Getting a 8bitdo Pro 2 Wired (not Xbox) Controller Working

[Krypto]

Want your brand new 8bitdo Pro 2 Wired to work with the MiSTer? Hold down the "B" button while plugging it in.

*** UPDATE 5/17/22 ***
Instead of the "B" button, hold down the "Y" button while plugging it in to enable the controller's rumble feature for the PSX core.

Long story:

At the beginning of the month, I picked-up the brand new 8bitdo Pro 2 Wired from Amazon as I wanted a decent wired controller with analog sticks for the new PSX core. It was only up for sale a few days when I bought it.

8bitpro2_wired2.jpg (21.32 KiB) Viewed 6251 times

https://www.8bitdo.com/pro2-wired-controller/

To be clear, this isn't the Xbox version that was released a few months ago and is NOT wireless.

I was somewhat surprised to find that it didn't work with MiSTer nor with my Linux desktop. I've been using Linux for years and this is the first USB controller I've bought that caused problems. It did test fine on my Win10 laptop, but 8bitdo's Ultimate software couldn't see the controller either. so somehow they released the hardware before updating the software suite. Waited over a week and updated the Ultimate software on the Win10 laptop. Now everything was working fine, installed a firmware update for the controller and the software could work all it's magic on the controller with button assignments, macros, etc. Plugged it into the MiSTer and it still didn't work. WTF!

Back at the Linux box, it seemed the controller was seen by the USB stack but wasn't being initialized correctly as 2 of the 4 LED"s at the base of the controller were constantly blinking. Perhaps whatever magic the controller does to determine between the switch console and a regular computer is the problem. Did a deep search a found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroPie/comme ... wired_usb/

Holding the "B" button while plugging in the USB cable was the fix, but you have to do it every time. It would be nice if they would document these features in the instructions, but at least the controller works perfectly with the MiSTer and Linux now.

[aberu]

8bitdo is pretty bad at documenting features accurately, and when they do, finding that documentation is a bit convoluted. You have to go to support.8bitdo.com and then find your controller, mouse over it, and there is the manual.

2022-03-16_14-43-02.png (129.84 KiB) Viewed 6237 times

[Krypto]

Yeah, but the "holding down the "B" button while plugging it in" feature is NOT in the manual. Is it described in the non-English section?

[FoxbatStargazer]

Interestingly the manual says that PC use requires windows 10, but x-input is older than that. So there's good odds this works similar to the xbox wired version.

[reibuehl]

I got the controller working thanks to the hint with the "B" button, but I am wondering now which button to assign to which function in Mister to get the best experience with the majority of cores. Is there a best practice/recommendation?

[Longtime4321]

I hold down X for XInput. Works like a charm

[ntt]

I can feel your pain, I've been fighting for the past week with a wired Pro2 as well (while a SN3o Pro works like a charm)
I'm going to write a loooong post about this, stay tuned

[ntt]

Forgot to add: if the 8bitdo controller is already plugged in when you turn on the MiSTer, it will work fine.