Nice work! Glad it helped!

Nice work! Hope it got you some brownie points!

Hi Jim. Hope you enjoy it!

My pleasure!

Hi. Great to hear you're having fun with the projects. Keep going!

Hi. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome

You’re welcome 😊

The video sets the ESP32 to act as a bluetooth keyboard. You need other software to get it to act as a game controller. You can also start combining the bluetooth drivers to make the ESP32 / Pico act as a combo device for both or more. The great thing about these is that you're in total control - but you do need to get your head around the Bluetooth device descriptions.

It's strange the RPis aren't connecting. It sounds like the controller is working OK if the PC and phone are picking it up. When they connect and you test does it connect as a generic gamepad or some other model? It might be the Pi isn't recognising the type of gamepad, but just guessing at this stage.

@@BytesNBits Thankyou so much for replying but actually i got it working , it is still not being shown in the list of connected devices but now the button presses are being registered in the game pad config. ,Actually i wrote a new code without the use of the special buttons fuctions (like the dpad hat ,start ,select button ,etc) i just configured them as generic buttons (used the MultipleButtons example )as reconfigured them in the retropie . But still I am so grateful for your help , have a great day.

Hi. The main choice for this project is in how you want to connect to your computer. I'm using Bluetooth so the board has to have that interface, or be able to have one added easily. If you want a wired controller it must support a USB port. After that it's really down to processor / RAM / ROM and coding tools. We all have our preferences but it's really what you like - they will all basically do the same job. I hope this helps.

If you mean 4 ESP32s acting as controllers then it should be fine. One ESP32 acting as four controllers I'm not sure. You can add axes and buttons to the device definition but I'm not sure if you can get it to show up as 2 separate controllers.

@@BytesNBits the former. Thank you. I plan on creating some replacement guitar hero controllers

The video uses the ESP32 GPIO pins in their pull up config. To wire a button or switch you just need to connect one side of the button to the GPIO pin and other side to 0V.

The short answer is yes, you can code the ESP32 to reconnect to a paired device. The long answer is that you need to write a block of code to get it to do it. Have a look at the ESP32 bluetooth documentation. It's something I'll be covering in an upcoming video but not for a couple of months probably.

Hi. All the tutorials have a web page for more details. Have a look at bytesnbits.co.uk/esp32-bluetooth-keyboard/ for the connection details.

You need to use an IO expander chip. Search for I2C IO expander and you'll get some pop up. I think Adafruit do a breakout board for some of these ICs. This basically gives you 8 or 16 IO lines at the end of the I2C bus, plus you can run a number of these at the same time so pretty much as many IO lines as you need.

I think you can also increase the number of Buttons by reading a voltage on an analog pin and runing for example 4 buttons attached to a different value resistor. Search for "Arduino multiple buttons one pin" and there´s plenty of tutorials. Hope it helps!

The ESP32 has over 30 IO pins you can use or you can attach I2C devices. The keyboard driver in the tutorial lets you have buttons mimic any key on the keyboard. If you want the buttons to simulate a gamepad you need a different Bluetooth descriptor but it's fairly straight forward to achieve.

@@BytesNBits Thanks for your response ! I Only want keys, no gamepad... so it will fit the need.

www.adafruit.com/product/5223

Thanks.

Hi. You just need to send two key presses (or more if needed) before you release them. bleKeyboard.press(KEY_LEFT_CTRL); bleKeyboard.press('r');

@@BytesNBits I keep trying what you told me to do. The problem is that the software I am using r is rotate and thats all it wants to do so how do i go at setting up another button to do the ctrl-r?

@@zupaxis Hi. Does the software work if you just use a normal keyboard?

@@BytesNBits when I use the default script from the people that make the BLEKeyboard it works fine that way. After searching and searching I found this video kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fJmVq9ajzbrGeo0.html and so far his is working for what I need. Other than the fact that the buttons positive side has to be on the 3.3v rail.

@@zupaxis Great you've got it working.

Did you manage to get the deivices paired?

Unfortunately not

Once you can read the gyroscope and work out what direction it's moving you can get that to drive whatever key presses you want. The video covers sending the key signals to your PC so you just need to add the gyro code.

Sounds great. Let me know how you get on.

Hi. Yes. I haven't measured the scanning rate but I guess it will be in the KHz range.

Yes and no. This project stimulates a keyboard so it will work wherever keyboard input works. If you need an actual game controller input we can still use the ESP32 but we need to set it up to emulate the Bluetooth of the game controller.

Have a look at www.arduino.cc/reference/en/libraries/ps2dev/ It's a PS/2 keyboard signal driver. I hope this helps.

