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Turn a Raspberry Pi Pico2W into a wireless adapter for the DualSense (DS5) controller — with an optional on-board status display.

OLED Edition is a fork of awalol/DS5Dongle (upstream) that adds an optional Pico-OLED-1.3 128×64 display add-on with 11 screens (status, 4-slot multi-controller pairing, lightbar color picker with favorites and effect presets, trigger test, gyro tilt, touchpad, diagnostics, CPU/clock, BT signal strength, audio VU meters, and a persistent settings menu), plus a DS5 button-Budug soft-reboot. Upstream is the authoritative source for the core bridge firmware; this fork tracks it and layers add-on features on top.

→ Open the OLED Edition Web Config

The web tool is a one-stop shop — no installs, no command line, no picotool. A brand-new Pico 2 W can go from "just out of the box" to fully flashed and configured without ever leaving the browser:

• Flash Firmware tab — put the Pico in BOOTSEL mode, then click Connect to Pico in the browser and Flash now. The site bundles the latest release UF2, or you can load a local .uf2 you've built yourself. Powered by WebUSB.

  What is BOOTSEL mode? It's the Pico's built-in flashing mode. To enter it: press and hold the small white button labeled BOOTSEL on the Pico, then plug the USB cable in (or, if it's already plugged in, briefly disconnect and reconnect while holding BOOTSEL). The Pico will appear to your computer as a removable drive — that's how you know it's in BOOTSEL mode. After the web tool flashes the firmware, the Pico auto-reboots into normal mode and is ready to use.

• Config tab — once the dongle is flashed and reconnected, edit haptics gain, speaker volume, polling rate, audio auto-haptics mode, and the rest of the persistent settings; save to the dongle's flash with one click. Powered by WebHID.

• OLED Preview tab — pixel-perfect emulation of all 11 OLED screens. Use the in-page KEY0/KEY1 buttons (or the controller's △ / R1 / D-pad when a DualSense is paired) to navigate. Adaptive triggers actually fire on the controller when you cycle the Trigger Test preset.

Works in any Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera). Firefox + Safari don't expose WebHID or WebUSB, so flashing and live config aren't available there — the OLED Preview still renders with mock data.

Source for the web tool: MarcelineVPQ/DS5Dongle-OLED-Config-Web (fork of awalol/ds5dongle-config-web).

This project enables the Raspberry Pi Pico2W to function as a Bluetooth bridge for the DualSense controller, allowing wireless connectivity with enhanced haptics support.

Core bridge (from upstream):

• Full DualSense connectivity via Pico2W
• HD haptics (advanced vibration feedback)
• Wireless Bluetooth bridging
• Adjustable haptic gain via microphone volume
• Configurable LED and disconnection behaviors

OLED Edition additions:

• Optional Pico-OLED-1.3 status display with 11 screens (status, slots, lightbar, trigger test, gyro tilt, touchpad, diagnostics, CPU/clock, RSSI, VU meters, settings)
• 4-slot persistent multi-controller pairing — bond up to four DualSenses, switch between them from the OLED, slot 0 reconnects automatically on boot
• Lightbar color picker with 4 user favorite slots + breathing / rainbow / fade effect presets
• Persistent settings menu for the 8 firmware config fields (haptics gain, speaker volume, polling rate, etc.) with hold-to-confirm Reset and Wipe-all-slots actions
• OLED idle power ladder — manual brightness cycle (KEY1 long-press), automatic deep-dim with a small breathing dot at 2 min idle, full display-off at 15 min idle. Wakes instantly on button, controller pair, or input. Real burn-in protection, not just a contrast tweak.
• Soft-reboot without unplugging USB via DS5 PS + Mute hold (works headless) or KEY0 + KEY1 held together for 1 s on the OLED add-on (replaces the older KEY0 double-click gesture, which was easy to fire by accident while paging quickly)
• Audit pass on the core bridge — critical stack-overflow fix in the audio path (resolves long-standing "audio stuttering"), security hardening, watchdog, length validation across HID/L2CAP boundaries (see CHANGELOG.md)

Both the Pico 2 W and the Waveshare Pico-OLED-1.3 are widely available worldwide:

• Adafruit, Pimoroni, The Pi Hut, DigiKey, Mouser — major electronics distributors (US / EU)
• Waveshare's own store for the OLED add-on
• Regional Amazon storefronts — search Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W and Waveshare Pico-OLED-1.3 (or the SKU HIPI1798)
• AliExpress — original Waveshare and Pico stock plus clones; check seller ratings

1. Hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico2W
2. Connect the Pico2W to your computer via USB
3. The device will mount as a USB storage device
4. Drag and drop the .uf2 firmware file onto the device

1. Put the DualSense controller into Bluetooth pairing mode
2. Wait for the Pico2W to detect and connect
3. Once connected, the device will appear on the host system

There are four ways to configure the firmware:

Web config (recommended, any Chromium-based browser): open DS5 Bridge Config — OLED Edition in Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, or Opera (Firefox isn't supported — Mozilla declined WebHID). Click Connect, pick the DualSense from the browser dialog, and edit any field with a familiar form UI. The page talks directly to the Pico over WebHID — no driver, no install, no data leaves your machine. Source at MarcelineVPQ/DS5Dongle-OLED-Config-Web.

