I’m working on a new project that could use some kind of game controller. I’ve got a few old PS2 controllers lying around so I got really excited when I stumbled on Bill Porter’s PS2X library. It looked pretty straight forward, and I was itching for excuses to practice soldering so I took apart an old PS2 adapter for its female connector and wired it up to an Arduino Uno.
For reasons still unknown to me, I just couldn’t get the library to recognize a connected controller. I was powering the device just fine but data wasn’t making it to the Arduino or it wasn’t being interpreted correctly. (If any of you got it to work, I’d love to know how!)
Anyhow, long story short: I ordered a $19 PS2 Shield and you know what? It was worth every penny. It’s really well documented and even supports hot-swapping controllers. I highly recommend it. Here it is in action with my debug sketch:
Yanman! 