Emulate Nintendo Switch Controllers over Bluetooth.
Tested on Ubuntu 19.10, and with Raspberry Pi 3B+ and 4B Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Features
Emulation of JOYCON_R, JOYCON_L and PRO_CONTROLLER. Able to send:
- button commands
- stick state
nfc data(removed, see #80)
Installation
- Install dependencies
Ubuntu: Install the dbus-python and libhidapi-hidraw0 packages
sudo apt install python3-dbus libhidapi-hidraw0
Arch Linux Derivatives: Install the hidapi and bluez-utils-compat(AUR) packages
- Clone the repository and install the joycontrol package to get missing dependencies (Note: Controller script needs super user rights, so python packages must be installed as root). In the joycontrol folder run:
- Consider to disable the bluez "input" plugin, see #8
Command line interface example
- Run the script
sudo python3 run_controller_cli.py PRO_CONTROLLER
This will create a PRO_CONTROLLER instance waiting for the Switch to connect.
- Open the "Change Grip/Order" menu of the Switch
The Switch only pairs with new controllers in the "Change Grip/Order" menu.
Note: If you already connected an emulated controller once, you can use the reconnect option of the script (-r "<Switch Bluetooth Mac address>"). This does not require the "Change Grip/Order" menu to be opened. You can find out a paired mac address using the "bluetoothctl" system command.
- After connecting, a command line interface is opened. Note: Press <enter> if you don't see a prompt.
Call "help" to see a list of available commands.
- If you call "test_buttons", the emulated controller automatically navigates to the "Test Controller Buttons" menu.
Issues
- Some bluetooth adapters seem to cause disconnects for reasons unknown, try to use an usb adapter instead
- Incompatibility with Bluetooth "input" plugin requires a bluetooth restart, see #8
- It seems like the Switch is slower processing incoming messages while in the "Change Grip/Order" menu. This causes flooding of packets and makes pairing somewhat inconsistent. Not sure yet what exactly a real controller does to prevent that. A workaround is to use the reconnect option after a controller was paired once, so that opening of the "Change Grip/Order" menu is not required.
- ...
Thanks
- Special thanks to https://github.com/dekuNukem/Nintendo_Switch_Reverse_Engineering for reverse engineering of the joycon protocol
- Thanks to the growing number of contributers and users