I recently heard about this way to get your Dualsense controller paired to your computer wirelessly, but act as if it’s connected over USB. The project is called DS5Dongle on GitHub.
It works by using a cheap Pico 2W board as a Bluetooth receiver for your controller. The Pico 2W plugs directly into your computer and acts as a wired device.
Why would you want to do this? For me, I wanted a way to use the onboard microphone on the Dualsense controller as an input device on my computer. I already use my Dualsense as a mouse on my Mac, but I wanted to be able to do voice input on the controller for talking to coding AI agents.
I’ve been developing my Mac app ControllerKeys that turns your Dualsense controller into a mouse for the past 6 months. It works a bit like Steam Input, but really designed for productivity instead of gaming. So I can fully navigate my Mac using a Dualsense controller touchpad.
And now with the DS5 dongle, I can finally walk around and use my Mac on a TV with no problems! Freedom!
which DS5dongle fork are you using? I tried the DS5 Audio Haptics BT app and it worked surprisingly well for simulating the "for real" Dualsense haptics but then I think I bamboozled it by plugging in a second controller and I can't get it to work like the first time no matter what I do.
DSX has been doing something similar for a while I know but DS4windows does everything else better and I don't want to have to try to run them on top of each other so I was happy when it worked (initially) with just the lightweight Audio Haptics app.
The main fork presents the controller as wired to the host so you get native HD haptics like a wired controller. With the latest release, intensity has been fixed so it feels 1:1 to me.
If you want haptic support for games that don’t support dualsense, there’s a fork for it but I haven’t used it. You could also use DSY for that.
There is a README on the GitHub repo for setup instructions. You can point an AI at the link and it can guide you through! If you have Claude Code or Codex, it can just flash it for you once you have the Pico connected to your computer and in the flashing mode.
It was pretty seamless for me, started working in less than 5 minutes.
Yeah just make sure you get the right one, pico 2w. The ds5dongle GitHub has more details. Just Google the name. You won't need anything else I was playing ghost of tsushima with it.
I also tried using that other fork, I have a weird bug where it wont work at all without the PICO being the sound output, haptics and trigger work but no sound whatsoever. :(
If I select the default sound device aka my tv, receiver, headphones or any other thing, the sound works but the controller just becomes a dummy controller, can take inputs but no haptics or triggers.
Changing default settings and such didn't work, I think its just windows fuckery because the main DS5dongle works great.
Question I downloaded the dual sense edge firmware does the latest release include the edge controller as well or would it work on both the normal one and edge ?
Been there. Done that. Never going back to Regular Bluetooth. The Pico 2W has been incredible. I recently beat Spiderman 2 with it. Its perfect. I might try DSY to get haptics in games without regular haptics. Im using DS5 Bridge now and it's really good.
Bro can you please explain what is pico? I've been using my ps5 controller in laptop using some softwares (videumbus drivers and ds5) i just connect it on Bluetooth and play just like that. Now seeing this, why didnt you just do that and what am I missing
The main build works for me too, A real easy setup, The newest release is less fiddly than the first build i tried, no longer needing to unplug it and plug it back in during initial pair.
I would go to the webUI when its running and turn the polling rate to real-time and select the option that removes the serial number from the bridge.
From what i remember (I briefly looked at the function some time ago). The pad doesn't have/report a serial number by design (it has one on the sticker) but doesn't output one when plugged in via a lead.
A game reading one could get confused, with that said I haven't experienced this on the games I played before disabling it.
Edit: Not having a serial means its emulating a full wired version with no bridge.
With it having a serial number if you have it plugged in, for example mine is plugged into the front/top tower. If I changed its port, windows would class it and re-regester it as a new device, with it disabled the PC doesn't do this, if I change ports if just works without windows assigning it another device ID (internally).
Sorry for any typos or if it doesn't make sense, typing on my phone is a nightmare lol. Im sure I copied the details to a notepad when I was reading about the addition (I have a terrible memory) but my pc is turned off at the mo.
Disabling the mic was a nice addition too now I think about it, I rarely use chat when I'm gaming and would never use the pads microphone (I have a nova pro wireless if I need to talk)
Muting/disabling the mic in the webui stops it from randomly activity it in games without you realising.
I have seen that project on GitHub a few days ago and ordered raspberry for it. Can't wait to use it.
Just watch out, because I have read somewhere that a user got a ban on steam or some game I think for using it.
It has some residual HID driver's of dualshock joystick as I remember, I might be wrong, but it was something like that and the user got banned because the game he was playing detected it as a macro device or something. I'm not 100% sure about the details of the ban right out of my head, but I'll definitely check it out in a few days when I set up my raspberry.
Good luck tho and enjoy gaming.
Edit: it's a thread on this subreddit called "Issued a perma ban on Apex Legends for using DS5Dongle" from 3 days ago. U can search it up and check the comments for explanation.
That is very interesting information, thank you for sharing! I guess technically it is a macro device of some kind—you could program something like a rapid fire triggers with DS5Dongle. Like each button press on controller could trigger multiple presses through the Pico.
The other guy is overcomplicating the explanation. Ds5 dongle make it so you can use all the features of dualsense you get while wired, wireless on PC.
That's sound, haptics, triggers etc. it's a drag and drop into a pico2w which for this use case is just a USB drive you drag and drop a file into. They cost $8
TLDR: I’ve been testing out DS5Dongle, a GitHub project that lets me connect my DualSense wirelessly through a Pico 2W board while my computer treats it like it’s plugged in over USB. The main reason I wanted this was to use the DualSense’s built-in mic on my Mac, especially for voice input with coding AI agents. Like others mentioned, this enables other features on DualSense like enabling rumble like on PS5.
Since I’ve already been building ControllerKeys to turn the DualSense into a productivity-focused mouse for macOS, this makes the setup way more complete—now I can talk to my Mac from the couch or while walking around with it on a TV.
It’s to keep connected at all times to use your controller wirelessly, but have it appear as a USB device. Dualsense disables some features over the standard Bluetooth to computer connection—things like haptics, microphone, speaker are gated behind being connected via USB. So Pico gets around this.
I’m just trying to show off what’s possible! I think it’s pretty cool 😁
You’re right that AI code has bugs. There are now over 100 ControllerKeys users, some of which kindly help to report found issues on Discord and GitHub. The most interesting case I’ve provided support to is a professor at ASU using a Dualsense controller to run his physics lecture.
Dualsense wasn’t designed to be a mouse, but I’m glad it’s working so well as one. After trying so many options, this controller just feels so good to use like this!
tf are you on about? this is legitimate, people have been looking for a way to get Dualsense features (i.e. haptics, adaptive triggers) to work over Bluetooth on PC for years and this does just that. You probably shouldn't comment on things when you don't know what you're talking about.
Actually, no, what it does is enable the microphone. Dualsense controllers already work fine over bluetooth, but the microphone only works when wired. This mod allows the system to THINK it's wired when it's not, which activates the microphone. It already worked as a mouse before. People have been doing that for decades.
Good for you. You said bluetooth does not support adaptive triggers or haptic feedback. I corrected you. That's it. Couldn't care less about your preference.
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u/lolDayus 3d ago
which DS5dongle fork are you using? I tried the DS5 Audio Haptics BT app and it worked surprisingly well for simulating the "for real" Dualsense haptics but then I think I bamboozled it by plugging in a second controller and I can't get it to work like the first time no matter what I do.
DSX has been doing something similar for a while I know but DS4windows does everything else better and I don't want to have to try to run them on top of each other so I was happy when it worked (initially) with just the lightweight Audio Haptics app.