SHANWAN / PS3 CONTROLLER Pi3 RETROPIE 3.6 BLUETOOTH SETUP

dmt408

@luetzel I tried it with their update and was unable to get it to work with the SZMY-POWER controllers

Wolfman100

As far as I'm aware ,I have already tried getting the SZMY-POWER controllers working with the latest bugfixed Bluez 5.41 with unfortunately no success.

Still no input registered in JStest

Smithers

Hi.

Ok so I have some good news - I have got my SZMY-POWER pads working!

I had made a backup prior to the first attempt with Bluez so I restored from that and tried the new version of Bluez from @luetzel , followed your guide again to completion BUT, this time it won't recognise my pad via Bluetooth? So last time it would pair multiple pads but wouldnt capture any inputs / events, but this time it won't pick the SZMY pad up via Bluetooth at all? Sixpair appears to work, in that it recognises the bluetooth address and sets it as expected, its just the bluetooth pairing that doesnt work.

So - I restored the image again to back before Bluez was installed, I then carried out a full update through RetroPie Setup Script (took quite a while as it was building a new version of MAME), and then went straight in to set up the PAD via the RetroPie script, chose 'Gasia Only' support..... and it worked first time! So I have now paired 2 SZMY pads and 1 'Genuine Gasia' pad (I bought a pair when I thought the SZMY pads wouldnt work), and they are all working fine and can work together at the same time. The only issue I can see is that the LED's all display as Player 1, which they are not (I get JS0, JS1 & JS2 in JSTEST when they're all connected and each of them work independently), but that is something that I can live with.

I would love to say that there was a specific thing I tried, but all I done was try again through the setup script, chose Gasia only, and it worked. I have rebooted about 20 times since and it works on every reboot. All I could suggest is that you update, try again and see if it works for you? If I can share the driver that is installed somehow then I will, just let me know how to do that.

Good luck all - incidentally if anyone knows how to get around the 'Player 1 LED' issue then I'm all ears, but its not a problem as such in fairness.

Wolfman100

@Smithers Good Work and great News!I presume this was born out of some random experimentation,as all great solutions seem to be...

I will look into this shortly and see if theirs a clearly replacteable way to get this working.

I think it may soon be useful to start a new thread which in some way summarises what's required for replica and non-replica PS3 controller pairing and break it down for each one of the replica types we've come across.I think this would help quite a few people out.

Wolfman100

@Smithers I can report that I have updated RetroPie and I have removed all other PS3 pairing configs etc and just installed just Gasia support and still no response from buttons.

I think this is however due to Bluez and Sixad still being installed as in @luetzel's guide.I think I will have to remove these first.

Wolfman100

@Smithers @dmt408 @luetzel

I can now happily confirm that I have managed to get the SZMY-POWER pad working.I am not sure exactly WHAT process has managed to get this working.But it is definitely one of the following:

Removing all PS3 drivers
Updating RetroPie
Installing the Gasia Only Driver

Access :

cd /usr/sbin/

and then change permissions:

sudo chmod 755 sixad-sixaxis

Restarting Sixad Daemon:

sudo /etc/init.d/sixad restart

Then when at the Emulation Screen where it says 1 Gamepad detected it seemed to register but only if I held the right thumb button down...which is a bit weird,but then it went to the next stage to configure the buttons and they all registered and configured without an issue.

The only drawback now being that when I restart RetroPie it goes straight past the Emulation Station screen into RetroPie and the controller doesn't do anything anymore.

Steps closer...

Wolfman100

I can't get it running at all on my other build....so further investigations need to be made.I do have some hope now that it actually configured once that it is actually possible....

Wolfman100

I have now removed the Emulation Station configurations so that it prompts me to configure on the Emulation Screen again...although now it's back to not recognising any input again....arrrgrggghhhhh!

rocklima2

solve vibration cant stop? my controller not stop using usb cable, i need help to solve this problem

Wolfman100

Any ideas about any of this anyone?

@Smithers @dmt408 @luetzel

I can now happily confirm that I have managed to get the SZMY-POWER pad working.I am not sure exactly WHAT process has managed to get this working.But it is definitely one of the following:

Removing all PS3 drivers
Updating RetroPie
Installing the Gasia Only Driver

Access :

cd /usr/sbin/
and then change permissions:

sudo chmod 755 sixad-sixaxis
Restarting Sixad Daemon:

sudo /etc/init.d/sixad restart
Then when at the Emulation Screen where it says 1 Gamepad detected it seemed to register but only if I held the right thumb button down...which is a bit weird,but then it went to the next stage to configure the buttons and they all registered and configured without an issue.

The only drawback now being that when I restart RetroPie it goes straight past the Emulation Station screen into RetroPie and the controller doesn't do anything anymore.

Steps closer...

