fp.

I had two old USB gamepads lying around that I wanted to use, but my computer is too far from the couch, so I wrote a little ESP32-S3 firmware that turns USB gamepads into Bluetooth ones.

You connect your gamepad to the ESP32-S3 with an OTG cable, power the ESP32 with either 5V somehow or a powered USB hub, and now you can pair the controller via Bluetooth to your PC!

Comments

atmanactive•3d ago

... and the latency is?

stavros•3d ago

I didn't notice any higher latency than with my Xbox one controller!

atmanactive•3d ago

I guess the easiest way to measure this would be to run some gamepad test program on the target device, and then to record a video from your phone close to the gamepad but still with the screen visible. Then flick a button hard with your finger so that the gamepad button makes a click sound. Then load the video into a video editing software, zoom-in, and measure the number of video frames between the click sound and the reaction on the screen.

stavros•2h ago

I agree this is the way to do it, but for an old cheapo gamepad, "it feels fine" was good enough for me at this stage.

schappim•2h ago

This is a clever and practical hack!

Love the decoupled arch / making it easy to tweak for different controllers.

Nice work!

stavros•2h ago

Thanks! I liked how the hardware is really easy to make, I just soldered a USB port to an ESP32-S3 and that was it!

p2detar•2h ago

Awesome project. With the current price of DRAM, I've been looking at the possibility to do some side projects with ESP32 as opposed to RPi. As a complete newbie, could you help me by recommending where I could start from, i.e., Software, tools, docs? Thanks.

stavros•2h ago

I use the Arduino framework and PlatformIO to make the flashing/dependency management part easier. Other than that, the Arduino docs are great, and LLMs can help you with learning anything specific, so it's really a great time to get started!

Tade0•2h ago

I like how readable the code is. I don't write anything in C++ nowadays, but it's clear enough for me to follow.

stavros•2h ago

Ah, I can't really take credit for that, it was mostly multiple LLMs.

latexr•2h ago

So did you really write this, as claimed in the title, or did you vibe code it? If the latter, how much of the code did you review? How much of it do you understand and could rewrite by hand if necessary? How much of it are you confident you can find and fix bugs and exploits in?

stavros•2h ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Df191WJ3o

lobsterthief•1h ago

I mean, these are fair questions if you’re the library maintainer :)

stavros•1h ago

Before LLMs, did you ask maintainers how much of the code they wrote themselves, vs how much of it did someone else write, and how well they reviewed the code? Because I haven't seen this ever, everyone just went by "does this library work for me? If not, I'll fix it or stop using it".

It's only now, with LLMs, and particularly on HN that we're so all up in arms about authorship all of a sudden.

latexr•1h ago

> and how well they reviewed the code?

Yes! It’s insane to not worry about how well a maintainer reviews submitted code. Every semi-competent open-source developer understands that merging code they do not understand is a recipe for disaster and maintenance burden. Furthermore, they understand that not doing so is how you get malicious vulnerabilities merged. Have you truly not seen any such cases in recent memory? The fact you don’t think good reviews are important is worrying and puts into question all your repos.

stavros•1h ago

I regret sharing this, that's for sure.

Zetaphor•30m ago

I appreciate you taking the time to make this exist. Ignore the folks who just want to complain instead of bringing their own solution into existence.

stavros•26m ago

Thank you!

Zetaphor•31m ago

You could always just not use it. Or better yet go write a replacement yourself by hand and make a direct comparison.

vmasto•1h ago

Can you explain why it makes a difference what the answers are?

When using an open source library assumptions should be:

- The code does what it advertises.

- The owner is responsible for the functionality.

- The owner's reputation is based on the quality.

You're making it sound that you're more sure for the above when the code is "hand-written" than LLM-driven. Why exactly? Do you tend to deeply understand the strengths and limitations of every coder whose software you're using in your projects?

As long as the owner is responsible for the quality of a project why does it matter how it was executed?

latexr•1h ago

> Can you explain why it makes a difference what the answers are?

You answered it yourself:

> the owner is responsible for the quality of a project

If you didn’t write, review, or understand the code, then you cannot be responsible for its quality. If you don’t have the skills to write it by hand and understand it, you don’t have to skills to properly address bug reports or understand and prevent malicious submissions.

All of those are legitimate concerns and considerations when deciding if you want to invest your time in a project.

Honestly, if the author had responded “I vibe coded it and didn’t review any of it, but it’s been working for me for <however long>”, that would’ve been fine. It would have been a clear, honest answer that would let everyone decide how they want to proceed.

stavros•43m ago

No, I disagree with the premise, that's why I don't want to answer. I am responsible for the quality of the project by virtue of publishing it, not because I wrote it in a way you agree or disagree with. Your questions are irrelevant. The only thing that's relevant is whether my name is on the repo or not.

If I didn't think it's good enough to release, I'd say something like "I vibe-coded this and didn't check it, use at your own peril". How much of the code I understand and how much an LLM wrote is entirely irrelevant.

latexr•1h ago

If you think that asking “how much of this thing you claim to have written did you actually write and understand” is comparable to the Spanish Inquisition, it seems fair to assume that you probably wrote and understand close to nothing of it. Thank you for clarifying.

stavros•1h ago

Yes this makes sense.

latexr•1h ago

Surely you’re doing nothing to dispel the notion. If it isn’t true, say it. My questions were genuine, I don’t understand your defensiveness. Either you understand the code or you don’t. There are people who will be fine with it and use it anyway, and people who won’t be and will use something else. But they all will benefit (and temper expectations) from an honest answer.

Zetaphor•34m ago

If _you_ can read the code, and it's of reasonable quality (I can and this code appears to be), then what exactly is the point of this argument?

Before the authors work, however you choose to define that word, this did not exist. Now it does, and it isn't slop. Why then does it matter how it came into existence?

This feels like a petty attempt to diminish the fact that someone just gave us a piece of useful open source software.

lexz0r•18m ago

my favourite thing about the present is how entirely people have lost their minds with LLM-augmented work, to the point that they'll openly interrogate people who have obviously been writing software for three decades about how much of their personal project's boilerplate is TrUlY ThEiRs.

if someone chooses to use an LLM in 2025 and they're not fresh out of boot, it's simply good manners to assume that they're doing so responsibly and transparently.

i think the most annoying thing of all is when people openly volunteer that they have used an LLM to write something and it opens up a front of ideological warfare for people who are simply terrified of losing their livelihoods.

to quote garth: LIVE IN THE NOWWWW

gkhartman•1h ago

I had a quick thought to do something like this a while back, but never got around to the experimental phase. I ended up buying a new controller instead (whilst grumbling about making an adapter). Thanks for making it happen, and being kind enough to open source it. Looking forward to giving it a try later.

stavros•1h ago

Yeah, I was between buying a new controller or making this too, but I figure it's a perfectly fine controller and I had the hardware lying around.

It doesn't work perfectly, as there are some HID intricacies that need to be remapped, and I don't have a second controller to see whether the intricacies are general or just specific to mine, but let me know if it works for you!