On-device (OLED add-on present): use the on-screen Settings menu (10th screen). D-pad ▲▼ moves selection, ▶◀ adjusts values, △ saves to flash.

Terminal CLI (any OS, any browser): install hidapi, then use scripts/set_ds5.py:

pip install hidapi
scripts/set_ds5.py                            # show current config
scripts/set_ds5.py --auto-haptics fallback    # change a field, persist to flash
scripts/set_ds5.py --speaker-volume -10 --haptics-gain 1.5
scripts/set_ds5.py --slot 2                   # switch active multi-slot pairing
scripts/set_ds5.py --version                  # firmware version
scripts/set_ds5.py --rssi                     # live BT RSSI in dBm
scripts/set_ds5.py --help                     # full flag list

The script talks to the firmware over USB HID feature reports 0xF6/0xF7/0xF8/0xF9 — works on Linux, macOS, and Windows in any terminal regardless of which browser you use. Ported from loteran/DS5Dongle and extended for this fork's current_slot field.

DualSense controller buttons (legacy fallback, no OLED, no CLI):

Controls haptic gain multiplier. Range: [1.0 – 2.0].

Disables LED connection indicator. Takes effect after controller reconnects.

Disables silent disconnection behavior.

The Pico device will only be visible to the system after the controller is connected

Some behaviors depend on reconnection cycles to take effect

When the connected DualSense reports its battery at or below 10% (and it is not charging), the Pico onboard LED switches from solid-on to a 1 Hz blink so you can see the warning at a glance. The LED returns to solid-on as soon as the controller is plugged in or its reported level rises again. The blink also fires when disable_pico_led is set — the warning is treated as critical and overrides the LED-off preference; the LED returns to its disabled (off) state once the battery recovers or the controller starts charging.

To opt out at build time, configure with -DENABLE_BATT_LED=OFF. Default is ON.

• Overclocking to 320 MHz @ 1.20 V is required for stable BT pairing. Dropping voltage to 1.10 V or clock to stock breaks the CYW43 PIO SPI bus and BT stops working. A small heatsink on the RP2350 is recommended for sustained gameplay.
• HD haptics may not fire in every game on Linux + Steam; this is game-side (some titles only send HD-haptic audio under Windows-specific APIs). Tested working in Spider-Man Remastered; not delivered in Ghost of Tsushima — same firmware, same controller.
• DualSense microphone does not work over the Bluetooth pairing. This is a Sony / DS5-firmware-side limitation also documented in the upstream Linux kernel driver (drivers/hid/hid-playstation.c line ~1509: "Bluetooth audio is currently not supported"). The mic works fine when the controller is connected directly to the host via USB-C. See BLUETOOTH_AUDIO_NOTES.md for the full investigation log + what's already wired firmware-side if a future contributor cracks the BT-side trigger.

You don't need to do anything for this — the overclock is baked into the firmware. When you flash a UF2 from this repo, the Pico 2 W boots at the settings below automatically. There is no separate tool to run, no config file to edit, no fuses to blow.

Baked-in settings:

• Voltage: 1.20 V (vreg_set_voltage(VREG_VOLTAGE_1_20))
• Clock: 320 MHz (set_sys_clock_khz(SYS_CLOCK_KHZ, true))

Why it's required: at stock clock/voltage the CYW43 PIO SPI bus (the path the firmware uses to talk to the on-board Bluetooth chip) is unreliable and pairing fails. 320 MHz @ 1.20 V is the lowest combination we've verified to produce a stable BT link on this board.

If your device fails to boot a build you compiled yourself (unusual — only relevant when you've changed source), try increasing voltage slightly or lowering the clock in src/main.cpp. End users running official UF2 releases should not need to touch this.

A small heatsink on the RP2350 is recommended for sustained gameplay but not required for pairing or short sessions.

