Next release is about gamepads, get a preview here

[rumbledethumps]

Gamepad support hasn't been great because I couldn't figure it out. Turns out if you don't know and implement certain USB incantations then you can't get in the door. I guess it's because both the host and device are trying to agree on a protocol for which there's no standard handshake so they both have various hacks you have to guess about. Fortunately, a big one was fixed recently:
Fix(host) enumeration with 8bitdo devices

This opened the door for me to build a framework to support modern gamepads in a way that doesn't need configuration. Windows, Xbox, Playstation, and Switch all have basically the same gamepad. So that's what I normalized to. See the gamepad documentation for more information.

Attached is a preview build with a gamepad tester. Let me know if you have a good experience or if the USB stack lets you down. I also attached a pack of toys.

rp6502_gamepad_preview.zip
toys.zip

[rumbledethumps]

Looks like we'll be getting Bluetooth Classic support for gamepads on the W. Just need to bolt down some UI.

[rumbledethumps]

Turns out BTstack only supports connecting one HID device on Classic. The new Bluetooth Classic driver has been removed and replaced with Bluetooth LE (BLE). Now you can have up to 8 devices connected. Some more work has to be done on keyboards and gamepads - which will have the side effect of enabling N-key rollover on devices that support it.

[twopoint71]

Could this potentially lead to Bluetooth audio device support?

[rumbledethumps]

Where it leads is up to the will and ability of the community. There's no shortage of people asking for things but there's only one guy making things happen.

[James-HoneyBadger]

Hey Rumble!

I tested the Gamepad preview OS. My results were mixed. For reference, my USB gamepad (and have just one, by the way) is a cheapie 'iNNEXT' model, that has a four-way 'up/down/left/right' push mechanism, Select & Start buttons, buttons for 'X, Y, A, B' and for 'L' & 'R'.

Up gave ly -128 & L:N
Left gave lx -18 & L:W
Down gave ly 127 & L:S
Right gave lx 127 & L:E

Select gave L2 & lt 255
Start gave R2 & rt 255

X was read as A
Y was read as Y
A was read as B
B was read as X

L button was L1
R button was R1

[James-HoneyBadger]

cool beans - that's helpful :)

[rumbledethumps]

Try the new build. It won't fix your face buttons but maybe some of the others.

[James-HoneyBadger]

Having to manually intervene to re-map the buttons is still a thing. But, that's no biggie. And, I suppose even a good option, in that on other systems, have to map the buttons at least one-time upon first boot - and being able to muck around with the settings is kinda cool.

I noticed your post about the bluetooth setup being for the newer enhanced bluetooth protocol. Sadly, I have no such devices - however, the searching for something to pair mechanism did appear to function.

As an aside, I also tested the wifi setup, attaching to an online BBS. That was flawless.

[rumbledethumps]

The problem with gamepads is that folks are going to dig into their "drawer of garbage" for a controller that ended up there because it never worked right. You have an SNES-style gamepad which is definitely not a modern gamepad, won't work with modern games because it's lacking necessary buttons, and has no reason to follow the de facto standard since it's targeting emulation.

[James-HoneyBadger]

Correct. In my case, that's it precisely ... a cheapie gamepad & never expected to be modern. That it's usable on the picocomputer at all is cool by me.

Love reliving (in a manner of speaking) the halcyon days of 6502-based coding -- go waaaaaay back to the 1970s as a kid at the time doing hexadecimal opcodes on my dad's KIM-1. And this system is awesome how it combines old-school computing with up-to-date interfacing etc.

[rumbledethumps]

Here's a new release with BLE. Type help set ble to get started and status to get the jelly donut. You simply pair the device and it works. This release also has slightly different button mappings on gamepads so use the new gamepad.rp6502. It is expected this will become V0.13 unless there's a significant problem.

Bluetooth devices don't usually support boot mode so I am now parsing and using HID descriptors. Keyboards, mice, and gamepads all use HID regardless if it's USB or Bluetooth. I had to rewrite a significant amount of input handling code to accommodate this. As a bonus, n-key rollover should work now. Everything is the same during usage, but it's possible devices that used to work will need to be fixed.

There are three classes of problems:

• USB goes nuts and stops responding or crashes the whole OS. This will need to be fixed by TinyUSB or Raspberry Pi since the necessary documentation isn't available to me.
• Gamepad buttons are mapped incorrectly. Someone will need to patch pad.c for your gamepad. I don't have your gamepad so that someone isn't me.
• A keyboard or mouse used to work but something was missed in the new HID descriptor handling code that was recently added.

I cannot fix TinyUSB or button mappings because I do not have the necessary resources.

I can fix a mouse or keyboard regression if you provide the HID report descriptor. Note that I will not hound you for information. If you aren't forthcoming with the HID report descriptor for your device, expect to be ignored. (https://github.com/todbot/win-hid-dump)

rp6502_hid_preview.zip

[rumbledethumps]

Make sure your Bluetooth devices are Bluetooth LE (BLE). The old Bluetooth Classic/BR/EDR isn't supported.