USB adapter for Playstation DualShock controllers. Requires a multitap adapter.
WARNING: Not actually tested with physical playstation controllers.
As USB interface for BlueRetro
Instead of connecting actual playstation controllers you can use an ESP32 board running BlueRetro. BlueRetro receives data from wireless bluetooth controllers like Switch, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S.
BT
Bluetooth Controller <------> BlueRetro <-\
|
USB: XInput |PSX SPI protocol
Computer <---------------> psx-usb <------/
The PSX controller communication protocol is an open drain SPI (LSB first) with additional acknowledge line. The RP2040s PIO makes it easy implement this custom SPI protocol.
A total of 5 wires (plus VCC and GND) is required to connect the two boards:
| Pin Description | BlueRetro | psx-usb | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESP32 Pin | RPI Pico Pin | ||
| SCK / CLK | 33 | 2 | |
| TXD / MOSI | 32 | 3 | |
| RXD / MISO | 19 | 4 | Pullup required |
| DTR / CS | 34 | 5 | |
| DSR / ACK | 21 | 6 | Pullup required |
Its easy to create a HID composite device which exposes many controllers on a single USB connection. Unfortunately the button mapping is not well standardized and usually requires additional setup/remapping steps on the computer.
The alternative is to emulate Xbox 360 controllers (aka XInput devices) which have a well defined button arrangement understood by most games. Unfortunately the windows driver only accepts exactly one wired Xbox 360 controller per USB device.
To overcome this limitation I had to reverse engineer the USB protocol of a "Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows" which supports up to 4 wireless controllers.
Resources I found useful during the process:
- https://www.partsnotincluded.com/understanding-the-xbox-360-wired-controllers-usb-data/
- https://www.partsnotincluded.com/xbox-360-controller-led-animations-info/
- https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/input/joystick/xpad.c
- https://computerquip.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/i-hate-microsoft-but-for-the-better-good/
- https://github.com/360Controller/360Controller
Licensed under either of
- Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
- MIT license (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
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Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.