Connecting Multiple Bluetooth Controllers

GoldenBear

New to using and coding retropie and I love it so far. Only issue I'm having so far is connecting multiple controllers wirelessly. Currently, I'm using a Pi3 with retro v4.2 installed.

I can get either of my Dualshock4 controllers connected separately but cannot run them at the same time. I've read that the controllers take the entire BT stack.

So would purchasing a USB dongle for each of them fix this?

If not, I just dug up 2 DS3 controllers and will attempt to connect them. People seemed to have had more success with this though all the articles on this subject are a few years old so wondering if anything has changed. Also, I do see that in the install articles, dongles are mentioned but not in specific reference to anything. Do I need separate dongles for the DS3 connection?

Any help here would be much appreciated.

edmaul69

@goldenbear there is a recent thread that talks about using ps3/ps4 controllers with the standard blutooth method instead of the ps3 driver.

theWinterDojer

@goldenbear I had 4 DS4 controllers connected via the normal Bluetooth option in the menu and it worked great. Just put them in pairing mode by holding down the PS button and share, it will start to blink rapidly. Then go to Bluetooth in the ES menu and search for devices. Select the controller it finds, it will show up as "wireless controller" and list the MAC address, and then it will ask you to select the security setting. For the first controller use the first security setting, for the second controller use the second, for the third the third, and so on.

BOOM, you'll have up to 4 controllers paired via Bluetooth. Also, I should note I did this with DS4 controllers and I don't think you can mix and match them, meaning I don't think you can have 2 DS3 and 2 DS4's.

GoldenBear

@thewinterdojer Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.

I went through this process before but this time with the different security settings like you said, and it works great navigating through the menu but won't actually do anything in game.

It says when booting a game, 'wireless controller not configured'

theWinterDojer

@goldenbear That's strange. What game/emulator, is it RetroArch?

GoldenBear

@thewinterdojer

Yes I am.

Before I set this up, I went through the command prompts and tried to install the ds4drv manually (because I thought that was the only way to do it), and I remember it taking a few times to get all the command prompts correct and tbh don't know if I did this properly. I wonder is this might be creating a conflict even if correct.

I went through and changed some of the configs last night after I connected using your method

Go to /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg
Go to input_joypad_driver = on it, and change it to input_joypad_driver = sdl
Go to /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarchjoypads/
SonyPLAYSTATION(R)3Controller.cfg
Change input_driver = to input_driver = sdl

That seemed to help get two controllers to work in the menu but as soon as the game starts, I got nothing. When it comes to gameplay, it's either one or none.

Thinking it might be best to wipe the SD card and start over

theWinterDojer

@goldenbear Yea, I'm not sure but that previous driver install may be conflicting with it now. I've never had to touch the config files, after I registered the controller with the built in Bluetooth method it has just been connect and play. In lieu of stressing over troubleshooting it I would go with a clean install as well. I actually did one the other day because I wanted to ensure everything was correct now that I knew what I was doing and the install process went 100% smoother.

You don't need to wipe the SD card, just flash the new RetroPie image over it using your program of choice. The flashing does a low-level block write and overwrites with the new partitions so formatting is not necessary.

GoldenBear

@thewinterdojer

So basically just take the original install file from , in this case retropie-4.2-rpi2_rpi3.img, and put it on the SD card and select it to overwrite the previous file?

theWinterDojer

@goldenbear You still need to flash the retropie-4.2-rpi2_rpi3.img to the card, I was just saying there is no need to format it or erase the data on it first. Flashing an image already overwrites everything so it is an unnecessary step. What program did you use to flash your original image?

GoldenBear

@thewinterdojer

Apple-pi Baker. Will try to re-write the image right now and report back

GoldenBear

Rewrote the image, and everything was nice and fresh. I can register each controller through the menu prompt but they won't connect or be recognized at all now