How to Use PS3 Controller on Mac – 2023 Guide. Sony ps3 controller

27.05.2023 Buris Article

How to Use PS3 Controller on Mac – 2023 Guide

Dual Shock 3 might be the most favored gaming controller of our generation. There can be several reasons to bonify this fact, like it is simple to use, or it can be used on multiple platforms, and it is pretty cheap too. If you are a Mac user, there aren’t many options available for you to use to play your favorite games. Using the PS3 Controller on Mac can be the best choice to enjoy the games to the fullest. So, in this post, I’ll guide you on How to use PS3 Controller on Mac.

The procedure is simple, quick and easy. Get your Dual Shock 3 out and ready.

How to use PS3 Controller on Mac?

Using the Sony Dual Shock 3 Playstation Controller on Mac is very easy if you know how to set it up to play the games. Here, I’ll explain what you’ll need, how to set up use, and how to disconnect the PS3 controller on Mac. Just go through this article and you’ll learn everything required that is related to using the Dual Shock 3 on your Mac.

Things you will need

Mac with OS X Snow Leopard or beyond, including Lion, MacOS Sierra 10.12, OS X 10.11 El Capitan, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks, 10.10 Yosemite, etc. All these have the drivers to support the PS3 controller by default, and the process to set up is pretty much same.
A Sony Dual Shock 3 Playstation Controller which you can buy from a reliable e-commerce site or from the nearby gaming accessories store.
A mini USB cable to connect Dual Shock 3 to your Mac. Remember that the cable will be used only once while setting up the controller, and later you’ll be using the wireless Bluetooth connection.
Bluetooth support on both Mac and Dual Shock 3.
An internet connection to thank me later if you feel like.

Procedure: Set up PS3 Controller on Mac

The procedure to set up a PS3 Controller on Mac is very simple. You might feel it isn’t that easy by looking at the length of this post, but just try it once, and you’ll realize how simple it is. Follow these steps in order to connect the Sony Dual Shock 3 on your Mac via the Bluetooth connection:

Step-1: Reset the Sony Dual Shock 3 Playstation controller by inserting a paperclip or needle into pinhole near L2 button.

Step-2: Next, connect the Dual Shock 3 to your Mac using the mini USB cable.

Step-3: If you haven’t enabled Bluetooth on your Mac yet, then you have to do it now. Go to Apple menu, click on System Preferences, and then click on Bluetooth. Now Turn Bluetooth ON. You can do it either through the Bluetooth preference panel or the menu bar item.

Step-4: Now press the PS button (round button present on the middle of the controller) for 2 seconds to turn it on until the red light on the controller blinks. It flashes as it tries to pair with the Mac.

Step-5: Unplug the mini USB cable.

Step-6: The Bluetooth preference panel might show a device available but not yet connected as it is trying to pair the Mac with the PS3 gamepad. Just click on the icon in the Preferences to open the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.

Step-7: A new window will pop up asking you to enter a Passcode. Enter 0000 in the box and click on Accept.

Step-8: Close the Bluetooth Setup Assistant now. Your Dual Shock 3 is now connected to your Mac.

Optional but Recommended part- Add PS3 Controller to Favorites on Mac

It is highly recommended that you add the PS3 Controller to Mac’s favorites list. Also, if you are using OS X 10.8.x, it is necessary that you add the controller to the Favorites if you want the instructions presented above to work. Follow these steps in order to Add the Sony Dual Shock 3 Controller to Favorites on your Mac:

Step-1: From the Bluetooth list in the preferences, click on the PLAYSTATION3 Controller item.

Step-2: Now click on Add To Favorites, and then choose Update Services from the little gear icon menu.

Step-3: Next, disable Bluetooth on Mac, and wait for 2 seconds.

Step-4: Finally, enable Bluetooth again, wait for another 2 seconds, and start loading your favorite game.

How to Disconnect PS3 Controller on Mac for Troubleshooting?

Disconnecting and reconnecting Mac can help you with troubleshooting certain issues that appear while using PS3 Controller on Mac. Two of the most common issues are-

Dual Shock 3 is not found/detected by Mac when it is plugged in and turned on. Keep in mind that you should first enable and disable Bluetooth to resolve this issue, instead of directly disconnecting the controller. If that didn’t help, then you should try disconnecting and reconnecting the PS3 controller on Mac.
The PS3 Controller gamepad lights blinking constantly and going crazy causing trouble while playing certain games.

