Gamepads making involuntary movements in Emulation Station

[stoo]

Interestingly, the hardware ID of the Buffalo controller is HID\VID_0583&PID_2060&REV_0100.

VendorID 0x583 is a company called Rockfire, which leads us to...

https://rockfire.com.tw/en/products/pc-gameing/gamepad/51-qf-109u-mjolnir.html

So the controller is a rebadge of a Taiwanese controller, which is hardly a surprise.

[jonnykesh]

@stoo So, are the older ones just rebranded Rockfire or is this a recent thing? I can't check mine as it died a few months ago.

[stoo]

@jonnykesh Both the iBuffalo 801 and the Buffalo 815 have identical hardware IDs. It's almost certainly the same chip in both of them. I'm guessing Buffalo saw a gap in the Japanese market, went out and found an existing manufacturer who made SNES-type controllers of good-enough quality and said "Just put Buffalo on these and we'll sell them under our brand".

[jonnykesh]

@stoo Mine was an 801 (BSGP801). Honestly I have never seen the Rockfire for sale in Europe. I checked my local Amazon and they aren't there. Someone is missing a trick and a lot of money. These things went from a tenner up to £20 on Amazon as RetroPie became more and more popular. They probably cost about a dollar a piece to put together.

[stoo]

Yeah, they're probably only sold in Asia. You can buy them on Taobao (Chinese eBay type site):

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a312a.7700824.w4004-9946732977.8.1834c87dZ8KMVO&id=548548202517

79.80 Chinese Yuan equals £8.79 according to Google which is still expensive for this type of controller. I mean, look at the crap on eBay - you can pick up TWO completely useless, no-brand SNES-type controllers for less than £6.

It's just a shame that the Rockfire/Buffalo controllers have this flaw. Even with this flaw they're among the best of a (very) bad bunch!

[jonnykesh]

@stoo They are great (with flaws). I loved mine, was going to replace it until I saw the prices they are going for at the minute. I'm not a tight-ass, but they just aren't worth the price being asked right now, and I'm not a fool. Other options are available!
I think iBuffalo just marketed them really well. I still have the box mine came in because I thought it was kinda cool and high quality packaging.

[stoo]

Did a little more digging...

Out of interest, I git cloned evhz (https://gitlab.com/iankelling/evhz) to my RPi3 and ran it with the Buffalo controller connected. This is what appeared over the course of around 15 seconds (I couldn't figure out how to make evhz add timestamps). I was not touching the controller at all during this time:

event0: USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average     0Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    62Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    42Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    62Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    50Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     3Hz, Average    62Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest    62Hz, Average    54Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    55Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    63Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    56Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    63Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    57Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    63Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    67Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest    11Hz, Average    74Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    70Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     6Hz, Average    76Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    75Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    74Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    70Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     2Hz, Average    74Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     6Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     3Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    70Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     1Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    70Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     4Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     3Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    72Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest     4Hz, Average    73Hz
USB,2-axis 8-button gamepad  : Latest   125Hz, Average    71Hz

None of my other controllers spam the USB interface like this. My Wired 360 controller sits quietly until I actually make an input. Same for my crappy iNNEXT controllers. Only the Buffalo controllers seem to do this.

I don't have enough knowledge of electronics to know what this means so I'm probably not going to investigate further. :P

[Brunnis]

@stoo Thanks for testing. Such crappy pieces of hardware, these Buffalo controllers. Although mine seem stable now, after some pretty long testing, I actually only use them as backups now. I replaced them with SNES Classic controllers + Raphnet low-latency USB adapters. Awesome quality and feel, no ghost input and extremely low latency (~1 ms total from pressing a button until the system has read the value). Downside? It's kind of an expensive solution... :-P

[stoo]

@brunnis Actually, I have a couple of Wii Classic Pros lying around gathering dust. Those Raphnet adapters sound ideal... and I've just ordered one. Thanks for the tip.

[techiedj]

Just wanted to add my findings. Bought a new 3b+ and some offical WiiU Pro controllers to use and they work PERFECT on the internal BT. (new stretch image)

Though to myself GREAT, imaged Rpi3b card and got TONS of ghost input (Dpad-Right+A) trying to scroll down system romlists. Transfer card to 3b+ and pair same remote, works perfect again.

I had never used with WiiU Pros with the 3b before but there is definately something up with stretch and the WiiU pros. Cant get wifi to scan either.

[mitu]

@techiedj said in Gamepads making involuntary movements in Emulation Station:

Cant get wifi to scan either.

I assume you've followed the install instructions and set up your country code before trying to make Wifi working.