Support for Speedlink Competition Pro Extra USB joystick

[x48x4b]

Please add support for the Speedlink Competition Pro Extra USB joystick.

See related discussion on

https://github.com/randyrossi/bmc64/issues/277

Thanks in advance!

[rsta2]

We could run some tests on your Raspberry Pi. I send you a kernel image to be installed on your BMC64 SD card, and you take a photo from the screen and send it here, if you like. I need to know, which RPi model you have?

[x48x4b]

Thanks a lot! Your proposal is very fine for me. I run my BMC64 installation on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (is that accurate enough?) I guess you, will tell me how to boot into this test kernel.

[rsta2]

Attached is the first test program. It is the sample/27-usbgamepad from the Circle repo. Please rename the file kernel8-32.img on your BMC64 SD card to something else, so that you can restore it later, and then extract the file in the attached .zip archive and put the kernel8-32.img file on the SD card. Start your RPi with the SD card with the joystick attached.

What happens? Normally the joystick should be detected and when you press some button or move a control, the current state should be shown in a log line. After testing this please start again and take a photo from the log messages, displayed on initialization.

After the test rename the file, you have renamed at the beginning back to kernel8-32.img to restore your BMC64 installation.

If it does not work with the BMC64 SD card or you don't want to touch it, you can also clone the Circle repo, go to the boot/ directory and enter make there. This will download the necessary firmware files. Put them on an empty SD card along with the kernel8-32.img file from the attached archive and start your RPi with this SD card.

kernel8-32.zip

[x48x4b]

Hello & thank you for your effort!

I did it:

1. After first boot: "IMG_20240922_171008.jpg"

2. After second boot I did not see any "log messages".

I saw a rather similar output than after first boot. Also I operated the joystick ("IMG_20240922_171100.jpg" ) and a button ("IMG_20240922_171300.jpg").

In my opinion this is reflected in the screen output.

Best regards

HK

[rsta2]

Thanks for testing! From your images one can see, that your joystick is detected and it sends status reports. We can also see some reaction in the shown values, when a button or axis is operated. It would be interesting, if all controls show a reaction in the values, which make sense. "Buttons" is a bitmap, where each bit refers to one button. There are four "Axes" (0-255), where 128 should be the default position. I cannot say, what the "Hats" value refers to.

What I can say is, that the mapping of this joystick is not compatible to the standard mapping of the PS3 or XBox gamepads for example, of course. So it would need a special handling by BMC64. I did read in the BMC64 Issues, that there are different versions of this joystick. I don't know, if they have different vendor/device ID combinations. If not, how should BMC64 be able to detect the different versions to apply different mappings? If the general function of the joystick is OK (as questioned in the first paragraph), there is nothing I can do about it. Unfortunately I also don't know, how BMC64 handles gamepads without standard mapping.

[x48x4b]

Thanks a lot, I have commented in https://github.com/randyrossi/bmc64/issues/277

Best regards

[x48x4b]

BTW: I would appreciate if you could look into my last two posts in https://github.com/randyrossi/bmc64/issues/277

One possibility would be, that "circle" detects the joystick, but does not report it in the "devicenameservice".

[rsta2]

The test program, you have tried, uses the same method to detect the gamepad. If there would be no entry in the device name service, your joystick wouldn't work with it.

But I think BMC64 uses a much older release of Circle. How I can see this it's Circle 40. There may have been important changes to the gamepad drivers since then. I built the test program again with this Circle version, and you can try with it, if your joystick is also detected there. If not, it would be a problem, which was fixed in the meantime in Circle.

If you want to try this with your own SD card (not with the BMC64 installation) make sure, that you do git checkout Step40 before running make in the boot/ subdirectory of Circle. The firmware must fit to the sent kernel image.

kernel8-32.zip

[x48x4b]

Thanks a lot again!

I directly used your test kernel in my BMC installation, with renaming the old one etc. as yesterday.

And indeed the output is red: "Gampepad not found" (see enclosed picture).

What would you do now?

Do you think the BMC64 would make a new release? Or should I make a new BMC64 build myself?

[rsta2]

You are welcome.

You have to ask this in the BMC64 project. In any case BMC64 must be rebuild, if you want to use your joystick. Not sure, but I guess its this commit, which could fix the detection problem. Perhaps it's easier to try to only apply this patch before build, but to update the whole Circle version.