To build the project from source:

1. Install Pico SDK 2.2.0 (or later). The build uses pico_sdk_import.cmake.
2. Pin TinyUSB to 0.20.0 inside the Pico SDK ($PICO_SDK_PATH/lib/tinyusb). This project's tusb_config.h uses the 4-argument form of TUD_AUDIO_EP_SIZE, which is not present in the 0.18.0 version that ships bundled with Pico SDK 2.2.0:

   cd "$PICO_SDK_PATH/lib/tinyusb"
   git fetch --tags
   git checkout 0.20.0

3. Configure and build with CMake + Ninja (or Make):

   cd /path/to/DS5Dongle
   cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DPICO_SDK_PATH="$PICO_SDK_PATH"
   cmake --build build --target ds5-bridge

4. The UF2 lands at build/ds5-bridge-oled.uf2. Flash with BOOTSEL as usual.

Build flags worth knowing:

• -DENABLE_BATT_LED=ON (default) — blink Pico LED on low DS5 battery.
• -DENABLE_SERIAL=ON — route printf to USB CDC for debugging (default OFF; releases UART for production builds).
• -DPICO_W_BUILD=ON — build for the original Pico W (drops audio, lowers clock). Default targets Pico 2 W.

Two ways to triage bridge issues — on-device via the OLED Diagnostics screen, and host-side via scripts/mic_diag.sh (Linux). The host-side path is faster: no screen-switching, no flash cycle, runs while the controller is in active use.

# One-shot snapshot — is the dongle on USB? Did ALSA enumerate it? Is the
# capture stream live? Is a controller currently paired?
scripts/mic_diag.sh status

# 3-second arecord on the mic IN endpoint — reports peak / RMS / non-zero
# count so we can tell "stream is silent" from "stream is producing audio".
scripts/mic_diag.sh capture 3

# Same as `status` but in a loop, prints only on state change. Useful for
# catching the exact second pairing completes or audio streams open / close.
scripts/mic_diag.sh watch

# Live read of the firmware's 0xFD vendor feature report (via /dev/hidraw):
# BT input counts + rates, last seen non-0x31 IDs, byte prefixes, AND the
# trigger-flow counters (host 0x02 received / with AllowTriggerFFB set /
# forwarded to BT). bt-trace prints a verdict — "host driver isn't sending
# trigger Allow bits" vs "forwarded but controller didn't actuate" — which
# is what would otherwise need a USB protocol analyzer.
scripts/mic_diag.sh bt-trace

Originally written to triage the parked DS5 BT-microphone investigation (see BLUETOOTH_AUDIO_NOTES.md). The 0xFD feature report and bt-trace decoder now also carry the trigger-flow counters added for issue #3 (missing adaptive trigger tension in some games).

If you plug a Waveshare Pico-OLED-1.3 onto the Pico2W's headers, the firmware drives it automatically as a live status display. No configuration needed — the firmware no-ops gracefully when no OLED is present.

Centered firmware version on a blank screen for 1.5 seconds, then jumps to the Status screen.

Cycle order: Status → Slots → Lightbar → Trigger Test → Gyro Tilt → Touchpad → Diagnostics → CPU/Clock → BT Signal → VU Meters → Settings → wrap. KEY0 short-press steps forward; KEY1 short-press steps backward — on every screen. Per-screen interactions (cycling the trigger preset, cycling the lightbar mode, navigating the Settings cursor, switching slots) live on the DualSense controller buttons, never on KEY0/KEY1, so the two physical buttons on the OLED add-on always mean the same thing.

Every screen also paints > at the top-left edge (next to KEY0) and < at the bottom-left edge (next to KEY1) so the on-screen labels physically pair with the buttons.

Connection state, paired DualSense BD address, battery % with bar (+ charging / * complete / ! error), live analog stick positions, D-pad, face buttons (△ ◯ ✕ □), L1/R1, and L2/R2 analog trigger fill bars. The link indicator and battery use small pixel icons.

Persistent 4-slot multi-controller pairing. Browse stored controllers, switch active slot, or wipe a single slot. > is the cursor, * marks the currently active slot.

• D-pad ▲▼ — move cursor across slots 0–3
• △ — switch to the cursor slot (disconnect current, reconnect to slot's stored controller)
• □ hold 1.5 s — wipe the cursor slot (drops bd_addr + BTstack link key)
• Active slot is persisted; the dongle reconnects to it on next boot

Tilt the controller on each axis to dial in R / G / B; the firmware sends the resulting color to the DualSense's actual lightbar at 10 Hz, so the lightbar IS the visual preview (the OLED is monochrome).

• Press △ ◯ ✕ □ on the controller to save the current color into favorite slot 0 / 1 / 2 / 3
• Press R1 on the controller to cycle the mode tag: [LIVE] → [FAV0] → [FAV1] → [FAV2] → [FAV3] → effects (Breathing / Rainbow / Fade) → back to [LIVE]
• Default favorites: Red, Green, Blue, White

Press △ on the controller to cycle seven adaptive trigger effects applied to both L2 and R2. Pull each trigger to feel the effect.

Cycle order: Off → Feedback → Weapon → Vibration → Bow → Gallop → Machine Gun → Off … Effect parameters bitpacked per dualsensectl's reverse-engineering, all at max strength.

