I require your help regarding a problem I’m encountering.
I have connected the base unit to an Arduino Mega and have occaisionally had the green
LED on the receiver turn solid green. I haven’t been able to identify what makes this happen.
It almost seems to be random. When it initially powers up it blinks once and then goes dark.
I think I have seen it come on and stay on without the controller being turned on. I have tried a variety of controller buttons etc. and haven’t seen anything consistent. I have measured the voltage at the input to the receiver (marked 5V) and found it to be a solid 4.96 V by my digital
meter. I have some basic questions after reading various forums.
What does the green LED on the receiver actually indicate?
Does it indicate the unit is powered up?
Does it indicate a connection to the controller has been established?
Does it have any modes except OFF or On? i. e. blinking fast or slow etc.
I have only observed the red and green LEDs on the Controller blink or be off. Should there
be anything different when you press the mode button, or the start button, or the select?
hardware
I have a lynxmotion wireless controller recently purchased from RobotShop. It is
connected to an Arduino Mega using the pins identified in some of the Bill Porter
library information. i.e. 22,23,24,25
software
I am using the Arduino Mega example code from Bill Porter and the library version 1.8.
When I run the software I get a message about no controller found.
trouble shooting
I have verified the receiver is getting 5 volts (actually 4.96 by my meter) and that when power is initially applied the green LED blinks once. I have occasionally observed the green LED on the receiver being on solid, but cannot get that condition on demand. It appears almost random, and not very often. I haven’t been able to detect any interaction between the controller and the receiver. I observed the green LED being on solid before I successfully uploaded the example code and with the controller turned OFF.
Additional information:
I really don’t have a clue what to do next. Knowing more about what the green LED on the
receiver actually indicates would be helpful. I haven’t tried “new” batteries in the controller but the ones I am using measure 1.57 volts. I intend to get some new batteries and try that but am not sure that will make any difference.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
I have now replaced the batteries and as expected it has made no difference. When the receiver is
powered up I still occasionally get a solid green light but mostly just a single blink. With the
green LED ON or OFF I see no indication of an interaction with the receiver when the controller is
turned ON or OFF or buttons pushed. I get the message “no controller found” each time the power
for the receiver is cycled or the reset button on the Arduino mega is pressed. I had hoped this
would be a relatively straight forward way to replace the Modified PCjr joystick controller I have
been using on my home made telescope project. The cables are not too convenient when tracking
or moving to new locations but at least I was able to get them to work well.
I have now connected the receiver to just an Arduino Uno since the mega was connected to the
driver board for the 3 stepper motors on my telescope project. Now the set up is just the Arduino
Uno and the Receiver. I see basically the same results. I haven’t seen the green LED on the
receiver do anything but blink once when power is applied. When the controller is turned on all
I see is the Red and Green LEDs blinking on the controller. The message I get back includes “no
controller found”. Same as before.
It looks like some people are looking at this post, but so far I am the only one making replies.
I have verified the wiring by checking continuity between each point on the receiver and the corresponding
pins on the Arduino Uno. I have tried everything in Bill Porter’s trouble shooting tips and am
ready to box it up and return it. I have read some older posts that give me the impression that
if the receiver has power and the controller is on, they ought to pair whether there is any wiring or
not. I certainly have not observed any kind of interaction between the controller and the receiver no
matter what I have tried. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Could you provide a link to the PS2 Controller you are using ?
Please post a picture showing your PS2 receiver’s connection with your Arduino UNO board ?
Please also provide a link to the Arduino code you are using.
If you are using the Lynxmotion PS2 Controller V4, the receiver’s green LED should light solid when the controller and receiver are paired. When the controller and receiver are not paired, the controller’s green and red (power) led will blink.
Since you have a Mega and are using a PS2 controller from RobotShop, we recommend that you use our own version of the Bill Porter library and this example (which is compatible with Arduino Mega. The regular example from the official library is not):
If you have a Lynxmotion PS2 v4, then the green LED on the receiver should blink until a link with the controller is found. Similarly, if the controller is own but not linked up with the receiver, the two LED (red & green) at the back near L1 should also blink.
Once a connection between the two devices is established, the receiver LED becomes solid. It should be noted that this can be achieved by simply feeding 5 V DC/GND to the receiver and placing batteries in the controller. No code/libraries/etc. are required to establish the link. It is done by the hardware in the receiver and controller. Therefore, if your controller / receiver pair are note linking up this would indicate one of the following potential issues:
There is interference in your environment preventing a proper/stable connection.
The receiver or controller have unstable power sources (for the controller that would most likely indicate weak batteries; for the receiver that would mean unstable power from your microcontroller board, possibly even brownouts).
Either the receiver, controller or both are damaged, defective, etc.
Also, please note that the receiver (whether is has a connection to the controller or not) should still reply to commands from the Arduino. Therefore, it can still be “found”.
I replied to the email I received and send a picture in the reply. As indicated in that reply, and based on what you have indicated I have
concluded your third item is what we have going on here. The controller or receiver being defective or non-functional. Based on the fact that the
receiver isn’t found I would conclude that it is bad and the controller might be as well. What is the process for getting a replacement?
Ron Hunt
I had made the reply and included the photo on my iPhone, and just noticed it was bounced back. The photo isn’t available on this laptop at the moment and I can’t seem to
sign on to your website with my phone. I ended up changing the password, and now it doesn’t recognize the new password. I don’t think the photo will be helpful, the problem
is one of the two parts to the unit not connecting with each other. I am told they should do that with no connection or software required. Until I can get them to connect the other
things don’t matter.
Here is the e-mail I tried to send, looks like the image wasn’t picked up when I copied the e-mail.
As indicated in my post I have put in new batteries and also tried with an Arduino Uno to be sure the Mega and my custom driver board was not a problem. The behavior was basically the same. They didn’t ever connect. I appreciate the link to your recommended software and for sure will use it if I ever get them talking to each other. I have concluded that your third suggestion is most likely what is happening. What is the process for getting a replacement? Someone else at your firm ask for a picture so I will try to include one, but it sounds like the connection should occur whether connected or not if both are powered up. As indicated in my post I have never seen them respond to each other. Almost any time the controller is switched on the red and green LEDs blink together for about 45 seconds whether the receiver is off or on. I have occasionally seen the green LED on the receiver come on solid but never repeatably and always independent of the controller.
This sounded like such a sure thing I soldered the pins of the connector to my driver board initially but in order to test with Uno
I had to de-solder the receiver adapter board and replace the connector.
Ron Hunt
After my defective controller was replaced, things started working as expected and I have been able to get my telescope program updated so the PS2X controller works quite well.
One thing I have observed that is a little annoying and I am wondering if anyone else has observed it or has a solution. Sometimes the controller seems to respond to just the slightest touch on the Joysticks, either up or down or side to side. Other times there appears to be a dead (buffer ) zone you have to move through before a response is obtained. It has never been clear to me what if anything the “Select” and “MODE” buttons actually do, but sometimes it appears that they help with the problem, but I haven’t been able to identify a pattern that consistently works. The “Start” button consistently reactivates (wakes up) the controller if it hasn’t been used for some time and had either turned itself off or gone into sleep mode or something.
I prefer to have the buffer zone with the joysticks so it only responds to what I consider a deliberate change of position, not the slight bump that occurs when it is touched. Any insight would be appreciated.