[x48x4b]

Thanks a lot!

1. How and where would you apply the patch?

2. I am just trying to build BMC64. I have come pretty far with it.

But now I am stuck with this, after lengthy build output

... checking for lex library... not found configure: WARNING: required lex library not found; giving up on flex checking for library containing yywrap... no configure: error: Could not find either flex or lex! make[1]: [Makefile:495: config.status] Fehler 1 make[1]: Verzeichnis „/home/hwkramer/Downloads/make_bmc64/bmc64/third_party/vice-3.3“ wird verlassen make: [Makefile:1845: ../config.status] Fehler 2

[rsta2]

From BMC64 project root enter:

cd third_party/circle-stdlib/libs/circle
git pull
git checkout -b gamepad-fix
git cherry-pick e82c08ebf8d3f1
edit lib/usb/usbdevice.cpp        # fix the merge conflict in the file header
git add lib/usb/usbdevice.cpp
git cherry-pick --continue

How it looks, you need the flex package installed on your machine. But I'm not a BMC64 expert.

[x48x4b]

Thank you!

On my Fedora 40 machine there is Flex 2.6.4. The BMC64 build expects 2.6.3. There is a known issue about. I could fix that and build a working "kernel8-32.img" from the BMC64 sources. However it seems, that I still have the old "circle" version. (I just did a "git clone" from the BMC64 repo.)

Is your above patching procedure to make sure that I have the current "circle" version in the build path?

[rsta2]

This procedure only applies the patch, referenced above, to the Circle version, which is currently used by BMC64, in the hope that it fixes the joystick problem. Everything else remains the same. Using the current Circle version 47 is probably not that simple, because of a few potential API breaking modifications in Circle in the meantime. Please note, that I'm not familiar with the BMC64 build process. I only had a quick look, where Circle is in the source code tree.

[x48x4b]

Again, I was able to build a working "kernel8-32.img" from the BMC64 sources. This time with the patched version of "usbdevice.cpp". Unfortunately, the joystick was still not detected in my BMC64 installation.

[rsta2]

OK, that's not nice, but it was only a guess. There can be more relevant modifications in the meantime. Now it's getting complicated. As I can see it, they are patching several components of circle-stdlib and Circle in the BMC64 build process. To adapt this for the new versions probably requires much effort and time. Unfortunately I cannot really help you here. I can only fix known bugs in Circle, but I'm not responsible, if newer Circle versions are used in a project.

[x48x4b]

Hello rsta2,

Thank you for all your kind help. I understand your role in this and that you cannot do more. That is perfectly okay for me. It will be interesting to see if the BMC64 developpers will address that. Their last official release dates from January 2022. So let's hope that the core developpers are still in the project.

Best regards

HK

[rsta2]

You are welcome.

[x48x4b]

Good morning,

Please allow me another question.

Would something like that work "out-of-the-box" in Circle Version 40?

https://www.reichelt.com/ch/de/shop/produkt/raspberry_pi_-_controller_snes-design-211468 (Raspberry Pi - Controller SNES-Design)

Unfortunately, there is no joystick compatibility list for BMC64.

Best regards

[rsta2]

Would something like that work "out-of-the-box" in Circle Version 40?

https://www.reichelt.com/ch/de/shop/produkt/raspberry_pi_-_controller_snes-d esign-211468 (Raspberry Pi - Controller SNES-Design)

Unfortunately I don't know. There has not been feedback for this controller.

[x48x4b]

Thank you.

Do you know about any positive feedback for a controller in this context?

[rsta2]

I have tested by myself:

• PS3 Sixaxis controller
• XBox 360 controller clone (not on RPi 4-5)
• Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 (no standard mapping)

jsanchezv has tested:

• PS4 controller
• Nintendo Switch Pro controller
• XBox One controller

All controllers must be connected via USB. Wireless mode (i.e. Bluetooth) is not supported.

Of course, there is no warranty.

[x48x4b]

Thank you!

[x48x4b]

Hello,
I have looked at the controllers that you have tested.
And I am not so happy with the general design of them. 
IMHO they are not really suited for my retro games needs.
Therefore, I think about building my own stuff based on this encoder:
https://joy-it.net/files/files/Produkte/SBC-ZDE/SBC-ZDE_Datasheet_2023-12-22.pdf
I wonder, what you think are the chances, that this would be compatible with Circle version 40.
Best regards