Hm, this is a RetroPie dedicated forum. You may want to try a forum for PS3 console owners ?

@lindsay I'm not sure if it's related to your problem, but I've had a similar issue with my L2/R2 on my xbox 360 joystick. It usually happens on a kernel update. What fixes it for me is re-installing the xpad driver from source.

@sirhenrythe5th said in Getting a PS3 controller to work with Linapple emulator; tearing my hair out! HELP!!:

mitu is of course absolutley right.
I had a real Apple // in the early 80s and can confirm that quite a lot of games did not have joystick-support at all.
Joysticks were rare and expensive during that period, not everyone had one like in our days ;)
And you had even to open the Apple 2-Case to connect a joystick, the port was on the mainboard :D

Yeah. Remember the CH "Mach III?" Good times....until you broke one of the pins off the connector, lol.

@cir-engineering I’m using six axis and custom hid Sony. Not sure if I need both, but it’s working. I don’t have the ps3 driver installed. Anyway, I started my pi and synced my ps3 controller via Bluetooth as usual, no issue. Turned the controller off by holding down the ps button (important because it will stay as blutooth with charging only) and plugged the usb cable in and the buttons were all messed up. Reconfigured with the usb cable and it was now working fine with usb. Unplugged and Resynced to Bluetooth, and still had no issue.
Try configuring it with the usb cable, make sure the controller is off when you plug it in to be sure your in usb mode.

Forget it, everything works fine! My mistake. :)

The blueooth packages are part of the OS (Raspbian) - they can be upgraded if a new version is released by the upstream Raspbian project and can be installed with the apt utility, or just choosing to update your OS packages from RetroPie-Setup when you do an upgrade.

@mijenix said in Raspberry Pi Zero W & 2 PS3 controller?:

Dear Community

I try to pair a 2nd PS3 controller to my Raspberry Pi Zero W.
But it doesn't work.

Hardware: Raspberry Pi Zero W
Bluetooth: onboad BT
RetroPie: 4.5.15
Driver: sixaxis

I was able to successfully pair 1 controller, but I cannot pair a 2nd one.
The 2nd controller works if I connect it via USB, so the controller should be fine
(I tried 3 other controllers, for all the same behavior)

How can I pair more than 1 PS3 controller, preferably with the onboad BT controller.

Thank a lot and cheers!

PS: If I missed a documentation for that specific problem I am find with a pointer to the RTFM ;)

@PCKid It doesn't seem you have RetroPie installed, but Lakka (lakka.tv). Regardless, we don't support 3rd party images, so start by installing the image from retropie.org.uk/download and then you can follow the docs to set-up your controller and configure it in Emulationstation.

Two things. First...coming from someone who never had Coleco...This thing is so graphically superior to Atari its disgusting. Second...I figured it out by playing around with it. If you have a PS3 controller just copy paste this into the CoolCV Mapping file on the pie. If you dont like something on it just tweak but it works.

' CoolCV mappings for Colecovision controllers to keyboard and joystick
fullscreen no
joystick_1_vert joy0 axis1
joystick_1_horiz joy0 axis0
joystick_2_vert joy1 axis1
joystick_2_horiz joy1 axis0
up_1 key0 joy0_4
right_1 key0 joy0_5
down_1 key0 joy0_6
left_1 key0 joy0_7
left_button_1 key0 joy0_13
right_button_1 joy0_14
button3_1 key0
button4_1 key0
key1_1 key0 joy0_10
key2_1 key0 joy0_11
key3_1 key0 joy0_12
key4_1 key0 joy0_15
key5_1 key0 joy0_1
key6_1 joy0_8
key7_1 joy0_2
key8_1 key56
key9_1 key57
key*_1 key111
key0_1 key48
key#_1 key112
up_2 key119
right_2 key100
down_2 key115
left_2 key97
left_button_2 key9 joy1_0
right_button_2 key113 joy1_1
button3_2 key1073741939
button4_2 key1073741939
key1_2 key114
key2_2 key116
key3_2 key121
key4_2 key102
key5_2 key103
key6_2 key104
key7_2 key118
key8_2 key98
key9_2 key110
key*_2 key106
key0_2 key107
key#_2 key108
key_save key1073741882
key_restore key1073741883
key_exit key0 joy0_9
key_pause key1073741884
key_reset key8
key_rolling_controller key1073741886
key_record_video key1073741887
key_record_audio key1073741890
key_screenshot key1073741891
key_fast_disk key1073741889
key_sync key1073741885
key_codes key1073741888

Thanks Clyde, I'll keep that solution in mind. I know knockoff PS3 controllers are tricky. Thanks for your help :)

First, you should provide the information asked in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first.
Second, you might have stumbled upon the news Sony driver behavior in newer kernels, where the rumble appears as a separate device and messes up the controller numbering. See this topic for a workaround.

@sano "When charging, the 4 leds blink together. When charged, they just turn off."

okay ..but mine never turn off ...they just keep blinking no matter how long I have it plugged it.

"PS3 controllers can't charge from a regular usb adapter. USB charging was not a standard at the time, so they need a driver (or a specific DS3 charger) to negociate and charge."

What's a DS3 charger? Could you point to one on ebay or amazon?

Right now I'm not worried about getting it to connect to the pi I'm sure I'll have no problems when the time comes to pair it.

Thanks for replying!

@mitu no, i did not...

@robmcc83 Sixaxis = no vibration. DS3 = vibration.

@help-me-please can your pocket juice supply a regulated 5V at 2.5A? That worries me.

Hi mitu,
I´m sorry. Yes they do work individually in Emulationstation outside of games and also inside. But only the first 4 controllers which I connect work simultaniously. The fifth won´t connect via bluetooth (lights are flashing constantly).

@cresfang

Same problem for me also. I used to run RetroPie 4.3 on Jessie and had no probems with the PS3 controller or N64 Emulation. I just did a fresh install of RetroPie 4.4 on Stretch fully updated and dist-upgraded. N64Glide emulation doesnt work along with weird bluetooth behavior on PS3. What bluetooth dongle would I need to get to fix the problem? Odd because this problem didn't happen on previous versions on the exact same board.