Code allowing the use of a DualShock (PS4 Joystick) over Bluetooth on Linux. Over USB comming soon. mac_joystick.py shows how to emulate something similar on macOS, but without the fancy features.
Note: We have updated from the previous version so make sure you disable ds4drv from running automatically at startup as they will conflict.
This method still requires ds4drv however it doesn't run it as a separate service and then separately pull joystick data using Pygame. Instead it imports ds4drv directly which gives us much more control over the joystick behaviour. Specifically:
- It will only pair to one joystick allowing us to run multiple robots at a time
- Allows for launching joystick code via systemd at boot using
sudo systemctl enable joystick - Can change joystick colors and using rumble directly from Python (can also access the touchpad and IMU!)
- Is a much nicer interface than using Pygame, as the axes are actually named as opposed to arbitrarly numbered! The axis directions are consistant with Pygame.
- Doesn't need $DISPLAY hacks to run on headless devices
Take a look at rover_example.py as it demonstrates most features.
To implement this functionality to a new repository (say PupperCommand) you can just call from PS4Joystick import Joystick anywhere once you've installed the module. Replicate joystick.service in that repository.
sudo bash install.sh
Sadly ds4drv doesn't work on Macs. But you can get some of the functionality by installing Pygame with sudo pip3 install Pygame. Take a look in mac_joystick.py for an example. Note this only works over USB (plug the controller in using a micro usb cable) and the mapping is different than using Pygame with ds4drv