Follow these steps in order to disconnect PS3 Controller on Mac, to later reconnect it again:

Step-1: Firstly, go to the Bluetooth preference panel in System Preferences.

Step-2: Keep your cursor over the Playstation 3 Controller item shown in the Bluetooth Devices list. If a slightly changed name like Sony Dual Shock 3 or something else appears, keep the cursor over that.

Step-3: Now click on the circular X and then click on Remove to confirm the removal of the PS3 controller from your Mac.

Now you can just reconnect it using the procedure mentioned above, and continue playing your favorite games without having any trouble.

Summary

This was how you can connect and use the PS3 Controller on Mac. You can use it to play many amazing games that work incredibly well when played with the controller like the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

Also, remember that always keep the batteries of your Sony Dual Shock 3 charged and, don’t take it too far from your Mac while playing games, as you may move out of the Bluetooth range leading to disconnection. For any queries, doubts, or suggestions, feel free to visit the Комментарии и мнения владельцев section.

You may also visit the official Apple Thread related to this topic to seek further help. Hope I helped you.

PS3 Controller not Charging When Plugged in

Playing video games is a fun hobby, and not being able to access them due to technical troubles like the PS3 controller not charging is extremely annoying. If you are trying to play video games on a Playstation 3 or using a PS3 controller and are having difficulties getting it to function, see if this problem applies to you:

You try to turn on the PS3 controller on and nothing happens, as though the battery is dead. When you plug it in to charge, either no lights come on or four blinking red lights come on. No matter how long you leave it plugged in, the PS3 controller never seems to properly charge and can’t be used.

If this sounds like the problem you are having with your PS3 controller then this guide can help. Read below to see various possible solutions that will get you back in the game quickly and fix your PS3 controller not charging problem.

How to Get Your PS3 Controller Charging

When it comes to dealing with the issue of battery life, there is always a concern that the issue may be with the battery itself and that you will need to replace the battery or even the controller.

Before going to such extreme measures, try some DIY approaches to rectifying the PS3 controller from the charging issue that have been shown to work in many cases in the past. Every battery problem is unique, so you may need to try a few approaches before you find the one that works for you.

Connect your PS3 controller to your console

Certainly the easiest thing you can do is try to connect the controller to the gaming system. To do this, all you need to do is leave the controller plugged in to a USB cable as though it were charging. Then press the Playstation button on the controller when the red lights begin to flash. If the controller is responding properly at this point it should begin to auto sync with the system, which can fix certain issues with the device.

Be sure that the USB cord connected to your Playstation system is working properly, as an issue with these cords could manifest, causing an inability to properly charge your controller. To test this, use the USB cord to try to charge some other device such as a USB headset or another gaming peripheral.

If those other items still charge normally then this suggests that the problem lies within your PS3 controller rather than with the Playstation console as a whole.

Note: Try a shorter USB cable. Long USB cable require more juice to flow from the console to the controller!

Connect you PS3 Controller to Your Computer

Here is a little trick I saw on YouTube. Plug in the controller to a computer or laptop. After the lights come up, unplug the other end from the controller. The PS3 should turn on and the controller should be now synced to it.

Reset Your PS3 Controller

Try resetting the controller. You can use a paper clip. Unfold the paper clip and insert it into the tiny hole below the L2 button. The controller should be connected to the console while you do this. Hold down the reset button for a few seconds.

How to determine if your PS3 Controller battery is dead

Sony has a built in was to see if your battery is indeed the problem. Here are the easy steps to see if you have a bad battery:

Turn on the PS3 and wait until you are on the main menu.
Connect your controller to the console via USB cable.
sync up the controller to the gaming system.
On the controller, hold the “PS” button for few seconds.
The controller menu should pop up. This is where you can see the charge level.
If the battery is good, it will show bars inside the battery. If it shows a line instead, there is an issue with the battery.

Check the battery connection

If the quick fixes did not solve your problem, then it may be time to start trying to check the battery itself. Getting to the battery is quite simple. Use a screwdriver to remove the five screws from the controller that keep the battery in place and open the compartment. Be sure to keep the screws somewhere safe so that they don’t get lost!