Hi. I had a quick look at the module. Yes, it will allow you to use one analog IO pin to connect to 16 signals but don't forget you'll also need 4 IO pins to control the addressing. There are I2C analogue devices that will give you more connections from just the two data lines.

Does the nano pair with the PC ok? How does the nano appear in the PC Bluetooth device list? Can you get any keypresses to appear on another device?

@@BytesNBits No keypresses appear on any other device. When I pair to my PC it flips between paired and connected. On my phone Its the same situation

Hi. I do plan to do a full gamepad project soon. Keep an eye open.

@@BytesNBits thank you, i am looking forward to it

Hi. Sorry you didn't find the code. The whole Arduino sketch is downloadable through the orange 'Download Code' button at the bottom of the page, after the code explanations.

It's hard to say what your errors are but try to stick to the way the code is written in the example. You should only have to change pin numbers to match your project.

Hi. Yes. You need to use an I2C IO expander to add more input IO channels.

What compile errors are you getting? Does it not recognise the key codes?

Hi. To debounce in software you need to monitor the switch value for a small number of code loops. e.g. the switch value changes from 1 to 0. You monitor the signal and if it doesn't change over the next 5 code loops you accept the new value.

@@BytesNBits Could you give me example of code? I'm building bt controller for motorcycle use.. switching between apps and controlling map with cloves on. Everything works on garage but on the road buttons start to act up..

Hi. Try running the ESP32 with it plugged in to the PC so you can use the serial terminal. Use some debug code to see what it's doing when it looses connection. Has the ESP32 crashed, lost BT connection, etc.

@@BytesNBits I ended up discovering the problem, Windows10 adds it as ESP bluetooth gamepad, after a few minutes it changed to ESP CH343S.... then I lost the connection, already on my Android phone it worked perfectly, thanks again for your attention!

@@pppiu Great to hear you've got it sorted out.

I'd put some debug print statements in the code to make sure the ESP32 is reading the inputs OK and then adding them to the Bluetooth output. If that's all OK there's probably an issue with the Bluetooth code building up the data package. Make sure the bluetooth code is able to send characters to the PC as in the first code example on the video. Then concentrate on getting one button to send one character. Then work up from there.

@@BytesNBits Thanks for the reply. After some more testing, the Arduino seems to be functioning ok by the response I'm getting from the serial monitor, just not getting any output in notepad. I suspect the PC should see the ESP32 as a HID device and it's not doing that hence why I'm not getting any output.

@@dreamcazman Just checking... did the ESP32 keyboard pop up on your PC bluetooth settings and were you able to pair with it? If yes, try forgetting the pairing and them re pairing. The ESP32 should only send the characters if it thinks it has a valid connection. When you open notepad make sure you click inside the edit window to give it focus to receive the keyboard presses.

@@BytesNBits Yes, I checked all of that, it was definitely connected properly via BT.

@@BytesNBits Just a quick update, I've scrapped everything and started again (new Arduino install, updates etc) and your code seems to be working in it's default state which is a great start. 🥳 I'm now trying to implement using special keys, (escape, enter, arrow keys, etc). Are you able to assist with this? Sorry for the noobish questions, but I am not sure how these are to be entered into the code. Thanks for everything thus far. EDIT: After much trial and error, I got the code working with special non-type keys using some decimal values I found. The respective pinMode entries were also entered further down the sketch. #define Up 32 #define Down 33 #define Left 25 #define Right 26 #define Coin 13 #define Start 15 #define Spacebar 2 #define Enter 0 #define Escape 4 bool keyStates[9] = {false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false, false}; int keyPins[9] = {Up, Down, Left, Right, Coin, Start, Spacebar, Enter, Escape}; uint8_t keyCodes[9] = {(218), (217), (216), (215), '5', '1', (180), (176), (177)};

Hi. That should be fine. I think it has all the Bluetooth and WiFi hardware built in.

​@@BytesNBits thank you, i will try again, maybe, linux needed another package too. Edit: And i did it, thank you again. "pip3 install pyserial"

Trying to keep up the momentum!