Live X/Y/Z accelerometer values with a 40×40 crosshair box. Tilt the controller and the dot tracks in real time.

Live render of the touchpad surface. Dots appear at current finger positions; the count updates as fingers touch / leave.

Scrollable list of live counters — uptime, BT state, host → BT trigger flow (host02 / trig / tx), BT 0x31 input rate, USB audio frames/sec, BT 0x32 packets/sec, and parked mic-investigation counters at the bottom. Controller D-pad ▲/▼ scrolls; tiny ^ / v glyphs at the right edge mark "more above/below." Read-only, so no cursor. Useful for verifying the bridge is moving bytes without needing a UART cable.

The same counters are also exported on HID feature report 0xFD for host-side tooling — see scripts/mic_diag.sh bt-trace below.

Live RP2350 vitals: configured (Set) and actually-running (Real) system clock measured against the crystal reference, core voltage read back from the regulator, and on-die temperature (256-sample average + slow EMA so the value tracks the real die temp rather than ADC noise).

The same telemetry is also exported on HID feature report 0xFC for tooling.

Live Bluetooth signal strength of the active link, in dBm with a bar. Closer to 0 dBm is stronger; −90 dBm is weak. Includes a qualitative label (Poor / Fair / Good / Excellent).

Live peak meters for the speaker and haptic audio paths. Useful for verifying audio routing without the controller being plugged in to a host.

Persistent config editor. D-pad ▲▼ moves the selection, ▶◀ adjusts values, △ saves to flash. Includes the firmware-config fields (haptics gain, speaker volume, inactive timeout, polling rate), the Audio Auto Haptics controls, and two hold-to-confirm actions:

• AutoHap Off / Fallback / Mix / Replace — selects the Audio Auto Haptics mode. Default Fallback fires derived rumble only when the game sends no native haptic data (e.g. Ghost of Tsushima on Linux); games that do send native haptics (Spider-Man Remastered) pass through unchanged. Mix adds derived on top of native, Replace ignores native entirely, Off disables.
• AH Gain N% — derived-signal gain, 0–200 % in 10 % steps. Default 100 %.
• AH LP 80/160/250/400 Hz — low-pass cutoff applied to the speaker audio before envelope follow. Lower = more sub-bass, higher = more presence. Default 160 Hz.
• Reset to defaults — hold △ for 2 s to revert all config fields
• Wipe all slots — hold △ for 2 s to drop all 4 paired controllers + all BTstack link keys

The two physical buttons on the OLED add-on are strictly navigation:

Per-screen state changes (cycling the trigger preset, cycling the lightbar mode, navigating Settings, switching slots, saving colors to favorite slots) all happen on the DualSense controller buttons — never on KEY0 / KEY1 — so the two physical buttons always mean the same thing across every screen. See each screen's section above for which controller button does what.

Two ways to reboot the dongle without unplugging USB — handy if pairing gets stuck or you want a clean state:

• OLED KEY0 + KEY1 held simultaneously for ≥ 1 s → watchdog_reboot. Replaces the older "KEY0 double-click" gesture from earlier versions, since rapid forward-navigation kept tripping the double-click timer by accident.
• DualSense PS + Mute held for 2 seconds → watchdog_reboot (works whether or not the OLED is attached — headless backup).

Some features and design ideas in this fork are borrowed from other forks of upstream, with credit:

• zurce/DS5Dongle-OLED — pixel-art icons in the OLED status header (visual approach), the "hold for factory reset" UX pattern used by the Settings screen's "Reset to defaults" item (hold △ for 2 s to confirm), and the multi-slot persistent BT pairing system on the new Slots screen (4 bonded controllers, D-pad to navigate, △ to switch slots, □ hold to wipe a slot, plus "Wipe all slots" in the Settings menu).
• loteran/DS5Dongle — independent rediscovery of the upstream 3a31bd7 regression that broke speaker / HD haptic output (commit c7a8d3c); the fix in our src/audio.cpp restores the same SetStateData sub-report. Also the source of the Audio Auto Haptics DSP (1-pole LP + envelope follower, see Settings → Auto Haptics) and the "don't sync USB-side UAC1 volume to the persistent config" fix.
• awalol/ds5dongle-config-web — base for our forked web config app at MarcelineVPQ/DS5Dongle-OLED-Config-Web. The fork adapts upstream's 13-byte Config_body layout to our 19-byte one and adds UI for our additions (multi-slot pairing, Auto Haptics).

• Please check out DS5Dongle plan

• Join the Discord server: Discord Server
• If you have a bug, please open an issue instead.

• rafaelvaloto/Pico_W-Dualsense — Project inspiration
• egormanga/SAxense — Bluetooth Haptics POC
• https://controllers.fandom.com/wiki/Sony_DualSense - DualSense data report structure documentation
• Paliverse/DualSenseX — Speaker report packet