral device connects
Most peripheral devices connect to Azumuta in one of two ways.
Keyboard emulation (HID mode). Many devices — most barcode scanners, and plenty of Bluetooth calipers, scales, and gauges — can be switched into a mode where they act like a keyboard. Once the device is paired at the operating-system level, it "types" its reading directly into whichever field is selected, the same way a keyboard would. This needs no Hub, no plugin, and no peripheral configuration in Azumuta: click into a text, number, or barcode field on the shop floor, then scan or measure. Check your device's manual for a setting called HID mode, keyboard wedge, or similar. Because this works the same way for any device with this mode, regardless of brand, Azumuta doesn't maintain a list of recommended scanners or gauges: if the device offers keyboard emulation, it works.
A Hub plugin. Devices that report more than a single value at once — for example a digital torque wrench reporting torque, angle, and a pass/fail result together — need Azumuta's Hub software and a plugin for that specific device, tied to a particular product check. See Add a peripheral device to your Azumuta workspace.
Azumuta has a wide range of hardware integration options using a Hub plugin. If your device doesn't support keyboard emulation and isn't on that list, contact us through support@azumuta.com to explore whether a customized integration is possible.