Once the compartment is open, try unclipping the lithium ion battery and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes. This is the perfect opportunity to clean the PS3 controller of any dust. Then try to reconnect it and see if this fixed the PS3 controller not charging problem.

The battery swap

If replugging the battery did not work on its own, then it is time to try to determine whether the battery is what is causing the problem. This will involve your second controller. Hopefully you have a working PS3 controller lying around. To check this, open up the problematic PS3 controller and another one that is working properly and is fully charged.

Swap the batteries of these two controllers and try to charge them as you would normally. If both controllers charge properly then congratulations, the problem is fixed! If, however, only the controller that received the battery that you already knew worked will charge then this suggests that there is a problem with your battery.

Buy a new battery

When you have exhausted all of these options and still the PS3 controller is not charging, it may be necessary to buy a new battery. Fortunately you can find replacements online and they should provide you with estimates of their life in terms of how many hours of playtime you will be able to get out of them. PS3 replacement batteries are very cheap when you compare it to buying a brand new controller.

Once you buy the replacement battery you simply need to pop off the casing as described above, and replace the current battery with the new one. Be sure to follow local regulations on the disposal of lithium ion batteries when you dispose of the old one. In some cases Sony may actually exchange your battery or controller for a new one, so if it is still under warranty you may want to contact customer service at this point in time.

PS3 Controller Battery Replacement Tutorial PDF Download

If buying a new battery is not the solution to your problem, you may need to buy a whole new controller. This is why it is important to do a battery swap with a working PS3 controller to determine if the battery is at fault.

This can be very frustrating since the controllers seem as though they should not give out and there may not be any clear problems within them. When you buy a controller, whether new or used, be sure you buy it from a reputable vendor so that you do not end up with an off brand alternative of suspicious quality.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has solved your problem of the ps3 controller not charging and allowed you to get back to Playstation gaming in the least amount of time possible. If you did need to buy a new battery, be sure that you care for it properly!

Try not to let it completely run out of charge.
Do not leave it in an uncharged state for too long as this can damage it.
Do not leave the controller on when not in use.
Most importantly, do not leave the controller in harsh environments;

If left outside in the cold, the battery can freeze and this will damage the lithium ion cell permanently.
Do not leave it in hot temperatures like behind your console.

If your new battery is cared for properly then you should be able to use it for hundreds of hours of gaming in the future. PS3 controllers are not cheap! They can cost as much as a new game itself.

PS3 Controller not Charging When Plugged in

You try to turn on the PS3 controller on and nothing happens, as though the battery is dead. When you plug it in to charge, either no lights come on or four blinking red lights come on. No matter how long you leave it plugged in, the PS3 controller never seems to properly charge and can’t be used.

How to Get Your PS3 Controller Charging

When it comes to dealing with the issue of battery life, there is always a concern that the issue may be with the battery itself and that you will need to replace the battery or even the controller.

Did you know this about your PlayStation?

Connect your PS3 controller to your console

If those other items still charge normally then this suggests that the problem lies within your PS3 controller rather than with the Playstation console as a whole.

Note: Try a shorter USB cable. Long USB cable require more juice to flow from the console to the controller!

Connect you PS3 Controller to Your Computer

Here is a little trick I saw on YouTube. Plug in the controller to a computer or laptop. After the lights come up, unplug the other end from the controller. The PS3 should turn on and the controller should be now synced to it.

Reset Your PS3 Controller

How to determine if your PS3 Controller battery is dead

Sony has a built in was to see if your battery is indeed the problem. Here are the easy steps to see if you have a bad battery:

Turn on the PS3 and wait until you are on the main menu.
Connect your controller to the console via USB cable.
sync up the controller to the gaming system.
On the controller, hold the “PS” button for few seconds.
The controller menu should pop up. This is where you can see the charge level.
If the battery is good, it will show bars inside the battery. If it shows a line instead, there is an issue with the battery.

Check the battery connection

The battery swap

Buy a new battery

Once you buy the replacement battery you simply need to pop off the casing as described above, and replace the current battery with the new one. Be sure to follow local regulations on the disposal of lithium ion batteries when you dispose of the old one. In some cases Sony may actually exchange your battery or controller for a new one, so if it is still under warranty you may want to contact customer service at this point in time.

