Re: [PATCH v1 7/7] HID: playstation: DS4: Add VID/PID for SZ-MYPOWER controllers

[Max Staudt]

On 1/25/24 10:03, Roderick Colenbrander wrote:
> I'm not familiar with this device, but if it indeed works. Then I'm
> okay with it.

Thanks!


I've just tried this patch on real hardware again, and there's a tradeoff here - it improves the situation for one 7545:0104 controller, and worsens it for another.

Up to you, and if you don't want to think about it, then let's shelve this patch :)



Details follow, if you're curious.


I have two controllers with VID/PID 7545:0104, and they're both very quirky multi-emulation devices. One is shaped like a PS4 controller, the other like a hybrid between a PS4 and a Switch controller. Since these controllers exhibit all of the USB related quirks in this series, I've kept them as reproducers. Other controllers that passed through my hands only had a subset of the quirks.

Up until now, both controllers worked with hid-sony as PS3 controllers. With this patch, the PS4 controller gains LED support and fine-grained control of the weak rumble motor. The "Switch (?) controller" on the other hand errors out, becomes 0079:181c, and loses the Home key and the accelerometer. This is a user facing change, and the question is how much we really care about these controllers.



More details, if you're still reading:


Both are "multi-purpose" controllers, appearing as PS4/PS3/Switch/other controllers in sequence. They advertise themselves as one USB device, and if there is no driver sending whatever init sequence they expect, they disconnect and try emulating a different controller.

The PS4 controller has rumble and an RGB LED, and this patch series improves its functionality. It cannot emulate a Switch controller.

The Switch (?) controller has no rumble and four multicolour player LEDs, but it adds Switch compatibility including accelerometer and gyro.


For the PS4 mode, which is the first that they try, and which would unify most functions, they use 7545:0104 instead of cloning a DS4 VID/PID. So I took a guess and found that it works fine with hid-playstation if I add the VID/PID and the init quirks in patches 2/3/4. Well, to be precise, I've only made the DS4 shaped one work in PS4 mode, the Switch controller isn't happy and errors out, see below.


On the PS4 controller, this makes the RGB LED work, rumble works, but the gyro and touchpad don't send HID updates. The touchpad can click though, so maybe the controller I have has a hardware defect.

The Switch (?) controller is where things get weird. It disconnects, even though it is initialised by hid-playstation, and transitions into a generic controller with VID/PID 0079:181c. This mode is *not* on the list of emulations it usually tries. It's as if the "unfinished" PS4 initialisation transitions it into a hidden fifth emulation mode. In this mode, the home key does not send any HID event, and there are no accelerometer updates that hid-sony would receive in PS3 mode.


So, with this patch, the PS4 controller works better on Linux, while the Switch controller works worse. Both were seen as PS3 controllers up until now. I see no way to discern them at driver probe time.

Any preference on what to do...?



Max