Gamepad Control

Goal:Use Use Playstation 3 Controller wirelessly over bluetooth to control CNC. Ideally I want the control to happen on the host device (raspberry pi), not just the client.

Using a wireless game controller (like a PS3 controller) seems to be one of the lowest cost & simplest solution methods. Integrating Node.js libraries for support looks like the best option. I also looked at

Resources Options:

• Node.js
  • https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-gamepad [Lots of supported controllers, looks most promissing, Uses node-hid]
    • https://runkit.com/npm/node-gamepad
  • https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-hid [All Human Interface Devices]
  • https://github.com/KenanSulayman/PS3.js
• Python
  • https://pythonhosted.org/triangula/sixaxis.html
  • https://www.piborg.org/rpi-ps3-help
  • http://www.ev3dev.org/docs/tutorials/using-ps3-sixaxis/
  • https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Sony_DualShock
  • https://github.com/ApproxEng/triangula

Playstation Controller Setup ( general guide to connect hardware )

Here is what I have figured out so far for PS3 on Raspberry PI 3 w/ integrated bluetooth. The bellow just shows how to get PS3 controller connected.

Install

# Install & Enable Bluetooth Tools
sudo apt-get install -y bluetooth libbluetooth3 libusb-dev
sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service

# Add pi user to bluetooth group
sudo usermod -G bluetooth -a pi

Pairing Tools

# Get and build the command line pairing tool (sixpair)
wget http://www.pabr.org/sixlinux/sixpair.c
gcc -o sixpair sixpair.c -lusb

### Connect PS3 over USB
# Get PS3 DS 
sudo ./sixpair

### Disonnect PS3 over USB
bluetoothctl
### Connect PS3 over USB
devices
agent on
trust MAC # Replace "MAC" with MAC of "Device 64:D4:BD:B3:9E:66 PLAYSTATION(R)3 Controller"
trust 64:D4:BD:B3:9E:66 
quit
### Disonnect PS3 over USB, you should now be able to connect wirelessly. To check this, first list everything in /dev/input:

Test Controller Connectivity

# List Devices
ls /dev/input

### PS3 Controller: press the PS button, the lights on the front of the controller should flash for a couple of seconds then stop, leaving a single light on. If you now look again at the contents of /dev/input you should see a new device, probably called something like ‘js0’:

# List Devices
ls /dev/input

Get Battery Level

cat "/sys/class/power_supply/sony_controller_battery_64:d4:bd:b3:9e:66/capacity"

Joystick Application

# Install
sudo apt-get install joystick

# Usage / Test
jstest /dev/input/js0