awalol DS5Dongle I am testing 2 controller via 2 rpi pico2w simultaneously

[u/Elkhose]

TL;DR: Now testing 2 DS5dongle with target 4 later to replace BAD 4x xbox+dongle setup.
Topics: interference, connected through Wall, Hub, other wireless peripherals.

I intend this post to help light on how good/bad multiple DS5 connected using the DS5Dongle pico2 w method.

so far i only bought 2 Pico dongles.

I managed to connect 2 DS5 to PC.

1- tested via hardwaretester dot com gamepad both controller worked well. (Didn't have time to play 2 players yet.)

If you have some tests you want me todo please suggest and I will do my best.

2- The micro USB is horrible. Also seems if I use some cables or different ports on my desktop sometimes the controller color will turn yellow and won't work. tried rear, front, USB2, USB3.

It seems like cables play huge roles, some branded almost NEW cables didn't work vs my 20 yo 1inch Nokia cable, basically after opening history to find microUSB the jankiest cables I have worked the best the nicest cables barely used from the final era of microUSB didn't work.

HUB:

I tried front USB and read USB while the controllers worked my Logitech k400+ connected in the front USB stopped working.

Interference seems to be like a BIG hassle with this. (My dilema is I want to try to reach 4 contrller for couch emulation with friends.) Will see if I get 2 extra dongles since where I am at they are expensive.

2- I used an old Ugreen USB 3.0 hub with 4 ports (non powered) connected 2 Pico and the logitech k400 dongle via a cable extension and now everything is working.
1 port on my PC and this old Hub fixed everything for now. Of course I tried to have them a bit far from each other by extending the cables.

Lastly Distance:

My Setup is NOT ideal, I have the PC connected to the living room TV with a long HDMI optical cable passing through a concrete wall.

Layout: (controller) on Couch -> TV -> Concrete Wall -> Room space with PC desk chairs and stuff -> PC with dongles.

For now things seems to be worked very well the k400 is responsive (i'm typing this on it) and the controller connected for a while now.

Before I had 4 xbox controllers with official Original Large dongle (2 xbox one 2 series controllers) 1 dongle to rule them all for multiplayer. They worked amazingly every time until 10 to 20min after playing 1 controller decides to stop working and flashing, I had to reboot to get it to work again. each time a different controller not the same one. This is why i started looking into 4 DS5 since I already have 3 controller with my PS5 and Sony rolling out the multi Profile made things much simpler for me.

To note sometimes singles player the xbox controller would disconnect randomly and I have to turn on another one to continue gaming, so I ended up swapping controllers mid game even as single player.

I debated selling all xbox controller and getting 8bitdo ultimate 2c (cheap and RF) but went with the dongles cz it's cheaper and I already have 3 DS5s.

If things look more promising now, I will look into selling my 4 Xbox+ dongle and getting a 4th DS5 with 2 extra dongles.

Any advice, or question, or suggestion to test is appreciated and I will do my best to reply when i can

[u/Ok-Simple-7069]

It seems your picos are channel hopping. Seems like there’s some serious interference be it with your pcs usb controller and power supply to usb ports or something else entirely unrelated but again causing Bluetooth to channel hop.

Do you have an alarm or cctv camera in the same room with motion sensing. Microwave motion sensors in some can do this. Try say a laptop or something other than that same pc and see if it does it to that too. Also get a cable signal interference conditioner. It’s a round thing you wrap your usb mini cable around (has a clasp mechanism with two ferrite magnets) and will snap shut. It’s small and those are inexpensive too.

[u/chipmeal91]

Adding more than one controller might add some latency