X360 Wireless receiver alternatives/HDMI cable alternatives

deusxm

Just wondering if there's such a thing as an alternative, smaller wireless receiver for X360 controllers? I'm currently using one but it's of course about the same size as my Pi and I've never quite understood why a device designed to reduce the number of wires involved has such a long cable. Is there an alternative that's more along the format of a bluetooth adapter ie. something small that fits straight into the USB.

Similarly, is there some sort of male/male adapter for HDMI around, which would let me plug in a Pi direct to the TV in the style of a TV stick?

backstander

@deusxm

Just wondering if there's such a thing as an alternative, smaller wireless receiver for X360 controllers? I'm currently using one but it's of course about the same size as my Pi and I've never quite understood why a device designed to reduce the number of wires involved has such a long cable. Is there an alternative that's more along the format of a bluetooth adapter ie. something small that fits straight into the USB.

Unfortunately I don't believe there is anything that small. I'm using this generic Xbox 360 wireless receiver and it is how you described. To help with the long USB cable I just left the white wire twist ties on it and set it on top of my Pi case. The Xbox One wireless receiver is smaller but looks like a giant USB flash drive which makes it hard to plug in anything into the other USB ports around it so you kinda have to use the included USB extension cable so you're still in the same boat and I also couldn't get the Xbox One controller to work probably with RetroPie (but I haven't tried lately).

Similarly, is there some sort of male/male adapter for HDMI around, which would let me plug in a Pi direct to the TV in the style of a TV stick?

I think the Pi Zero is the closest you'll get to the stick form factor but it's not as powerful as the Pi 3.

They do make VESA mount Pi 2/3 cases that can mount on the back of your TV or monitor and you can Velcro your X360 receiver to the back as well.

deusxm

Cheers. I've done the same as you, I've used some black electrical tape and the twist to attach my receiver to the top of the Pi. Not ideal and looks a little shonky, hence why I was wondering if there might be a neater suggestion out there.

Managed to solve my adapter conundrum as well - looks like a Male-Male Coupler (oo-er missus) will do the job.

Dochartaigh

I've thought about this a lot myself.

I have a 2nd generic Xbox 360 wireless adapter and have broken it down to just the chip inside (which is still MUCH larger than it needs to be - tons of blank board space all around). It's small enough that it should slip right into the official Raspberry Pi case with maybe even some room to spare since the Pi is tall where the 4x USB ports are, with a lot of wasted space behind it in the case.

I'm currently researching if I can hard-wire the 4x wires of the USB plug to the Pi's GPIO wires (which I don't think is possible), or how to most easily connect the wireless adapter inside the Pi's case so it looks nice and neat from the outside at least (if anybody has links to any tutorials I'm all ears!).

The problem I haven't figured out yet is how to select which player is which. I commonly have an issue where the Xbox wireless adapter steals player 1 even when it's plugged into the traditional Player 3 or Player 4 USB slot (this is when I plug in my 6-button Genesis controller for example, for some Streets of Rage action ;) and the only way to get that Genesis controller to be player 1 is to unplug the Xbox wireless adapter...which won't be possible if I hard wire it (unless I put in a switch or something). Might just snake a very short wire out of the case to a regular USB plug if it would look OK.