PS3 Controller Battery Replacement Tutorial PDF Download

If buying a new battery is not the solution to your problem, you may need to buy a whole new controller. This is why it is important to do a battery swap with a working PS3 controller to determine if the battery is at fault.

Conclusion

Hopefully this guide has solved your problem of the ps3 controller not charging and allowed you to get back to Playstation gaming in the least amount of time possible. If you did need to buy a new battery, be sure that you care for it properly!

Try not to let it completely run out of charge.
Do not leave it in an uncharged state for too long as this can damage it.
Do not leave the controller on when not in use.
Most importantly, do not leave the controller in harsh environments;

If left outside in the cold, the battery can freeze and this will damage the lithium ion cell permanently.
Do not leave it in hot temperatures like behind your console.

If your new battery is cared for properly then you should be able to use it for hundreds of hours of gaming in the future. PS3 controllers are not cheap! They can cost as much as a new game itself.

Setting up Playstation Controllers on the Raspberry Pi

If you have ever tried to utilize a Playstation controller with the Raspberry Pi, you may have found it’s not very simple to do. Hopefully, this tutorial will help simplify the process.

Our Raspberry Pi Playstation controller guide will walk you through the process of setting up and connecting both Playstation 3 controllers and Playstation 4 controllers.

For PS3 controllers, we show you how to install the six-pair software and utilize it to set up your PS3 controller so it can connect to whatever Bluetooth device you are using on your Raspberry Pi.

In this PlayStation 4 controller tutorial, we walk you through the process of pairing it with the Raspberry Pi’s Bluetooth and also offer alternative solutions if your controller doesn’t work with the standard Bluetooth stack.

You can also set up Xbox controllers on the Raspberry Pi, as well as several other types of game controllers.

Setting up controllers is the perfect way to have your Pi ready to play some games. You might also be interested in using the controllers in other Raspberry Pi projects that make use of a gamepad.

Equipment List

Below are all the pieces of equipment that I made use of for this setting up Playstation controllers on the Pi tutorial.

Setting up a PS3 Controller on the Raspberry Pi

Setting up a Playstation 3 controller on the Raspberry Pi isn’t an entirely straightforward process. Especially if you intend on using it wirelessly, we will walk you through all the steps to get it up and running in no time.

If you want to use your PS3 Controller wired, you should be able to use it just as a plug and play device.

However, we recommend you go to our section on compiling and installing sixad. Sixad is a piece of software that ensures that all of the PS3 Controllers features are supported.

Before you begin this section of the Raspberry Pi Playstation tutorial make sure that you have a USB mini cable handy as you will require this to pair the controller with the Raspberry Pi. The reason for this is due to the way the PS3 Controller is set up to talk with Bluetooth controllers.

Preparing your PS3 Controller to Connect to the Raspberry Pi

Before we get started with installing anything on our Raspberry Pi, we must first run the following two commands.

These commands will ensure that your Raspberry Pi is up to date.

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade

To begin we first need to install a package, this is so we can compile the sixpair software. This package being the libusb-dev, this is for programs to interact with USB devices.

A New PS3 Controller That’s Actually Good?

sudo apt install libusb-dev

With our required package now installed we can go ahead and download the sixpair code and make a folder for it.

mkdir ~/sixpair cd ~/sixpair wget http://www.pabr.org/sixlinux/sixpair.c

Now with the sixpair code downloaded to our Raspberry Pi, we need to compile it, to do this we can just run the following command.

This command will tell the GCC compiler to compile the code.

gcc.o sixpair sixpair.c.lusb

With Sixpair now compiled on our Raspberry Pi, we need to plug our PS3 Controller into the Raspberry Pi using the USB mini cable.

Once the controller has been plugged in, we can run sixpair by running the command below.

Sixpair will re-configure the controller so that it will talk with our Bluetooth device.

If the sixpair software has successfully reconfigured the PS3 Controller to talk with your Raspberry Pi’s Bluetooth dongle, then you should see something like below appear on your command line.

Current Bluetooth master: b8:27:eb:a4:59:08 Setting master bd_addr to b8:27:eb:a4:59:08

Now at this point, you are required to unplug the PS3 controller from the Raspberry Pi, now the changes have been made we should no longer need to plug your controller in by USB unless your Bluetooth adapter changes.

You now have two options, these being compiling and installing sixad to handle the connection between the PS3 controller or just using the bluetoothctl tool to make a connection to the PS3 Controller.

Personally, we recommend you try using Bluetooth as it is the most compatible with other Bluetooth devices.

Continue to the next section for how to pair your PS3 controller by using Bluetooth. Otherwise, skip to the section after for how to use SIXAD to pair the controller.

Using bluetoothctl to connect your PS3 Controller

With the PS3 Controller now ready to be connected with our Raspberry Pi we can move onto actually pairing it with the Raspberry Pi.

To do this, we need to first start up the Bluetooth configuration tool by running the following command on the Raspberry Pi.

Now that we have launched up the Bluetooth configuration tool, we need to switch the agent on and set it to utilize the default-agent. Just type in the following two commands to do this.

Once we have enabled the agent we now want to actually scan for new Bluetooth devices, running the following command will tell the tool to start scanning.

You will notice immediately that any Bluetooth device in the area will start showing up in your command line.

Ignore these for now as we only want to pay attention to the PS3 controller itself.

Now is the time to press down the Playstation button on the controller, so it begins to talk to the Raspberry Pi. You should soon start to see entries appear in the command line.

Once you see something like the following appear, make sure you copy down the MAC address that is displayed. It is the sequence of text that is separated with ‘:’ symbols.

[NEW] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 B8-27-EB-A4-59-08 [CHG] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 Connected: no [DEL] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 B8-27-EB-A4-59-08

Now that you have a MAC address available copy it down, in our example, this is “ B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 “.

With the MAC address handy you want to use that in the next command. With this following command, we are trying to get a successful connection and a UUID returned by the device.

Please note you may have to run this command a few times before it is successful.

Make sure that you replace “ YOUR_MAC_ADDRESS ” with the one you found in step 7.

Please keep an eye on your Playstation 3 controller, if it stops trying to connect then make sure you press the PS button again.

You will know a successful connection has been made when you see the text as we have shown below appears on the command line. With the UUIDs available we can proceed to the next step.

Attempting to connect to B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 [CHG] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 Modalias: USB:v054Cp0268d0100 [CHG] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 UUIDs: 00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb 00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb

Now that you have the MAC address we need to add this to our Bluetooth trusted list. What this does is allow the controller to connect to the Raspberry Pi on its own.

To do this, we need to just type in the following command to our Raspberry Pi. Make sure that you replace “ YOUR_MAC_ADDRESS ” with the one you found in Step 7.

Once your PS3 controller has been successfully added to the trusted list, you should see something like below appear on the command line.

[CHG] Device B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 Trusted: yes Changing B8:27:EB:A4:59:08 trust succeeded

With your PS3 controller now successfully connected to your Raspberry Pi, we can now quit out of the Bluetooth configuration tool.

To quit out of the tool you can either use the command below or just press CTRL D.

Now you can restart the Raspberry Pi. We do this so we can test to make sure everything is working as intended. Run the following command to reboot the Raspberry Pi.

With the Raspberry Pi now restarted, press the PS button on your controller to test the connection between it and the Raspberry Pi.

The LED’s on the controller should briefly flash as it connects, afterward however if everything has worked correctly only one LED should remain lit on the controller.

Using SIXAD to Connect your PS3 Controller

Before we get started with compiling and setting up SIXAD on our Raspberry Pi, we must first install a few packages that we require.

The essential packages here are libusb-dev and libbluetooth-dev as they contain the code that we need to compile the sixad software.

Libusb-dev contains code that allows us to interact with USB devices that are plugged into the computer through code.

Libbluetooth-dev provides the code required to be able to interact with the operating systems Bluetooth stack. In sixad’s case this is used to detect when a PS3 device is connected to the Raspberry Pi.

sudo apt install git libbluetooth-dev checkinstall libusb-dev sudo apt install joystick pkg-config

Now that we have all the packages that we could need let’s go ahead and clone the SIXAD repository from Retropie, the reason we use Retropie’s fork is that it has a few improvements and is tested on the Raspberry Pi.

