Raspberry Pi-based homebrew dongle enables full wireless Sony DualSense controller functionality on the PC including haptics
Overview & Key Takeaways
With better latency than a generic Bluetooth dongle, too?
Fancy the full PS5 controller experience on PC? Right now, it's not possible wirelessly. That's because you lose the Sony DualSense's full haptic functionality over Bluetooth on the PC. Or at least you did until this homebrew solution turned up based on a Raspberry Pi Pico 2W acting as a dongle.
Spotted on Reddit, this GitHub project essentially allows you to connect a DualSense controller to your PC wirelessly, but keep your PC thinking it's a wired interface.
The problem, as I understand it, with the DualSense on PC over Bluetooth is that Windows' Bluetooth interface doesn't support Sony's proprietary version of Bluetooth that essentially repurposes the A2DP audio channels for the haptic data. And the GitHub project apparently fixes that.
One immediate concern regarding this kind of homebrew solution is latency. Enabling the haptics at the cost of significant added latency wouldn't be much of a win. But apparently, this isn't necessarily a concern.
This is all a little outside my wheelhouse, but in the Reddit comments the general consensus is that this Raspberry Pi-based solution should actually be better than a generic dongle because, as one commenter puts it, "the software can be tuned to only poll the controllers, and do it very predictably and precisely, just like a real PS5. Avoiding generic bluetooth and the Windows/Linux/Android bluetooth stack is actually a feature here."
Enabling haptics over Bluetooth is what this is all about. (Image credit: Sony)
There may be issues around the lack of support for interrupt transfers (which PC peripherals like mice have to ensure rapid and consistent response) causing inconsistent response. But then I haven't dug into the GitHub project fully—maybe it includes setting up the Pico 2W as a USB HID device using interrupt transfers.
Anywho, if enabling wireless DS5 gaming on a PC with full haptic functionality is your bag and you don't mind getting your hands dirty with some homebrew Raspberry Pi action, the GitHub project is surely worth a look.
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