SHANWAN / PS3 CONTROLLER Pi3 RETROPIE 3.6 BLUETOOTH SETUP

pablo

Hi @luetzel ... It's most definitely a generic clone of some description, but it gets picked up everywhere that I can see as if it's a genuine controller.

The reason why I've been trying this route is because I've had absolutely no luck whatsoever with the mainstream method as implimented in RetroPie by default.

I definitely did run it as root, yes.

I will do a bit of experimenting when I'm home later just to be 100% sure about the connection, but it's never been able to connect at all from what I've been able to get out of the terminal. No rumble. Just red flashing lights until it times out.

My understanding is that the bluetooth, although buggy, should at least be able to establish the connection. Many people have noted here (https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/1360) that they have had success with the latest kernel.

Is there any other sort of message dump I could do to try and troubleshoot this?

luetzel

@pablo
Hi Pablo,
so far I haven't had any problems with Pi3 and the onboard bluetooth. As discussed above in this thread with Wolfman100, I was able to pair my PS3 clone on a Pi3/OSMC, on a desktop PC/openSuSE as well as Raspbian/Pi2 with a cheap 0.7 USD USB bluetooth dongle.
You're looking at essentially the same message dumps as I did. Again here is the output of 'dmesg', after plugging the controller via USB:

[ 98.814041] usb 1-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 7 using dwc_otg
[ 98.920401] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=054c, idProduct=0268
[ 98.920430] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 98.920447] usb 1-1.2: Product: PS(R) Gaepad [ 98.920462] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: ShanWan [ 109.085647] input: ShanWan PS(R) Gaepad as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/0003:054C:0268.0002/input/input1
[ 109.091110] sony 0003:054C:0268.0002: input,hiddev0,hidraw1: USB HID v1.10 Joystick [ShanWan PS(R) Ga`epad] on usb-3f980000.usb-1.2/input0

It shows the same vendor/Product id as your controller. Here is the output of sixpair:

sudo sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: 00:1b:10:00:2a:ec
Setting master bd_addr to 00:1b:10:00:2a:ec

I noticed that it may take some time until the controller is recognized. If it doesn't work immediately, wait for a minute
and run sudo sixpair again. You should be able to see a real HW address instead of AA:AA:AA:AA:AA:AA.

If it doesn't help, check with bluetoothctl what happens when you press the PS button on the controller. While its
LEDs are flashing, you should see a "Connected" message and the prompt changes to '[PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller]#'
When I tried '[PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller]# pair 01:B6:AD:7F:63:25', I was asked for a passkey for authentication, but one cannot enter a passcode with the controller - that's why sixpair is required.

sudo bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller 00:1B:10:00:2A:EC raspi5 [default]
[NEW] Device 01:B6:AD:7F:63:25 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
[NEW] Device 01:B6:52:85:63:25 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
[NEW] Device 20:73:AB:91:DD:6F Bluetooth V3.0 Keyboard
[CHG] Device 01:B6:52:85:63:25 Connected: yes

[PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller]# info 01:B6:AD:7F:63:25
Device 01:B6:52:85:63:25
Name: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
Alias: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
Class: 0x000540
Icon: input-keyboard
Paired: no
Trusted: yes
Blocked: no
Connected: yes
LegacyPairing: no
UUID: Human Interface Device... (00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb)
Modalias: usb:v054Cp0268d0000

Intriguingly 'info <hwaddress>' does not reveal a "Paired: yes", even if the controller is successfuly connected.

However, if it still fails to connect, I would suggest to remove the device with bluetoothctl (remove <hwaddress>),
before starting a new connection attempt with sixpair. Perhaps there is an old authentication key stored, which prevents
authentication/pairing with the device.

After pairing has been successful, 'dmesg' reveals:
[ 1128.825246] input: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller as /devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/bluetooth/hci0/hci0:11/0005:054C:0268.0007/input/input6
[ 1128.829122] sony 0005:054C:0268.0007: input,hidraw1: BLUETOOTH HID v0.00 Joystick [PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller] on 00:1b:10:00:2a:ec

pablo

Hi @luetzel

Regardless of what I do, I always get:

pi@retropie:~/QtSixA-1.5.1/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa
Setting master bd_addr to aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa

I've run sudo sixpair a million times. Nothing happens if I press the PS button on the controller in bluetoothctl either.

