- A modder came up with a way to use a DualSense controller wirelessly on a PC without losing haptics and adaptive triggers
- Use a Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W as a bridge between the controller and the PC
- This solution apparently has no noticeable additional latency, at least for non-competitive games.
If you use a PS5 DualSense controller to play games on your PC, you might be frustrated because to get full functionality you have to have it connected via a cable and not wirelessly, but that’s no longer true, thanks to this clever use of a Raspberry Pi.
Tom’s Hardware reports that a new creation built with a cheap Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W (the wireless variant of the Pico 2) acts as a bridge between the PC and the controller. This allows the DualSense to connect via Bluetooth and work just like it does on the PS5 with haptic feedback, nifty adaptive triggers, and other goodies.
In case you haven’t noticed, those features work fine on the PC when you connect with the cable, but not if you connect to the PC (directly) via Bluetooth. This is because the Bluetooth implementation in Windows does not have the full bandwidth that the DualSense requires to allow all of its functions to be transmitted wirelessly.
Article continues below.
The project, dubbed ‘DS5Dongle’, was featured on Reddit and is the brainchild of a developer named ‘awalol’ on GitHub.
How does it work? Basically, the Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W is connected to the PC and acts as a bridge, meaning the PS5 controller connects to it (rather than the computer), and then the Pi is presented to Windows 11 as a wired DualSense.
It’s a smart solution, and you can purchase the products needed to design your own DS5Dongle for less than $20 in the US (or a roughly equivalent outlay in your region). All you need is a 2W Pi Pico and a microUSB cable and of course the GitHub project file.
Analysis: Good solution and latency doesn’t ruin the fun of wireless gaming
This shortcoming has been an annoyance for many PC gamers who want to use their PS5 DualSense with games that are better suited to a controller than a mouse and keyboard. It’s not ideal to be limited to plugging in your DualSense, as wireless obviously offers a lot more freedom.
Once you’ve created your own Pi dongle, all you need to do is the initial handshake with the controller, and then your DualSense will connect to the PC automatically every time you power on the controller (assuming you leave the dongle in place, of course).
Are there any drawbacks? The obvious concern is that this is an extra step between the PC and the controller, so it may introduce some input latency, which is a point raised by some Redditors in the thread above.
However, according to the original poster, it’s not a problem. They noted: “I can only say from my experience that I didn’t feel any difference from the wired connection. But I only play single-player games.”
It may not be an ideal solution for competitive gaming, but it’s definitely one of the smartest pieces of DIY tech I’ve seen for PC gamers this year. There are some potential shortcomings in the current implementation of the DS5Dongle, as noted on GitHub, including controller audio that may be choppy. The project is still a work in progress.
The best graphics cards for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and tiktok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
