Skip to content

How to pair a DualShock 3 (sixaxis) & Motion Controller

The DualShock 3 gamepad does not implement the entire Bluetooth stack. It requires "manual pairing" in order to work.

Manual pair

Fetch the ESP32 / Pico W Bluetooth Address

  • Connect a terminal to the ESP32 / Pico W using 115200 baud 8N1.

  • Watch the logs. You should see something like:

Bluepad32 (C) 2016-2020 Ricardo Quesada and contributors.
Firmware version: v2.0.0-beta
BTStack: Copyright (C) 2017 BlueKitchen GmbH.
Dual port / 1-button mode enabled
Gap security level: 0
BTstack up and running at CC:50:E3:AF:E2:96     <------ THIS IS THE BLUETOOTH ADDRESS
Btstack ready!

In this example, the BT address is "CC:50:E3:AF:E2:96".

Plug in the DS3 gamepad

Plug in the DS3 gamepad to your PC. Should work on all Linux, Mac and Windows, although I only tested it on Linux.

Pair DS3

Install HIDAPI. For Debian-based OSs, do:

$ sudo apt install libhidapi-dev

On Gentoo Linux run:

sudo emerge dev-libs/hidapi

On macOS run:

brew install hidapi

on macOS you will also have to modify the Makefile to look like so

INCLUDES := -I/opt/homebrew/Cellar/hidapi/0.13.1/include
LIBS := -L/opt/homebrew/Cellar/hidapi/0.13.1/lib -lhidapi

sixaxispairer: sixaxispairer.o
    ${CC} $^ $(LIBS) -o $@

sixaxispairer.o: sixaxispairer.c
    ${CC} -c $(INCLUDES) $< -o $@

clean:
    rm sixaxispairer sixaxispairer.o

I got the INCLUDES and LIBS paths using pkg-config --cflags hidapi and pkg-config --libs hidapi respectively (note how I went up to the parent directory in the include)

For Windows: I don't know, you are in your own.

  • Compile the "sixaxis pairer":
cd bluepad32/tools
make sixaxispairer
sudo ./sixaxispairer XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  # Following our example, it should be CC:50:E3:AF:E2:96

Pair Motion Controller / Navigator

Use PS Move API. E.g.:

# To list the connected devices to your Linux machine
$ sudo psmove list

# To list the connected devices to your Linux machine
$ sudo psmove pair XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX  # Following our example, it should be CC:50:E3:AF:E2:96

Unplug DS3 from computer

Unplug the DS3 gamepad from your computer and press the "Play" button on the DS3 to establish a connection with the ESP32. It might take a few seconds (perhaps more than 10 seconds) to establish the connection.