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https://github.com/gdsports/NSGadget_Pi

Raspberry Pi impersonates Nintendo Switch controller
https://github.com/gdsports/NSGadget_Pi

adafruit arduino deepspeech nintendo-switch nintendo-switch-gamepad pinball raspberry-pi trinket-m0 usb-controller voice-control

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Raspberry Pi impersonates Nintendo Switch controller

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README 

        
# Raspberry Pi Impersonates Nintendo Switch Controller



Adapt various USB gamepads, flight control sticks, and fight sticks for use

with the Nintendo Switch (NS) console. All controllers are active but are seen

by the console as one controller so co-pilot mode is always active.



```

                  Buttons

                     |

                     v

USB Controllers -> Raspberry Pi -> NSGadget -> Nintendo Switch

                     ^

                     |

                  Buttons

```



See [README_pinball.md](./README_pinball.md) for more details on this test configuration.



![Pinball System](./images/pinball_system_small.jpg)



See [README_fs17.md](./README_fs17.md) for a custom Farming Simulator controller using a MIDI keyboard.



![USB MIDI keyboard controlling Farming Simulator on Nintendo Switch](./images/farm_sim_midi_small.jpg)



See [README_gpio.md](./README_gpio.md) for a GPIO break out board.



![Pi2 with GPIO break out board](./images/pi2_gpio_small.jpg)



See [README_voice.md](./README_voice.md) for adding a voice assistant. The

Speech-To-Text engine Deep Speech works offline so no Internet connection is

needed. This also eliminates privacy concerns with a live microphone. The

audio is never sent outside the Raspberry Pi. Deep Speech needs a fast CPU

so a Raspberry Pi 4 is best. A Pi 3+ is about half as fast so the delays

are noticeable.



## USB Controllers



The following USB controllers are supported. The drivers are all included so

nothing needs to be installed.



* Hori HoriPad Nintendo Switch compatible gamepad

* Microsoft Xbox One gamepad

* Sony PS4 DS gamepad

* Logitech Extreme 3D Pro flight control stick

* Thrustmaster T.16000M flight control stick

* Dragon Rise arcade fight stick/joystick



jstest-gtk is a very handy utility to understand controller axes and buttons

numbering. This is essential to map axes and buttons to the NS controller.



```

sudo apt install jstest-gtk

```



## USB NSGadget



NSGadget is an Adafruit Trinket M0 emulating an NS compatible gamepad. The UART

connection between the Pi and NSGadget runs at 2 Mbits/sec. The UART device

name is /dev/ttyAMA0.



|Trinket M0 |Raspberry Pi

|-----------|------------

|BAT        |5V0

|Gnd        |Gnd

|TX(4)      |D14(RXD)

|RX(3)      |D15(TXD)



The firmware/ directory has the firmware.



Compiled programs can be burned into the Trinket M0 just by dragging and

dropping a UF2 file on to the Trinket M0 USB drive. There is no need to install

the Arduino IDE, source code, or USB serial device driver.



* Download the UF2 file of your choice.

* Plug in the Trinket M0 to the computer.

* Double tap the Trinket M0 reset button.

* When the TRINKETBOOT USB drive appears, drop the UF2 file on to the drive.

* Wait a few seconds until the Trinket M0 reboots.



## Prepare the Pi



Install Raspbian Buster Lite or Desktop. Update to the latest version.



```

sudo apt update

sudo apt full-upgrade

sudo reboot

```



### Prepare /dev/ttyAMA0



If the Pi has built-in Bluetooth (Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4, Pi zero W) disable

Bluetooth to free up the PL011 UART.



The following is from /boot/overlays/README.



```

Name:   disable-bt

Info:   Disable onboard Bluetooth on Pi 3B, 3B+, 3A+, 4B and Zero W, restoring

        UART0/ttyAMA0 over GPIOs 14 & 15.

        N.B. To disable the systemd service that initialises the modem so it

        doesn't use the UART, use 'sudo systemctl disable hciuart'.

Load:   dtoverlay=disable-bt

```



```

sudo systemctl disable hciuart

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

```

Add `dtoverlay=disable-bt` as the last line of config.txt. Save and exit.



Turn off the login shell on /dev/ttyAMA0. This is necessary even if the Pi does

not have Bluetooth.



```

sudo raspi-config

```



* Select `Interfacing Options`.

* Select `P6 Serial`.

* Disable the login shell.

* Enable the serial interface.

* Exit raspi-config



```

sudo reboot

```



## Software



The Python3 program nsac.py holds all the parts together. Once it opens the

UART, it spins up a thread for each USB controller and a thread to monitor the

buttons connected to GPIO pins.



```

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-serial python3-gpiozero python3-mido

git clone https://github.com/gdsports/NSGadget_Pi

cd NSGadget_Pi

./nsac.py

```



nsgpadserial.py provides an interface to the NS Gadget device.



## Appliance Mode



If you do not want to login to run nsac.py and are not interested in changing

it, try appliance mode. In appliance mode, nsac.py runs on power up. Also the

file system is set for read-only mode so powering off without shutting down

should not corrupt the microSD card.



### Automatically run nsac.py



```

crontab -e

```



Add the following line to the end of the file. The small shell script starts

nsac.py at power/restart in a loop (just in case it crashes).



```

@reboot              nohup /home/pi/NSGadget_Pi/nsac.sh >/dev/null 2>&1 &

```



### Enable read-only file system to prevent microSD card corruption



```

sudo raspi-config

```



* Select `7 Advanced Options`.

* Select `AB Overlay FS` to enable overlay file system (read-only) and write-protect boot partition.

* Exit and reboot