Back to instantiating this in an object box:

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios

Does any of the output in the Pd window have the word "succeeded" in it?

yes, twice (tho they look identical):

tried /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin and succeeded

tried /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin and succeeded

@didipiman Hm, it shouldn't print it twice. What are the errors after the 2nd one?

pasting the next few lines, though there are many more after this:

tried /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin and succeeded
verbose( 1):/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin: dlopen(/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin, 10): Library not loaded: @rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

a

@didipiman Ok. What's the output of this:

otool -L /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin:
/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1281.100.1)
@rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 1.0.0)
/usr/lib/libc++.1.dylib (compatibility version 1.0.0, current version 902.1.0)

@didipiman And now this:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/helios.pd_darwin:

@didipiman How about:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so: is not an object file

@didipiman Hm.

Try:

install_name_tool -id /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

error: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/bin/install_name_tool: input file: /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so is not a Mach-O file

file /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, BuildID[sha1]=6d6066fc49fc9c4a1dd5db75d614ea958f61ae67, stripped

@didipiman Oops, try this:

otool -D /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

/Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib:
@rpath/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

@didipiman I don't really understand Macos' toolset. Give this a try and see if you can instantiate the object afterward:

install_name_tool -id /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib /Applications/Pd-l2ork.app/Contents/Resources/app.nw/extra/pd_helios/libusb-1.0.0.dylib

tried instantiating it as [helios], as [pd_helios] to no avail. unless i should try with other paths as the object class...

@didipiman For some reason the library isn't finding that libusb-1.0.0.dylib dependency. You'll need to fish around the OSX docs about install_name_tool to figure out how to ensure it's in the correct search path.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, @jancsika
will try and report back if i succeed