Run the following two lines on your Raspberry Pi to clone the GIT repository.

cd ~ git clone https://github.com/RetroPie/sixad.git

With the repository now cloned to our Raspberry Pi, we can now move onto actually compiling it. Compiling SIXAD is simple to do and just requires to run the following two commands.

The first command moves us into the folder, the second line runs the makefile and compiles the program.

Now with the sixad software now compiled there are a couple more things to be done before we can use it.

The first of these is to make a folder where sixad keeps track of all its profiles.

Run the following command to create a folder for it.

sudo mkdir.p /var/lib/sixad/profiles

Finally lets run the checkinstall package that we installed in step 1 of this section.

Basically what this tool does is check the current install then proceeds to run the commands “ make install ” if they are required.

At specific points, you will be asked a few things, ignore these and just press ENTER to continue until the installation is complete.

Once the installation is complete, you should see the following appear in your command line.

Done. The new package has been installed and saved to /home/pi/sixad/sixad_20171230-1_armhf.deb You can remove it from your system anytime using: dpkg.r sixad

Now that we have finished installing sixad we can finally run it by typing the following command in on our Raspberry Pi.

If everything is working as intended, you will now be asked to press the PS button on your controller. Do this now to connect your controller to your Raspberry Pi.

Now that we know that sixad is up and running we want to make sure that it starts at boot so we can always connect our PS 3 controller.

To do this, we can run the following command to add sixad to the boot sequence of the Raspberry Pi.

sudo update-rc.d sixad defaults

Setting up a Playstation 4 Controller On the Raspberry Pi

There are a few different ways you can utilize your Playstation 4 controller with your Raspberry Pi. Some of these are simpler to deal with than others.

Sony USB Wireless Adapter

The Sony USB Wireless Adapter is probably the easiest solution to getting your PlayStation 4 controller paired with the Raspberry Pi. Especially since the dongle should be able to work out of the box and pair with any official PlayStation 4 Controllers.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a bit more complicated than just using the official Sony USB Wireless adapter and requires you to have a Raspberry Pi 3, Raspberry Pi Zero W, or a USB Bluetooth adapter.

However, this method does not work correctly for every PlayStation 4 controller, and you may have to end up utilizing a userspace controller driver called ds4drv to be able to interact with it.

Please note that if you previously set up the SIXAD tool, you will have to uninstall it to use your PlayStation 4 controller with the Raspberry Pi.

USB Cable

Using a USB Cable is the easiest way to utilize your PlayStation 4 Controller, just plug it in with a Micro USB cable like you would when first connecting your controller to the PlayStation 4 itself.

Using the USB connection, the PlayStation 4 controller should just work straight off the bat.

Pairing your PlayStation 4 Controller via BluetoothCTL

Please note that if you previously followed our guide on connecting a PS3 controller to your Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth, you will have to follow the next couple of steps. Otherwise, skip to step 2 of this section.

The reason for having to remove SIXAD is that it seems to conflict with the Playstation 4 controllers and does not allow them to pair and function correctly.

To uninstall the sixad package that we compiled and installed in our PS3 section we need to just run the following command on the Raspberry Pi.

Now before we get to set up everything lets make sure our Raspberry Pi is entirely up to date by running the following two commands on it.

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade

Now let’s begin the process of pairing our PlayStation 4 controller with our Raspberry Pi. For this guide, we will be using the Bluetooth command line tool.

Run the following command on your Raspberry Pi to start it up.

With the bluetoothctl tool now up we need to run the following two commands in it, this we enable the agent and set the agent to the default.

Now that we have enabled the agent we can finally start scanning for devices. Switching scan on is crucial as it will show up our controller when we tell it to start syncing.

Now is the time to press both your “Share” button and PS button on your controller at the same time like shown in the diagram below. Hold these till the light on your controller starts flashing.

You should see something like below appear on your command line, once you see this, make a note of the MAC address.

The MAC address is the hexadecimal number separated by the ‘:‘ symbol.

[NEW] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E Wireless Controller

In this case, the MAC Address is “00:01:6C:B4:06:7E“.