Pineapple12

Found this thread after a rather frustrating weekend. Figured I'd share a realization made when trying to pair my ShanWan controllers running RetroPie 3.8.1 on a RPi3 (built in bluetooth).

If you are using the LEDs as an indicator that the controllers are synced - DON'T.

I have 3 ShanWan controllers all bought from the same seller on Amazon. One of them will show the correct LED when synced. However, the other two will not. Instead, they continue to flash as if they are still trying to pair, but the flash will be about half as fast. The controllers seem to work fine, they're just constantly flashing half speed when synced.

I was trying everything to get them to pair when finally I noticed my "good" controller was showing #3 LED. Opened up the "Configure Input" screen in RetroPie and sure enough they were paired. Wanted to share this tip in case anyone else might be having the same problem and not even know it. The flashing is annoying though, so if anyone knows a fix to this I would really appreciate it!

luetzel

@Pineapple12
did you pair your controllers using sixad or bluez?

Pineapple12

@luetzel I used Sixad from the script built into RetroPie 3.8.1. I also managed to get them to pair using Blues and your instructions once, but couldn't get them to sync again after a reboot. The LEDs did work correctly through Bluez though.

Wolfman100

@Pineapple12 Good info.

Smithers

Hi.

Well, I had success with my SZMY-Power pads for a short while but then suddenly they decided to stop pairing. I didn't do anything to make them stop, i.e. I made no changes to RetroPie etc. so not at all sure what has happened? They worked great for a few days, paired up on every boot, then one day they just stopped working and now I cant get them to pair. Swines.

So I am back to using Gasia pads again, but the ones I have are inferior in quality to the SZMY-Power pads (stiff D-Pad so you have to press hard for it to register). Shame because the SZMY pads are great IMO and they are cheaper in price than the Gasia pads I bought too. I will keep trying them as and when I get the time!

Cheers for all input so far. :)

Pineapple12

After getting tired of my blinking LED's I gave up on Sixad and went with the patched version of Bluez per Luetzel's instructions. Everything works great - with the exception of Kodi. Previously Kodi would crash if I had my PS3 controller (fake or genuine) plugged in to USB during launch. This wasn't really a huge deal since I'm usually connected through Bluetooth anyway. However, now that I'm using Bluez and not Sixad, the crash is happening even when connected via Bluetooth. I've seen several posting describing similar problems with PS3 controllers and Kodi. I was wondering if anyone has encountered this and found a solution?

Punkertjenv

I'm desperately trying to connect my Shanwan PS3 controller over Bluetooth (RPI3 internal).
Connecting it solely over USB works, however it keeps rumbling.
I've tried to connect it using sixad, with no success ( retropie 3.8 / 4.0)
After that I tried to pair and connect using Bluez ( as described in Luetzels blog)
It seems like it's connecting to the bluetooth seems to work, but it does not pair correctly and disconnects after +- 30 secs.

Log :

pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair
No controller found on USB busses.
pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: 00:00:00:00:00:00
Setting master bd_addr to b8:27:eb:01:aa:a6
USB_REQ_SET_CONFIGURATION: Device or resource busy
pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: b8:27:eb:01:aa:a6
Setting master bd_addr to b8:27:eb:01:aa:a6
USB_REQ_SET_CONFIGURATION: Device or resource busy
pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ sudo ./sixpair
Current Bluetooth master: b8:27:eb:01:aa:a6
Setting master bd_addr to b8:27:eb:01:aa:a6
pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ service bluetooth status
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2016-08-26 12:58:36 UTC; 30min ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 2552 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─2552 /usr/libexec/bluetooth/bluetoothd
pi@retropie:~/qtsixa/utils/bins $ sudo bluetoothctl
[NEW] Controller B8:27:EB:01:AA:A6 retropie [default]
[NEW] Device 00:1B:FB:FB:19:33 00-1B-FB-FB-19-33
[NEW] Device 01:EE:57:7D:63:25 PLAYSTATION(R)3Conteroller-PANHAI
[bluetooth]#
------ UNPLUG DEVICE
[bluetooth]#
[CHG] Device 01:EE:57:7D:63:25 Connected: yes
------ lights keep blinking
[CHG] Device 01:EE:57:7D:63:25 Connected: no

Am I doing something wrong here ?

PS : Pairing a genuine PS3 controller works perfectly using bluez and sixad

ShootHere

@Punkertjenv Well I got me the same joypads and it seems the issue when pairing them on my Mac is that it thinks it is a keyboard and wants the pairing code.
I will try and report back.

Pirate

Are you still having issues pairing your shanwan ps3 controller via bluetooth? I found a easy fix for this problem since I do own two shanwan ps3 controllers and im running retropie 4.0.2 on my RP3b

Punkertjenv

@Pirate I got it working using the latest version of Bluez. I recompiled it myself with the patches instead of using the already patched version (described in the excellent guide of Luetzel).
This did the trick!