I removed the device with bluetoothctl as suggested and tried to repair resulting in the same issue.

I have a bit of time this weekend... I will try and investigate this further. I just wish I understood why the Pi3 doesn't have a proper bluetooth address. I'm not sure now if my Pi is faulty or if this is actually the root cause of everyone's Pi3 bluetooth woes... :(

luetzel

@pablo

@pablo said in SHANWAN / PS3 CONTROLLER Pi3 RETROPIE 3.6 BLUETOOTH SETUP:

Hi @luetzel
[...]
I have a bit of time this weekend... I will try and investigate this further. I just wish I understood why the Pi3 doesn't have a > proper bluetooth address. I'm not sure now if my Pi is faulty or if this is actually the root cause of everyone's Pi3
bluetooth woes... :(

Perhaps you could try an USB dongle instead of the internal BT device. Check the forum, there is a way to disable the onboard BT in /boot/config.txt.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how the BT controller is recognized for pairing. As far as I understood, the patches
should enable bluez to do this job, so that sixpair is not necessary. However, it doesn't work without sixpair, yet, at least with my controllers.

Unfortunately, there's not much documentation available, except several posts on the gmane mailing list http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.bluez.kernel/41069 . I haven't had enough time to dig in the code to see what's going on.

buddhastevend

Hi @pablo and @luetzel
I'm having this same problem with the:
aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa
Have you had any luck with getting yours to recognize the actual address and not this placeholder?

Wolfman100

@luetzel

I'm currently attempting to do my proper build and am getting a bit stuck when it comes to the QTsixA install this time around for some reason,no idea why as this didn't seem to be an issue before...

I am trying to do the 'make' for QtSixA but it terminates,I'm assuming because this time some dependencies are missing,I do however have no idea how to install these or how or where to get them...

osmc@osmc:~/QtSixA-1.5.1/utils$ make
mkdir -p bins
cc -O2 -Wall -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions hidraw-dump.c -o bins/hidraw-dump
cc -O2 -Wall -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions sixpair.c -o bins/sixpair pkg-config --cflags --libs libusb
Package libusb was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libusb.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libusb' found
sixpair.c:9:17: fatal error: usb.h: No such file or directory
#include <usb.h>
^
compilation terminated.
Makefile:12: recipe for target 'tools' failed
make: *** [tools] Error 1

buddhastevend

Hi @Wolfman100

You can download pkg-config and libusb with:

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev pkg-config

Hopefully this helps.

luetzel

@Wolfman100
Hi Wolfman,

as a rule of thumb: If something like this happens, you have to install the header files, necessary for compilation. If libusb is missing, just do an apt-get install libusb-dev. Usually it is enough to append a '-dev' to the missing library. If it doesn't help, you can search with 'aptitude search <package>' for the desired <package>.
You may also find some build instructions within the README of QtSixA.

/luetzel

Wolfman100

@buddhastevend @luetzel Thanks guys, will look into this now.:)

Wolfman100

@buddhastevend @luetzel

After installing necessary packages I am very happy to report that I have now Paired the controller succesfully first time!

I am using the latest 3.8 RetroPie inside OSMC and am hoping that the pairing will survive a reboot as apparently this had been fixed in Retropie 3.8...let's see what happens

Wolfman100

Sweet mother of God it appears that it has indeed survived a reboot and connects first time no-problem!Can also report bluetooth keyboard is also working simultaneously without issues..

Wolfman100

Now all I need to do is locate the Roms folder in 3.8 which seems to have changed location or name....

buddhastevend

@Wolfman100
Should be the same location in 3.8:
/home/pi/RetroPie/roms

At least mine didn't change.

I can pick up and see my controllers in bluetooth, they just will not pair. I know it has to do with my Pi3 onboard registering the aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa address instead of its actual hwaddress. I cannot find a way to to make it reset itself either.

