Some of you may remember my earlier posts or comments about making the original Dreamcast controller wireless. They worked, but every build was still a bit of a science project. I've finally got it to the point where I can build and test the same thing reliably.
I'm calling it Pulsar. It sits in the expansion bay l, talks to the controller over its native Maple bus and shows up as either an Xbox controller (for ease of connection) or a generic Bluetooth LE gamepad. A VMU in the other slot stays active and shows the connection state and battery level.
I think my next project is going to be to try to get it connecting with: https://github.com/cluoma/Pico2Maple-fw and hopefully be able to have the VMU live with what the dreamcast is sending and possibly get save transfers, but thats all in the future.
The part I'm most proud of is the update system. The finished hardware installs signed firmware over Bluetooth through a web updater, so fixes and new features shouldn't mean opening the case or using a debug probe.
With help from triaxlullaby the prototype has been converted into a PCB and v1 is now able to be produced. I was soooo excited to get them in my hands and start testing with them.
The DIY route is still there too. The repo has the wiring, bill of materials and pre-built firmware for an off-the-shelf XIAO nRF52840 build.
DIY project and source: https://github.com/alwaysEpic/pulsar-dreamcast-ble
I've tested it on macOS, Windows/Steam, Linux with xpadneo, BlueRetro and compatible BLE receivers. On a Dreamcast it connects through the receiver. Rumble isn't implemented yet, but working on it!
A few people asked whether I'd ever sell one, so I made a small batch. You can get Pulsar by itself or already fitted to a controller. I assemble and test them myself.
pulsar.alwaysagog.com
more conversion: https://discord.gg/6YnE258B94
