<![CDATA[GPIO Controller Input (as keyboard or joystick)]]>I have a system that uses GPIO for input. I would like to map them to a joystick or keyboard.

---JOYSTICK---
To map the GPIOs as a joystick, I have used mk_arcade_joystick_rpi, but my GPIO aren't set up the same as what is shown in https://github.com/recalbox/recalbox-os/wiki/GPIO-controllers-(EN)
The 0.1.5 version of mk_arcade_joystick_rpi should allow a custom map, but that doesn't seem to be included in Recalbox. In fact, I would prefer to use the version at https://github.com/TheFlav/mk_arcade_joystick_rpi, but I would really prefer to not mess with adding a driver unless it's quite easy for others to add. Is there an easy way for a user to add a newer version of mk_arcade_joystick_rpi to their Recalbox?

---KEYBOARD---

If not, the alternate plan could be to use GPIO as a keyboard. While some may think that this causes the same problem, it's actually not widely known that all you really need is a .dtbo and some config.txt entries like
#left
dtoverlay=gpio-key,gpio=6,keycode=105
#right
dtoverlay=gpio-key,gpio=5,keycode=106
#up
dtoverlay=gpio-key,gpio=4,keycode=103
#down
dtoverlay=gpio-key,gpio=17,keycode=108
#a = a = OK
dtoverlay=gpio-key,gpio=16,keycode=30
...

After that, you can easily navigate the menu system, but the mappings do not seem to work inside of any emulator or Kodi. I wonder if it is because each GPIO button is acting as a separate keyboard. If I run evtest, it looks like this.

No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0: 17.button
/dev/input/event1: e.button
/dev/input/event2: 12.button
/dev/input/event3: f.button
/dev/input/event4: 1a.button
/dev/input/event5: 13.button
/dev/input/event6: 18.button
/dev/input/event7: 10.button
/dev/input/event8: 11.button
/dev/input/event9: 4.button
/dev/input/event10: 5.button
/dev/input/event11: 6.button

I guess I'm looking for ideas here. Is there an easy way for me to build a version of https://github.com/TheFlav/mk_arcade_joystick_rpi and add it to a Recalbox install? Is there a pre-built version of mk_arcade_joystick_rpi v0.1.5 available somewhere? Is there a way to get the keyboard input working?

]]>https://forum.recalbox.com/topic/13029/gpio-controller-input-as-keyboard-or-joystickRSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 07:26:20 GMTThu, 01 Mar 2018 22:03:35 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to GPIO Controller Input (as keyboard or joystick) on Mon, 25 Jun 2018 06:35:26 GMT]]>@dragu if you were looking for a CM3 project, here is one !

]]>https://forum.recalbox.com/post/104128https://forum.recalbox.com/post/104128Mon, 25 Jun 2018 06:35:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to GPIO Controller Input (as keyboard or joystick) on Sun, 24 Jun 2018 21:50:00 GMT]]>I am afraid the guy stopped everything because he felt some frustration from all this, but should we not also support some hardware kickstarter products ? I suppose that it should be possible to recompile a gpio interface for the freeplay project.

]]>https://forum.recalbox.com/post/104116https://forum.recalbox.com/post/104116Sun, 24 Jun 2018 21:50:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to GPIO Controller Input (as keyboard or joystick) on Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:14:38 GMT]]>@flavor we haven't switched to the configurable GPIO branch because, as far as I remember, it doesn't support the hotkey button.

To compile it, i think you can do it from raspbian but you must have the same kernel branch as us (which is 4.4 for now, should b*mp to 4.9 once i'm done upgrading all boards).

Adding your branch ... no

I'm used to buildroot, so it's rather easy for me to compile it from there. It's not that hard to understand : it's a bunch of makefiles, most of it

]]>https://forum.recalbox.com/post/92181https://forum.recalbox.com/post/92181Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:14:38 GMT