Help with script to maintain bluetooth connection

JasperSlade

I've got a Raspberry Pi 3 loaded with RetroPie 3.8. I connected a cheap bluetooth gamepad that I was able to connect via bluetoothctl.
My issue is that if I walk away from the RPi for a few minutes, the gamepad goes to sleep, and will not reconnect when powered back on, forcing me to drop back to the command line and use bluetoothctl to reconnect.
I'd really like help writing a script that will periodically check to see if the gamepad is connected, and if not, attempt to reconnect.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

lilbud

Might want to try these instructions, use the 8bitdo instructions

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Setting-up-a-Bluetooth-controller

JasperSlade

I followed those instructions exactly, and have had 100% success connecting the gamepad at startup. My issue is when the gamepad goes to sleep (say I get up to help my wife with something) when I come back and my gamepad has powered down due to inactivity, when I power it back up, it doesn't reconnect to the Pi.
At this point I have to either reconnect via the command line, or reboot the Pi.

JasperSlade

I think I may have found a solution. If someone with a little more knowledge than me can take a look at this and let me know what they think. Adding this to my already existing startup script:

#!/bin/bash
address="XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX"
while (sleep 1)
do
connected=$(hidd --show) > /dev/null
if [[ ! $connected =~ .${address}. ]] ; then
hidd --connect ${address} > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
done

meleu

I suffer with this problem as well.

lilbud

@JasperSlade Did you create those files listed in the guide?

JasperSlade

So far I've done the following:

Created: sudo nano /bin/connect-bluetooth.sh

Added the following text:
#!/bin/bash
sudo bluetoothctl << EOF
power on
connect [MAC Address]
exit
EOF

Made the file executable: sudo chmod +x /bin/connect-bluetooth.sh

Created a service file: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/connect-bluetooth.service

Added the following text:
[Unit]
Description=Connect Bluetooth
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/connect-bluetooth.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enabled the service file: sudo systemctl enable /etc/systemd/system/connect-bluetooth.service

At this point, my gamepad connects at startup flawlessly. When the gamepad powers down, it fails to reconnect.
I'm hoping that if I add the following text to my connect-bluetooth.sh, it will continually check for my gamepad, and reconnect when needed. Hopefully that is, it looks like the below code is for an older version of RetroPie, one that utilizes bluez, where as my build has bluetoothctl instead

(#!/bin/bash
address="XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX"
while (sleep 1)
do
connected=$(hidd --show) > /dev/null
if [[ ! $connected =~ .${address}. ]] ; then
hidd --connect ${address} > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
done)

lilbud

In /bin/connect-bluetooth.sh, you did put the Mac Address where it says right?

JasperSlade

Yes. 85:55:08:78:17:D1

JasperSlade

I found my solution. I made the following changes (in bold) to my /bin/connect-bluetooth.sh file.

#!/bin/bash
while (sleep 30)
do
sudo bluetoothctl << EOF
power on
connect [MAC Address]
exit
EOF
done

You can change the sleep value to whatever you'd prefer. 30 seconds seemed to work out fine for me. If i start to get impatient, I'll change it down to 15.

Rion

@JasperSlade said in Help with script to maintain bluetooth connection:

I found my solution. I made the following changes (in bold) to my /bin/connect-bluetooth.sh file.

#!/bin/bash
while (sleep 30)
do
sudo bluetoothctl << EOF
power on
connect [MAC Address]
exit
EOF
done

You can change the sleep value to whatever you'd prefer. 30 seconds seemed to work out fine for me. If i start to get impatient, I'll change it down to 15.

Nice solution! Could you add this to the wiki page? Setting up a Bluetooth controller

meleu

@JasperSlade said in Help with script to maintain bluetooth connection:

You can change the sleep value to whatever you'd prefer. 30 seconds seemed to work out fine for me. If i start to get impatient, I'll change it down to 15.

It'll sleep for 30 seconds during the boot?

herb_fargus

@Rion it's a wiki. Anyone can add to it provided the content is valid.