PS3 Controller / RetroPie / Screen Saver issue

ClassicGMR

Hi! Been reading the forums for the last month and this has been a fabulous resource to get my RetroPie up and running - not to mention ETA Prime videos - but I cannot find this issue listed anywhere and it's bugging me.

When using an XBox 360 wired controller or my keyboard the screen saver runs just fine. When I connect my PS3 Controller the screen saver will sometimes kick in but it drops to the menu after a minute or two. If I force the screen saver to start it only lasts a minute or two as well. Is this because of the bluetooth connection?

I don't think this will be part of the problem but my screen saver settings:
Screen Saver after 5 Min
Screen Saver Behavior - Random Video
Swap Video after 32s
Use OMX player for Screen Saver - OFF
Show Game Info on Screen Saver - Start & End
Stretch Video on Screen Saver - OFF

Thank you for all the help and for reading this problem as well! :)

ClassicGMR

I am running:

Raspberry Pi 3B
RetroPie 4.3
Onboard Bluetooth
I installed the PS3 driver from the RetroPie menu

Everything works fine in games and in menus. It's just the screen saver.

Sano

Bluetooth PS3 controller sometimes do ghost inputs (I had this issue before reducing BT speed). This could explain the screensaver problem.
Could you run evtest through SSH during some time, without touching the controller, to see if it's also your case ?

ClassicGMR

@sano Apparently ther is random input coming from the PS3 controller:

Event: time 1521396261.832722, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 0 (ABS_X), value 0
Event: time 1521396261.832722, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 1 (ABS_Y), value 0
Event: time 1521396261.832722, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 2 (ABS_Z), value 0
Event: time 1521396261.832722, type 3 (EV_ABS), code 3 (ABS_RX), value 0
Event: time 1521396261.832722, -------------- EV_SYN ------------

etc...

You mentioned reducing Bluetooth speed. Can you point me to a tutorial or something to follow to attempt this? Thanks for your help so far!!

Sano

I followed @psyke83 advice here :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/post/134927

ClassicGMR

Thank you! I will check that out now. Appreciate it!

ClassicGMR

One last reply on this. Apparently it was also my controller being a pain. I have a white PS3 controller I paired with the new 3B+ I received. It does not do any of this at all so my controller is also at fault for sending the "ghost" inputs.

The white one doesn't interrupt the screen saver at all and shuts itself down after sitting idle.

Sano

@classicgmr
AFAIK RPi 3B+ has new BT chipset with flow control where RPi 3B doesn't.
This feature limits the BT errors that generate random events.
cf https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/2264

So it's possible that the problem is not with your DS3.
You could try to connect your white DS3 to the RPI 3B (not +) to verify this.