How to interface with a PS3 controller (in Bluetooth mode)?

Wireless & IoT
1

At RoboGames this year, I found that most of the humanoid robot builders were controlling their bots with off-the-shelf PS3 controllers over Bluetooth.

However, the people I talked to about this in more detail were using a Gumstix and a full Linux stack, probably with something like [this procedure for communicating with the PS3 controller. I’m looking for something smaller and dedicated, just like the BlueSMIRF modules or other slave BT modules, where you have an antenna on one end and serial signals come out the other. But I need it to work as the master, so that it can connect to the PS3 controller acting as the slave.

Does anybody know whether it’s possible to configure the BlueSMIRF, or any other similar gadget, to do this job?

Thanks,

— Joe

P.S. I did write to SparkFun tech support, but they pretty much shrugged and suggested that I ask here.](Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux)

2

Following up my own post with some new information. As pointed out by phishguy in [this post, most BT modules can be configured to act as either master or slave. I dug out the BlueSMIRF manual and confirmed that it has three different master modes (differing in how the connection is established and broken).

So, as soon as I get a little time to experiment, I’ll try simply configuring one of these in master mode and pairing it with the PS3 controller. It may be as simple as that.](http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?p=75549#75549)

3

…But it’s not. PS3 controllers use the HID protocol, which RN BlueTooth modules (on which BlueSMIRF is based) do not support. :frowning: