Okay I updated to node v0.10.33, and I removed and reinstalled usb with "npm install usb" to make sure it was recompiled with the latest stuff.
Still the same problem.
in the node_module/usb/build directory the config.gypi has the "host_arch": "ia32". I think that should be correct for edison.
I don't know enough about the build environment to trace through and see if anything is being pointed to incorrectly.