designs:interfacing:pi:ps3controller

Getting the PS3 Dual Shock controller working with Raspberry Pi

Note that some Bluetooth dongles don't work properly with these drivers. I'm using a cheap CSR-chip-based dongle. Info from http://booting-rpi.blogspot.ro/2012/08/dualshock-3-and-raspberry-pi.html .

Update the Raspberry Pi:

$ sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

Install Bluetooth:

$ sudo apt-get install bluez-utils bluez-compat bluez-hcidump checkinstall libusb-dev libbluetooth-dev joystick

Check dongle:

$ hciconfig
hci0:   Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
        BD Address: 00:15:83:CE:A5:7C  ACL MTU: 310:10  SCO MTU: 64:8
        UP RUNNING PSCAN 
        RX bytes:1489 acl:0 sco:0 events:74 errors:0
        TX bytes:1276 acl:0 sco:0 commands:73 errors:0

Download and compile controller. See http://www.pabr.org/sixlinux/sixlinux.en.html .

$ mkdir sixaxis ; cd sixaxis ; wget http://www.pabr.org/sixlinux/sixpair.c ; gcc -o sixpair sixpair.c -lusb

Plug in the PS3 controller through a USB mini-B cable. Raspberry Pis with not so many ports may need to use a USB hub.

Run the sixpair program.

$ sudo ./sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: 78:dd:08:11:3c:9c
Setting master bd_addr to 00:15:83:ce:a5:7c

Download and compile the SixAxis joystick manager. During the checkinstall process just accept the defaults. Manager reference: http://qtsixa.sourceforge.net/ Manager manual: http://qtsixa.sourceforge.net/manual.pdf

$ wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtsixa/files/QtSixA%201.5.1/QtSixA-1.5.1-src.tar.gz
$ tar -xzvf QtSixA-1.5.1-src.tar.gz
$ cd QtSixA-1.5.1/sixad
$ make
$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/sixad/profiles
$ sudo checkinstall

Unplug the SixAxis controller

Manually pair.

$sudo sixad --start
sixad-bin[6851]: started
sixad-bin[6851]: sixad started, press the PS button now
sixad-bin[6851]: unable to connect to sdp session
sixad-bin[6851]: Connected Sony Computer Entertainment Wireless Controller (04:76:6E:4C:06:F8)

Set to run at bootup.

$ sudo update-rc.d sixad defaults
$ sudo reboot

Test the controller. You should see the values change as you move the joysticks.
```
$ sudo jstest /dev/input/js0
```