Survey: USB controller power usage

suprjami

@PetroRie said in Survey: USB controller power usage:

Could you explain to me when the controller uses the max power? I know for an example if the controller uses 500mA max power it's not continuous drawing 500mA, so how much does it really use when you use it? Or does it depend on how much buttons you're pushing? I know this sounds stupid but I'm really curious about this.

That's an excellent question, not stupid at all.

If a controller with a battery (eg: Sony DualShock) is charging then I expect it would draw the full 500mA.

If a controller has a vibrate function then driving the vibration motor would need power to vibrate, so the controller would draw more current when vibrating and draw less current when not vibrating.

For a plain controller with no battery and no vibrate (eg: iBuffalo SNES), I doubt many controllers use their maximum advertised power requirements.

To quantify exact power usage you'd need a USB power meter like one of these: https://www.pretzellogix.net/2015/04/20/the-portable-led-usb-multimeter-that-you-didnt-know-you-needed/

I was also curious about this so I have a USB power meter on the way to me right now. I will update my wiki page with results once I do some testing.

Keep in mind this is just an advertised maximum which the USB host is asked to supply, not necessarily the constant current draw.

I think the USB spec only mandates that a USB host operate in 100mA mode and can negotiate up to 500mA mode. In practice, most USB hubs just say "negotiation successful" while just supplying 500mA per port at all times, or just supplying as much power as they can at all times.

I don't expect there's a USB host which closely monitors a device requesting say "250mA" and then fails if the device happens to draw 251mA. There's no business sense in spending the time and money to develop a USB hub or host implementation which does that. Just send 500mA and be done with it.

Also, the device description isn't necessarily accurate. Some of these cheap $5 clone controllers have no device or vendor description and claim to draw the full 500mA. Rubbish. Some Chinese hardware engineer has just copied a sample USB HID descriptor to the controller chip and not bothered to modify it. There's a reason such devices cost $5 ;)

Thanks @bobcat987 for that one too!

PetroRie

@suprjami Aha makes sense now, also this is the reason why the most phone chargers have an output within the range of 500mA-700mA.

suprjami

@PetroRie Out of interest my USB power meter arrived today. A couple of simple controllers (iBuffalo SNES and Logitech Rumble Pad 2) draw so little current they don't even register on the meter, which displays Amps to two decimal places. So I'd say a USB controller draws "less than 10mA". I plugged a PS3 controller in and it started drawing a steady 350mA straight away.

I can also plug my phone into a wall charger and see it drawing a full 1A at 5V, and plug the meter in before the Pi and see the Pi drawing various current as it boots then sits idle then plays games.

Riverstorm

I'm not sure if this is relevant to the information you're collecting:

Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter

idVendor           0x045e Microsoft Corp.
idProduct          0x0719 Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter
MaxPower           260mA

PetroRie

Here is my entry:

Sony Computer Entertainment Playstation Dual Shock 4

idVendor              0x054c Sony Corp.
idProduct             0x05c4
MaxPower              500mA

suprjami

Thanks guys! How interesting, my DualShock 4 has a product description but the string on your controller is blank. Maybe we have different revisions of the controller?

SimonBelmont

Mayflash SNES Controller Adapter

idVendor           0x0e8f GreenAsia Inc.
idProduct          0x3013
MaxPower              300mA

Mayflash Mega Drive (Genesis) Controller Adapter

idVendor           0x0079 DragonRise Inc.
idProduct          0x1824
MaxPower              300mA

suprjami

@SimonBelmont Thank you!

Does the SNES one look like this? http://i.imgur.com/bAQGiRC.jpg

Does the Mega Drive one look like this? http://i.imgur.com/b1ED5ZA.jpg

SimonBelmont

@suprjami Yes to both!

MikeDave

When I run this command, I see this a lot

Couldn't open device, some information will be missing

However, here are the controllers that I have that seem to be missing from the list:

Hyperkin Inc Genesis "GN6" USB Controller - PC Mac Linux

  idVendor           0x0079 DragonRise Inc.
  idProduct          0x0011 Gamepad
    MaxPower              100mA

Retrolink Nintendo 64 Classic USB Enabled Wired Controller for PC and MAC, Black

  idVendor           0x0079 DragonRise Inc.
  idProduct          0x0006 Generic USB Joystick
    MaxPower              500mA

I also have an X-Arcade Tankstick that I can run this for when I get home.

Riverstorm

XBOX One Controller - Model 1537

idVendor           0x045e Microsoft Corp.
idProduct          0x02d1
MaxPower           500mA

MikeDave

X-ARCADE DUAL JOYSTICK

idVendor           0xaa55 
idProduct          0x0101 
MaxPower              100mA

suprjami

These are great, thanks heaps all!

@MikeDave How does the X-Arcade work, does it appear as a joystick, or as a USB keyboard like an I-PAC does?

MikeDave

@suprjami it acts like a keyboard initially, but you can enable xarcade2jstick in RetroPie Setup to make it act like 2 joysticks. I have it set up as 2 joysticks.