Keyboard Emulation with Gamepad outside of emulators
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@TheLuthier I don't think I understand what your looking for. Are you trying to emulate a full keyboard? If so the only way would be to setup what is called a cording keyboard. In a cording keyboard you would press a combination of keys a one time in order to enter keystrokes. That would be very tricky. I would think a small wireless keyboard like the FAVI usb keyboard. would be easier. I picked one up off ebay for about 5 dollars several years ago.
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@Hellcube - Thanks for the response! No, I've not heard of joymap. A quick search only reveals a sourceforge page - Is that the best place to learn about it?
@glennlake - Sorry for not explaining clearly. So retropie has the settings menu that offers access to sound, wi-fi, memory split, etc. But when you click on any of those options, the gamepad isn't recognized as input - It requires a keyboard.
Say if I'm on a plane and want to simply disconnect the wifi to extend battery life, it's annoying to have to whip out a second device (keyboard or phone) to accomplish that.
I figured the ability to emulate keyboard strokes with my gamepad would be the answer. Retropie + retroarch offers that kind of thing inside the emulators, but I need to do it outside emulators as far as I can tell. But maybe it's more difficult than I think it should be..
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@TheLuthier OK I under the problem but off the top of my head I don't have an answer. I'm using a logitech F310 USB controller with RetroPie 3.7 on a Pi3 and I can access and change settings by scrolling into the RetroPie setup menu and pressing 'A' to open any of the listed menus. I see your using 3.6. I think with 3.7 the ability to access this menu was part of the upgrade. I didn't try it on earlier versions. This may be the fix.
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@glennlake - Oh nice, I'm going to try upgrading - thank you!
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@glennlake - I upgraded to retropie 3.7 and I see the cool new settings icons along with some additional 'start button' settings, like the audio adjustment. But when I select any retropie settings, like theme manager, my usb gamepad is no longer recognized. You're saying that yours remains recognized in the same situation?
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@TheLuthier There is definitely supposed to be joypad functionality in the retropie setup menus, and I believe it has been there for as long as I've been with RetroPie(something like 2.7 or so) It's just based on your joypad 0 button and DPAD. But it's set to work for typical setups.
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@TheLuthier I don't normally change things like the theme but it should be changeable from the UI Settings. Should be but it's not. All I see is the basic 'carbon' theme. I will need to dig into this but yes, most of the settings can be changed from my usb controller. Let me dig into this some more and I'll get back with you.
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I understand, is like wen you are seting up the wifi password but you need to plug a usb keyboard to write .
Hum.. i was wondering how to solve this problem, but i dont have idea.
The problem is that you can navigate on the menu, but you can only "Click" and "scroll" on menu. If you need to type something the controller dont have keyboard. :(Type on a "Virtual Keyboard" with the controlle would be nice.
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Virtual Keyboard would be so sweet!
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I definitely agree that a virtual keyboard would be nice. I believe that would be very hard to implement with those menus. Unless you were able to launch a virtual keyboard script to type an entry and then get back to the retropie menus, but even that sounds like a complete menu overhaul.
The biggest one is the wifi, since those that normally ssh in can't. And if they don't have a linux OS, they can't just transfer the wpa_supplicant.conf over. Their only options is USB keyboard or using ethernet. But for the rest of the stuff, there's a ton of options on how to edit that don't require direct keyboard control.
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@TheLuthier A quick question. Can you change themes? I can't with my gamepad or with a keyboard. Can you help?
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@glennlake said in Keyboard Emulation with Gamepad outside of emulators:
@TheLuthier A quick question. Can you change themes? I can't with my gamepad or with a keyboard. Can you help?
Update. I found that I can update my themes now. I think it has to do with the internet connection. I have been using the internal wifi on the Pi3 and I could do all I needed but not the themes. I plugged in an ethernet cable and now I can change and update themes to my hearts content. I think it may have something to do with the time on the Pi. I noticed it wasn't correct but using it for games it thought it didn't matter. But when you connect to a remote server I think it does. Anyway, I can now change themes using the UI Settings on the main menu. I hope all of this helps. I know I learned a lot. :-)
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The time will be important for validation of SSL certificates. If connected to the internet on boot, the time should be automatically set correctly (and when connecting to a wireless network).
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@Ornitorick said in Keyboard Emulation with Gamepad outside of emulators:
I understand, is like wen you are seting up the wifi password but you need to plug a usb keyboard to write ...
Right, that's a good example. Although I don't expect to be able to actually type characters with just my joypad. But I find a lot of those settings are toggles or selectable values, which could be accomplished with D-pad and 2 buttons on the joypad (Return + ESC). Here's a video of when it's annoying:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ve1SiX0xZ_fJhcrg8SO8aqfsbwhKHujARA/preview
Once I select one of the settings options, I get to the blue-screen and I'm stuck without a keyboard or ssh console. It sounds like @glennlake is able to control the blue screen with his gamepad, which is what I'm after.
And yes @glennlake, I'm able to change the theme with the new UI settings that are a part of retropie 3.7. It was a bad example to illustrate - should have made a video when originally posting lol
Thanks for the responses, guys!
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@wetriner said in Keyboard Emulation with Gamepad outside of emulators:
@TheLuthier There is definitely supposed to be joypad functionality in the retropie setup menus, and I believe it has been there for as long as I've been with RetroPie(something like 2.7 or so) It's just based on your joypad 0 button and DPAD. But it's set to work for typical setups.
UPDATE: Aahhha! You sir, are correct. I tested and indeed my joypad 0 works (R1 for my setup) and my analog stick is used for navigation (though it's a bit backwards with X axis being up and down). Essentially this solves my original question - Thanks!
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