BLE Mouse Input & USB Joystick Output At Same Time

[nelsonii]

Situation: User has BLE mouse (in this case, for Assistive Technology, a gyro head mouse). I'm using a Pi Pico 2W to pair to. What I'd like is for the wired USB side to output Joystick (gamepad) data.

I saw this example, and it works great for Keyboard and Mouse wired USB:

https://learn.adafruit.com/pico-bluetooth-keyboard-bridge/code-the-bluetooth-bridge

But the moment you add <Joystick.h> there are a bunch of "conflicts with previous declaration" errors. Tried doing it with both USB Stack > Pico SDK and (w/o the <Joystick.h>) the TinyUSB stack. (I normally use TinyUSB for my joysticks.)

I need: Input of BLE mouse. Output of wired USB gamepad.

I can get the input of BLE to work. And the Output of wired USB to work. But not together. Any ideas?

This would be useful for folks with disabilities. Since they are using the XBOX Adaptive Controller's USB ports (for left/right stick) this bridging in needed.

Example error:

OneDrive/Documents/Arduino/libraries/Adafruit_TinyUSB_Library/src/class/hid/hid.h:87:3: error: 'HID_REPORT_TYPE_INPUT' conflicts with a previous declaration
87 | HID_REPORT_TYPE_INPUT, ///< Input

C:/Users/nelso/AppData/Local/Arduino15/packages/rp2040/hardware/rp2040/5.4.3/pico-sdk/lib/btstack/src/btstack_hid.h:106:5: note: previous declaration 'hid_report_type_t HID_REPORT_TYPE_INPUT'
106 | HID_REPORT_TYPE_INPUT,

I also posted this in the Adafruit forum, since their example got me going on this. :-)

[earlephilhower]

BTStack and TinyUSB are generally incompatible in the same file because BTStack duplicates many struct/#define/enum definitions from USB HID. I did some manual #define trickery to fake out the BTStack headers and get the mouse/keyboard building, but the joystick came in much later and needed a custom HID report definition.

Can you please give a small MCVE that shows the actual errors you're getting.

[nelsonii]

The #include is enough to pop the error. :-)

#include <BluetoothHIDMaster.h>
#include <Joystick.h>

void setup() {}
void loop() {}

// IP/Bluetooth Stack: IPV4 + Bluetooth (through I just use BLE)
// USB Stack: Pico SDK

---

#include <BluetoothHIDMaster.h>
#include <Adafruit_TinyUSB.h>

void setup() {}
void loop() {}

// IP/Bluetooth Stack: IPV4 + Bluetooth (through I just use BLE)
// USB Stack: Adafruit TinyUSB

[nelsonii]

FWIW, I need to go another hardware route for the Sony Access Controller (as it has no USB input -- only analog inputs via TRRS plug). That I've figured out with another project (using a Digital Pot for output). I can do the same for the XBOX Adaptive Controller, as it has Analog In in addition to USB. So, long story short, I do have a fallback for my client. But it would be nice to use just the Pico 2W for the XBOX (less work, more affordable to build).

[earlephilhower]

#3263 should work around the issue. The Joystick has a custom report structure taken from TinyUSB, not locally defined, but it's simple enough to move the HID descriptor and the report format to separate files.

[earlephilhower]

Oh, and that's a pretty awesome use case. When the 2040 came out the RPI guys had some kind of showcase of projects like that, IIRC. You might want to take a gander and see if that's still ongoing...

[nelsonii]

Compiling happily. Now to get my code working. Thank you very much for the quick turnaround. Your hard work goes into a lot of projects.

[nelsonii]

Okay, I've got a DIY BLE mouse paired with the Pico -- and the PIco sending USB joystick to the XBOX AC. Horray!

Some more background on this stuff:

Newer power wheelchairs allow their "driving" stick to switch over to BLE for computer (mouse) control. What I do is pair that to the Pico -- then the Pico outputs to what's needed.

For example, the Pico can control an 817 optoisolator board for an adapted digital remote control for an R/C boat. When paired with a digital pot, it controls an adapted proportional R/C car. That same DPOT setup can be used for the XBOX AC and Sony AC. Bridging one technology with another.

BLE gyro based head mice (including the DIY ones, which are 1/10th the cost) output mouse data. Which the XBOX AC doesn't like. Which is why I need to take the BLE mouse input and translate to USB joystick movement. The opposite of what a lot of folks do (making wired wireless).