XBox 360 Controller doesn't work in emulators until left trigger pressed.

poduck

I am using a pi 3 with a prebuilt image with current retropie version 4.3.8. I see another topic that is similar to this, but it had no answers in 3 months, so I am asking the question again, with a bit more info.

I had things setup just fine, and everything was working as expected. I was doing a soft power mod to a nespi case, and when I was in that process, I guess I confused emulationstation, because the start button stopped working in ES. Since I couldn't get into the menu in order to configure the controllers in ES without a start button, I reset the controller configuration in retropie-setup. After that, I have been unable to use my controller in any emulator until the emulator boots and I press the left trigger on the controller. No other buttons seem to do anything until then. Once I do that, things work fine, but I shouldn't have to do that. It's never required that before.

As far as software changes between it working and it not working, all I can think of that I have done is to add a script to monitor a couple GPIO pins, and another to soft shutdown emulationstation. Neither of those should interfere with controllers or their configurations in any way.

Does anyone have some suggestions of what steps I can take to try and figure out what the cause of this problem is? Even better, have you seen this problem and know how to fix it already?

Thanks.

herb_fargus

@poduck you're sure you're using the xpad driver?

poduck

Yes. After you mentioned it, I double checked, updated the driver, and when that didn't work, I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. I didn't do anything I know of that would have messed with that driver.

herb_fargus

@poduck odd. I remember I had similar issues with my Logitech controller but they were fixed with the xpad driver update a while back so unless the GPIO is for some reason conflicting (not sure why that would be) im coming up blank.

And just to be sure you reconfigured your controller through ES after you reset the config?

poduck

@herb_fargus Yes, I reconfigured the controller. Also, it doesn't seem to be the GPIO stuff, as I installed fresh retropie image on a different SD card, and everything works fine.

edmaul69

@poduck ok so here is an issue with the 360 controllers triggers. They are on a potentiometer and actually have “2 axis buttons” on them a + and a -. When you setup your controller you need to make sure left and right triggers get set to the +. Sometimes when you set the left trigger it then sets its - to the right trigger. If they dont set correctly finish setting up the controller and when you get to the bottom then you are able to move back up with the d-pad to fix whatever trigger is messed up then move back down to the bottom and finish.

herb_fargus

What he said ∆∆

Docs reference:

https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Logitech-Controller/#l2r2-top-triggers

marconfus

Perhaps it would be a good idea to include a documentation for the Xbox One controller. For me this thread made the difference from giving up on RetroPi and finding the perfect setup!