Tag: Xbox 360 controller

How to Emulate an Xbox Controller with Arduino (XInput)

In my opinion, one of the more novel things you can do with an Arduino is put it to use as a custom game controller for your favorite games. Whether you’re retrofitting a Nerf gun, converting a rhythm controller to play an FPS game, or playing PUBG with a frying pan – using an Arduino makes it quick and easy to build your own custom controller.

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to program your own Arduino to emulate an Xbox controller using the ArduinoXInput library.

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By Dave Madison, ago

Understanding the Xbox 360 Wired Controller’s USB Data

One of my recent projects has been trying to modify some microcontrollers to function as XInput devices, emulating an Xbox controller. The first step in this process is to fetch and then break down the device’s “USB descriptors”. These descriptors are a hierarchy of standardized reports that describe features of the device including who makes it, what version of USB it supports, how it’s powered, and more. By copying the Xbox controller’s descriptors onto my own device, I can convince the computer that my device is also an Xbox controller and will behave like one, and therefore use the Xbox controller’s driver to easily interface with games.

But rather than just copying and pasting the descriptor from one place to another, I want to try and understand exactly what’s going on behind the scenes. I want to understand how the information in these descriptors translates into features of the device’s behavior.

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By Dave Madison, ago