Wolfman100

@buddhastevend I'm guessing that you have RetroPi installed as standalone from your filepath?

I have RetroPi installed 'inside' OSMC,so the filepath will be different.

From my rudimentary knowledge,I would suggest possibly re-installing Bluez and making sure that you have the latest QtSixA which is actually version 5.1,not 4.9.

buddhastevend

@Wolfman100

Oh yeah. I already have the latest version of Bluez and QtSixA.

Oh yeah, forgot you were running it inside OSMC. It still shouldn't be to different than that though, maybe just buried a couple further down.

I feel like I should play with OSMC now, with retropie inside it.

pablo

Hi @buddhastevend

I am gonna try with a clean 3.8 image tonight and see if the aa:aa:aa:aa:aa:aa situation changes. When I tried to update 3.7 to 3.8 using the setup script it ran through cleanly, but after a reboot I lost any and all access to both wireless and bluetooth. The OS couldn't even detect the devices.

Wolfman100

@buddhastevend

You sound like you had similar issues to me.I should imagine that 3.8 may well solve your issue if your correctly follow @luetzels guide.

Wolfman100

@luetzel folder problems solved...wierd SSH issue.

One thing though,it appears that the Bluez folder and Sixpair folders are installed so they are visible within the browser in OSMC.Can I move these folders so they are out of view and cannot be messed with and everything will still work correctly?They were not visible before,I think because I must have installed as 'Sudo' Root user

buddhastevend

Already had 3.8 and updated Bluez and QtSixA. There's something wrong with some people's bluetooth hardware addresses.

I got it working no problem with a dongle I had, so I know it's the onboard bluetooth, and I'm done messing with it for now.

As far as hiding those, I have to play with OSMC more before I could tell you that.

pablo

@buddhastevend Just to also provide a bit of feedback.

Clean install of 3.8, bluetoothctl gives the following (no more aa:aa story):

pi@retropie:~ $ sudo bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller B8:27:EB:A4:47:F7 retropie [default]

bluetoothctl can also see both of my controllers:

[NEW] Device 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8 Class: 0x001f00
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8 Connected: yes
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8 Icon is nil
[NEW] Device 00:18:01:CA:FF:D1 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:FF:D1 Class: 0x001f00
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:FF:D1 Connected: yes
[CHG] Device 00:18:01:CA:FF:D1 Icon is nil

But then proceeds to cycle through saying Connected: yes, then no.

The most 'connected' I've managed to get anything to the Pi is with bluetoothctl:

[bluetooth]# info 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8
Device 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8
        Name: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
        Alias: PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller
        Class: 0x001f00
        Paired: no
        Trusted: yes
        Blocked: no
        Connected: yes
        LegacyPairing: no
        Modalias: usb:v054Cp0268d0000

Trying to pair returns:

[bluetooth]# pair 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8
Attempting to pair with 00:18:01:CA:EB:E8
Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AuthenticationFailed

lsusb gives me this:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 054c:0268 Sony Corp. Batoh Device / PlayStation 3 Controller
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 054c:0268 Sony Corp. Batoh Device / PlayStation 3 Controller

With sixad and sixpair up and running, I get the following read out:

pi@retropie:~ $ sudo sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: b8:27:eb:a4:47:f7
Setting master bd_addr to b8:27:eb:a4:47:f7
pi@retropie:~ $ sudo sixad -start
[ ok ] Starting bluetooth (via systemctl): bluetooth.service.
sixad-bin[5160]: started
sixad-bin[5160]: sixad started, press the PS button now
Watching... (5s)
sixad-bin[5160]: unable to connect to sdp session
sixad-bin[5160]: HID create error 107 (Transport endpoint is not connected)

I'm at my wit's end. No idea where to go from here.

EDIT: Just as a sanity check I went through the other sixad installs for the clones and I can confirm that Removing PS3 controller configurations and installing the SHANWAN clone support resulted in proper pairing with the internal RPi 3 Bluetooth. This had no effect before.