In principal yes. Getting the gyro readings into the ESP32 should be fairly straightforward. The hard part will be working out how dolphin needs the data to be presented to it over the bluetooth link. Have a look at the Wii Remote bluetooth descriptor - some info here wiibrew.org/wiki/Wiimote

@@BytesNBits Thank you for your reply. I think I am a beginner in the Gamepads and also a beginner in the ESP32 . I usually work on the Arduino Uno, and my English is not that good, so I could not understand the article you sent.. But if the controller that you made works like any communication device in a computer This means that the board can be set up in any emulator by setting the control buttons in the settings. Is that possible?? Honestly, I do not have these parts to try, so I ask you about them , because in fact I want to buy these parts only for this thing, which is to connect the MPU650 to it for WII games

@@marwan.naasan The ESP32 will let you mimic any bluetooth device. You need to think about the two halves of the project separately. Getting the ESP32 to read the data from the MPU6050 is one half. You need to translate that data into the motion you want to mimic. You can test this half by just writing data to the serial monitor. The second half is to get the ESP32 to present that data over the Bluetooth connection in a way that the games can use it. The ESP32 tells the connected computer what sensor and button data it's providing by sending over the Bluetooth descriptor. In the video you'll see the descriptor for a keyboard. You need to work out what descriptor settings you need to mimic the WiiMote. I'm not sure if that uses standard settings or some custom ones so you'll need to do some research. I hope this helps.

Thank you so much ... I'll try it soon .. and I'll tell you about that

Hi. Thanks for the tip.

It should do but you'll need to rework some of the code to match that system.

Yes. You can simulate most usb devices. You just need to work out the USB or bluetooth descriptor. I'll be doing more on controllers in some upcoming videos but that will be a couple of months away.

@@BytesNBits great , thanks

Hi. It looks like the website is messing up some of the characters in the listings. I'll have a look and see if I can fix that.

Did it get fixed? I plan to build this great project. I made a wired one with a arduino pro micro, but want to try a Bluetooth one with esp32

Hi. I haven't tried that! If the switch accepts a Bluetooth keyboard it should work. The software presents the keypad as a standard Bluetooth device.

Hi. That should be fine. You might need to use some different pins if they clash with your display.

@@BytesNBits display? esp32cam doesnt come with a display if you mean the cam, how do i check which pins might clash?

@@BytesNBits There are total 10 gpio pins on esp32cam and i want 7 button is that possible will i need more pins?

it changed, now it is a loooong text with exit status 1 Error compiling for board ESP32 Dev Module.

make sure you've got your Arduino ide set up correctly with the relevant modules for ESP32 loaded.

The library code identifies the ESP32 specifically as a keyboard rather than a generic device.

@@BytesNBits I couldn't make it work with windows. It does connect to android after a few taps to device. But it never connects to pc. I tried BLEKeyboard and BLEGamepad seperately. Windows keeps saying "try connecting your device again".

@@requiem4adreamc Hi. The ESP32 uses Bluetooth Low Energy rather than the standard BT signal. If your PC is a bit older it may be that your receiver isn't compatible.

@@BytesNBits Thank you very much. It is a little old. It has Bt 4.0. When i check it on device manager, details, capabilities tab; it says Bluetooth radio supports Low Energy Central Role and Bt radio supports Low Energy Peripheral Role. But anyways maybe it does not work properly. I will give it a try with BT dongle.

Hi. I'll add that to the list but it might take a while to get to it. A quick search through up this project, www.tomshardware.com/uk/how-to/raspberry-pi-alexa-voice-service Hope this helps.

@@BytesNBits thank you for your support 👍

With this one you can assign a single key or sequence of keys to a button press. In the code you should see how a single key press is generated. Multiple key presses are that repeated with perhaps a short delay between them..

@@BytesNBits That's what I was figuring. But something breaks anytime I try to change the inputs. Managed to make it input the letter W when I changed the GP_UP from ' to KEY_UP_ARROW but that was the only thing that happened. Oh and it might be related to the fact that the keyboard seems to be registering as US-layout and I am in Sweden ergo ÅÄÖ causes problems since ' becomes Ä for me. Gotta have a sit down another day and try to pick apart what I'm doing wrong. Your code is by far the most simplistic one I have come across so far. And by that I'm not trying to say anything is bad about it. Just that I love the "I need button to do this" approach and not "I need button that does this and 100 lights to make this configuration while it beeps" kinda mess that so many seem to favour. But I'm still to much of a novice to make sense of the necessities of some parts of it. If I want to increase the amount of buttons. I figure I have to change the input amount from 6 to 12 right? Saw some keyboard.h code that was similar but trying to make it .write(67) or (A) didn't work at all... I'm kinda stumped and no matter how much I Google I don't get anywhere.

@@BytesNBits Been trying unit8_T keyCodes[6] = {'KEY_UP_ARROW', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'} as an example and it only produce W and when I do some (0xB3) I get = sign.... No clue how to make it do things like "UP, DOWN, LEFT, LEFT, RIGHT" for example. Which is my goal... Am I just inputting my keyCodes wrong or am I trying to use the tool incorrectly?