Turn a Raspberry Pi Pico2W into a wireless adapter for the DualSense (DS5) controller.
This project enables the Raspberry Pi Pico2W to function as a Bluetooth bridge for the DualSense controller, allowing wireless connectivity with enhanced haptics support.
- 🎮 Full DualSense connectivity via Pico2W
- 🔊 Supports HD haptics (advanced vibration feedback)
- 📡 Wireless Bluetooth bridging
You have two options:
- Download a pre-built
.uf2— grab the newest Releases build (ds5-bridge-*.uf2). No tools needed. - Build it yourself — see Build Instructions below (Windows users get a one-command script).
- Hold the BOOTSEL button on the Pico2W
- Connect the Pico2W to your computer via USB
- The device will mount as a USB storage device
- Drag and drop the .uf2 firmware file onto the device
- Put the DualSense controller into Bluetooth pairing mode
- Wait for the Pico2W to detect and connect
- Once connected, the device will appear on the host system
You may need to replug the Pico when the controller is in pairing mode.
You can modify the Pico settings via the web config.
- For release: https://ds5.awalol.eu.org
- For development: https://ds5-dev.awalol.eu.org
The Pico device will only be visible to the system after the controller is connected
Some behaviors depend on reconnection cycles to take effect
When the connected DualSense reports its battery at or below 10% (and it is not charging), the Pico onboard LED switches from solid-on to a 1 Hz blink so you can see the warning at a glance. The LED returns to solid-on as soon as the controller is plugged in or its reported level rises again. The blink also fires when disable_pico_led is set — the warning is treated as critical and overrides the LED-off preference; the LED returns to its disabled (off) state once the battery recovers or the controller starts charging.
To opt out at build time, configure with -DENABLE_BATT_LED=OFF. Default is ON.
Pico W only has haptics support, no speaker. You can enable Pico W firmware compilation with -DPICO_W_BUILD=ON, or download precompiled firmware from GitHub Actions.
This feature is experimental. If you need this functionality, please check out the feat/usb-wake branch to compile it, or use the precompiled firmware from GitHub Actions under that branch. The ds5-bridge-wake.uf2 is the firmware with this feature enabled.
It is recommended to read #60 and #61 before using this feature.
https://github.com/MarcelineVPQ/DS5Dongle-OLED-Edition https://github.com/zurce/DS5Dongle-OLED
⚠️ Audio may experience slight stuttering⚠️ Overclocking is required for proper performance
Due to encoding requirements, the Pico2W must be overclocked:
Current settings:
- Voltage: 1.2V
- Frequency: 320 MHz
If your device fails to boot:
- Increase voltage slightly or Reduce CPU frequency
You don't even need to clone this repo. Download just
tools/build-windows.ps1 to any folder and run
it in PowerShell:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build-windows.ps1(If you already have a checkout, run tools\build-windows.ps1 from the
repo root instead — it detects and uses your local checkout.)
The script installs every prerequisite (CMake, Ninja, Python, Git and the
ARM GNU toolchain — via winget, falling back to portable downloads if
winget is unavailable), clones the project (if not run from a checkout)
plus the pinned Pico SDK + TinyUSB into %USERPROFILE%\.ds5-build, builds
the firmware, and drops ds5-bridge.uf2 next to the script and on your
Desktop. It is safe to re-run; already-installed tools are skipped.
Build a fork or a specific ref with -Repo <url> / -Ref <branch|tag>.
Build a variant with -Variant debug or -Variant wake.
To build from source manually:
-
Install the Pico SDK 2.2.0 and switch its TinyUSB submodule to tag 0.20.0 i.e. Update TinyUSB in the Pico SDK to the latest version
-
Initialise this repo's submodules:
git submodule update --init --recursive -
Configure and build with the standard Pico SDK toolchain:
cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DPICO_SDK_PATH=<sdk>thencmake --build build --target ds5-bridge -
Update TinyUSB in the Pico SDK to the latest version
-
Compile using standard Pico SDK toolchain
- Please check out DS5Dongle plan
- Join the Discord server: Discord Server
- If you have a bug, please open an issue instead.
- rafaelvaloto/Pico_W-Dualsense — Project inspiration
- egormanga/SAxense — Bluetooth Haptics POC
- https://controllers.fandom.com/wiki/Sony_DualSense - DualSense data report structure documentation
- Paliverse/DualSenseX — Speaker report packet