While your controller is still flashing, type in the following command. Make sure that you replace “YOUR_MAC_ADDRESS” with the MAC address that you got in Step 8. This command makes a connection with your PlayStation 4 controller.

If your controller stops flashing just press the “Share” and “PS” buttons again.

Upon a successful connection, you should see the following appear in your command line.

Attempting to connect to 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E [CHG] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E Connected: yes [CHG] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E UUIDs: 00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb [CHG] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E UUIDs: 00001200-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb [CHG] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E ServicesResolved: yes [CHG] Device 00:01:6C:B4:06:7E Paired: yes Connection successful

Now we need to add our MAC address to the trusted list so the PlayStation 4 controller can automatically connect to the Raspberry Pi.

With the PlayStation 4 controller now trusted by the Raspberry Pi’s Bluetooth device, we can now quit out of the tool by pressing CTRL D or typing in “ quit “.

We can now proceed on to testing whether the controller is working.

Let’s now install the joystick package, while this comes with some installations of Raspbian we will run the install command just in case. This package includes the applications we need to be able to test whether our controller is working correctly.

Run the following Linux command on your Raspberry Pi to install the software.

sudo apt install joystick

With the joystick package now installed to your Raspberry Pi you can now run the following command, this will test js0 and receive the values back from it.

Now if values change when you move and press buttons on your controller, then you are ready to go with your PlayStation 4 controller, and you can finish the tutorial here.

However, if your controller refuses to work, you may have to try the alternative way and utilize the userspace driver, follow our guide in the next section below.

Using ds4driv to connect the PlayStation 4 Controller to the Raspberry Pi

Only utilize this option if standard Bluetooth doesn’t work at all. This method makes use of a userspace driver that talks with the controller and allow it to be understood by the Raspberry Pi.

You will need to of already paired your PlayStation 4 controller with your Raspberry Pi before you can continue with the following steps.

To begin, we need to install the packages we require for ds4drv. To install the necessary python3 components run the following command on your Raspberry Pi.

sudo apt install python3-dev python3-pip

With the required python packages now installed to the Raspberry Pi, we can use pip to grab ds4drv and the python libraries necessary for it. Run the following command to use pip3 to install it.

Lets now setup the Raspberry Pi so non-root users can gain access to the joystick device that ds4drv creates, to do this run the following three commands on your Raspberry Pi. These commands download the ruleset then applies them.

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chrippa/ds4drv/master/udev/50-ds4drv.rules.O /etc/udev/rules.d/50-ds4drv.rules sudo udevadm control.-reload-rules sudo udevadm trigger

Now while your Playstation 4 controller is still paired to the Raspberry Pi, we can run the following command to see if ds4drv can read and interact with your controller.

sudo ds4drv.-hidraw.-led 000008

Once you see text like below appear on your command line, that means that ds4drv can see and talk with your PlayStation 4 controller that is paired with the Raspberry Pi.

[info][controller 1] Connected to Bluetooth Controller (00:01:6C:B4:06:7E hidraw5) [info][hidraw] Scanning for devices [info][controller 1] Battery: Fully charged

Now quit out of ds4drv by pressing CTRL C.

We need to modify the bootup script now, so it automatically launches ds4drv at startup. To begin doing this run the following command on the Raspberry Pi.

Now we need to add the following line to this file. This line will launch ds4drv when the Raspberry Pi boots up.

/usr/local/bin/ds4drv.-hidraw.-led 000008

Once you have made the changes, you can save the file by pressing CTRL X then Y then hitting ENTER.

You can now restart the Raspberry Pi to test whether it is starting up correctly. Do this by running the following command.

Once your Raspberry Pi has rebooted, you can now use the following command to test whether everything is working. If the numbers change then everything is working as it should.

Conclusions

Hopefully, by the end of this guide, you have your Raspberry Pi up and running with your Playstation controllers successfully connecting to it.

Be sure to also check out some of our other game tutorials for the Pi such as Parsec streaming. If you have any feedback or need assistance with this guide, then feel free to drop a comment below.

Sources:

https://www.digitalcare.org/ps3-controller-on-mac/
https://vkrepair.com/ps3-controller-not-charging/?amp=1
https://vkrepair.com/ps3-controller-not-charging/?amp=1
https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-Playstation-controllers/