8bitdo NES mod kit...emulationstation shows "no gamepads detected"

jeffjenx

I recently got the 8bitdo NES mod kit so I can transform my official NES controller into a wireless Bluetooth one. I prefer using these official controllers as they feel and look a lot better than the 8bitdo clones and other bluetooth controllers.

I followed the controller configuration steps and had no problem getting registering and connecting to my wireless modded controller.

However, when I got to step 18, I wasn't able to configure the inputs in Emulationstation because it states that "no gamepads are detected."

I can clearly see the a solid blue indicator light on the controller signifying that it is connected (after seeing the repeating triple blinks prior to connecting the controller).

I've seen many topics about this subject and I'm not sure what to do from here. I also have the SNES mod kit and I was able to register, connect, and configure the inputs on that one no problem. I suppose it could be a faulty board, but because the LED indicator lights and connection process seems to work, I'm not convinced that is the problem.

I've tried lots of things from uninstalling the PS3 controller driver, to removing all bluetooth devices, to my latest attempt which was to start completely fresh with a new install of RetroPie 4.4. Nothing seems to work.

I've also tried starting/restarting the Bluetooth service in command line.

I'm not really sure what else I can try to do here. It's like the controller is connected, but it's not.

Any ideas? Any terminal commands or logs I can review to see what the problem might be?

I realize this may not be a RetroPie issue, but I don't know if its the underline Raspbian is having trouble, or just Emulationstation or what.

Thanks in advance for any assistance or guidance you might be able to provide. These mod kits are really cool and I'd love to get the NES one working like my SNES one.

Clyde

Did you test it with jstest?

jeffjenx

Thank you for the feedback. I just re-flashed my RetroPie again, registered and connected the controller, and went back to command line.

In command line, I tried doing jstest --normal /dev/input/js0, but it comes up with a "No such file or directory" response.

I tried js1, js2, js3, etc. to no avail. I did a cd /dev/input and ls to change to and list that directory and it doesn't show any "js#" items. I just see by-id, by-path, event0, event1, mice, mouse0.

It appears to only recognize my wireless keyboard (which has a wireless receiver connected via USB). I don't see any listing for the controller that I have connected and paired to using the Bluetooth configuration in the RetroPie setup script.

Is there something I am missing with jstest to search for this device?

jeffjenx

For what it's worth, I was able to pair the controller to macOS and it worked. Interestingly, OpenEmu (a macOS emulation GUI) considered the controller to be a PlayStation 3 Dual Shock controller and the arrow buttons are mapped to the analog stick. Not sure if that really tells me much, except that the controller does, indeed, work and I don't think it's faulty.

Now to just figure out what is going on with RetroPie.

jeffjenx

I managed to make some more progress, but still have not got my controllers connected completely.

I found out there are different pairing modes for the 8bitdo Modkits. Pressing Start + A, B, X, or Y will turn the controller on in a different pairing mode for Windows, macOS, Android, or Nintendo Switch.

I tried all of the various options and doing Start + B would actually get the controller to show up in the registration list in RetroPie as "8bitdo SN30 Modkit" and "8bitdo N30 Modkit".

However, when I try to set them up as DisplayYesNo, I'd get an error:

dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.bluez.Error.Failed: Protocol not supported

I'm not very familiar with bluez, so I don't know what is going on here. The controllers won't connect using this method though. However, none of the other pairing modes seem to get RetroPie to recognize the device when searching.

jeffjenx

Holy crap, I got it to work!!!

These 8bitdo things must be really finicky or something, but I somehow managed to get it to work. I don't have exact instructions, though, unfortunately.

When I discovered that Start + B caused the "8bitdo SN30 Modkit" to show up, I decided to re-flash my RetroPie and start over again. I had updated packages and whatnot, so I wanted to make sure I started fresh.

Interestingly, Start + B wasn't causing "8bitdo SN30 Modkit" to show up in my after the refresh. But I did Start + X and it did. I guess I don't fully understand the pair modes.

At any rate, after about 6 or 7 attempts at connecting (the controller kept turning off before the RetroPie bluetooth search completed), I finally made it to the DisplayYesNo and it actually connected.

I hurriedly launched EmulationStation and, sure enough, the gamepad was detected and I was able to configure the input.

This is gonna be fun now.

Clyde

That's great to hear, since I didn't have any ideas left anymore myself.

Yeah, bluetooth pairing is one of the most annoying things ~~about wireless controllers~~ in computer tech that I know.

Thanks for posting your solution, albeit not exact instructions. :)