Stadia Bluetooth Mode Firmware

So I pulled the bin files from the google updater because I want to make sure it's saved somewhere...

...and also because I REALLY want haptics but I'm too smooth-brained to edit the firmware myself.

UPDATE: Apparently Haptics are working, just not on every windows system. SCORE! Still hope that this Repo helps someone do something awsome though!

What I saw...

It looks like when you do the initial verification, chrome has you enter a manual bootloader flash mode:

How to unlock the bootloader on the Stadia Controller

• First Press and hold the option (three dots) button on the controller while you connect the controller to a computer.

• Next, you press the option, assistant, A, and Y buttons at the same time

• Finally, the web app has you select the controller. The Stadia Controller name should be “SP Blank RT Family”. The web app states that the name could instead read as “Stadia Controller” or “USB COMPOSITE DEVICE”.

The flash process

At that point the bootloader is "unlocked" and chrome downloads the following two .bin files:

• bruce_pvt_a_prod_signed.bin
• restricted_ivt_flashloader.bin

At that point, you get the message telling you that the download was complete and tells you to select the device again as noted above, with the added distinction that the device should be displayed as “USB COMPOSITE DEVICE”. At this point, the following .bin is fetched and executed:

• flashloader_fcb_get_vendor_id.bin

It looks like all of those files can be fetched from https://stadia.google.com/controller/data/filename

To reset the controller while in one of the flashing modes:

1. Unplug the controller

2. Hold the Stadia button for 10 seconds to reset it

Presumably this just turns off the controller so it's no longer "unlocked".

(credit: rummik)

HID Descriptors

The awsome DJm00n, a mad lad that apparently PCAPs controllers more than a fish swims in water has capped packets and have docuimented the HID discriptors for the controller.

• Check out their work here: https://github.com/DJm00n/ControllersInfo/tree/master/stadiacontroller

Where do we go from here?

I don't know... Man, I'm just someone that really likes the controller and thinks that someone smarter than me will be able to fork this repo and build a standalone flash tool so that future users can update old controllers for years to come...

I was an all-in user of OnLive and when Sony killed it I was devastated, ever since I've been careful around cloud services like this to avoid getting burned. When Stadia came around I really wanted it to be the thing, but google never wanted to give this service a chance... It's a shame that its' passionate and innovative developers were never really given the chance to create something truly great. meh... at least we got a free, great feeling controller out of the deal.

I dream that with time new features can get added to the code like audio over BT. I don't know what you can or cannot see in the firmware or what the hardware can or cannot control but hopefully, I've done my part to help.

Anyway, See y'all.