MissionControl

Use controllers from other consoles natively on your Nintendo Switch via Bluetooth. No dongles or other external hardware neccessary.

Features

• Connect up to 8 non-switch Bluetooth controllers simultaneously without any additional hardware.
• Make use of native HOS menus for controller pairing, button remapping (firmware 10.0.0+) etc.
• Supports all Switch firmware versions
• btdrv-mitm module adds extension IPC commands that can be used to interact with the bluetooth process without interfering with the state of the system.

Supported Controllers

Currently, the following controllers are supported. If you have a third-party variant of one of the below, or a Bluetooth controller that isn't listed, consider submitting an issue with the controller details, including vid/pid, to request support.

• Nintendo Wii Remote + extensions (Nunchuck, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro, SNES Mini)
• Nintendo WiiU Pro Controller
• Sony DualShock4 Controller
• Microsoft Xbox One S/X Controller*
• Ouya Controller
• Gamestick Controller
• Gembox Controller
• Ipega Controllers (9062S, 9023, 9096 confirmed working. Others may also work)
• Xiaomi Mi Controller
• Steelseries Free Controller
• GameSir G3s Controller
• Hori Onyx Controller

*Not all Xbox One wireless controllers support Bluetooth. Older variants use a proprietary 2.4Ghz protocol and cannot be used with the Switch. See here for information on identifying the Bluetooth variant.

Requirements

• Hackable Nintendo Switch running at least version 0.14.2 of Atmosphère custom firmware. Other custom firmwares are not supported.
• Compatible Bluetooth controller

Installation

Download the latest release .zip and extract to the root of your SD card, allowing the folders to merge and overwriting any existing files. A console reboot is required in order for MissionControl to become active.

It is recommended after rebooting to also disconnect any physically connected controllers from the console, delete the pairing database, and re-pair via bluetooth to make sure your existing Switch controllers have the correct hardware ID stored and can be recognised properly. To delete the database, navigate to System Settings->Controllers and Sensors->Disconnect Controllers

IMPORTANT: Atmosphère >= 0.14.2 is required to run the latest release of MissionControl. Older Atmosphere versions will cause a hang at the Nintendo logo during boot. Users upgrading from version 0.1.0 of MissionControl are also advised to wipe their pairing database and re-pair controllers running 0.2.0 or greater. Failure to wipe the old entries may result in non-switch controllers being detected incorrectly.

Usage

Install MissionControl to your SD card and reboot the console.

MissionControl runs as a background process and makes use of the system's native UI to handle controllers. The controller pairing dialog can be accessed from the home screen via Controllers->Change Grip/Order. While sitting on this screen, place your controller in pairing mode (see below) and wait for it to connect to the console. Once paired, controllers will reconnect automatically when woken up. There is no need to re-pair them every time.

Most native features should just work (with the exception of things like firmware update). If you find something that's broken please create an issue.

Pairing controllers

The supported controllers each have their own methods to enter pairing/sync mode. Below are instructions on entering this mode for each supported type.

Wii(U) Controllers Press the red sync button on the back of the controller. The controller LEDs will blink rapidly.

Dualshock4 Controllers Press and hold the PS + share buttons simultaneously until the lightbar starts blinking. When done correctly the blink pattern will resemble a heartbeat, otherwise it will blink periodically.

Xbox One Controllers Press and hold the guide(X) button until the LED starts blinking. Then press and hold the small sync button on the back near the charging port until the LED starts blinking more rapidly. You should also ensure your controller firmware is up to date, as old firmwares were known to have flakey bluetooth.

Other Controllers Please refer to your controller's user manual for information on how to put it in sync mode.

How it works

MissionControl works by Man-In-The-Middling the bluetooth system module and intercepting its initialisation IPC commands and system events, and translating incoming/outgoing data to convince the Switch that it's communicating with an official Pro Controller.

To achieve this, the btdrv-mitm module obtains the handles to bluetooth system events and shared memory when the system attempts to initialise them over IPC via the btm and hid modules. It then creates its own secondary versions of these and passes their handles on instead of the original. This allows modifications to be made to any data buffers before notifying (or not) the system. Additionally, the WriteHidData IPC command is intercepted to translate or drop outgoing requests to the controller. In the case of the latter, fake responses can be written directly to the buffer in shared memory.

Intercepting initialisation IPC commands also allows homebrew to properly make use of the bluetooth service. Normally, calling any of the IPC commands that would initialise or finalise system events would either crash the console, or invalidate the event handles held by system processes. With btdrv-mitm we are able to hand out alternative event handles when homebrew attempts to initialise an interface, and redirect the real system events to those instead of the events held by system processes.

IPS patches to the bluetooth module are provided to (re)enable the passing of abitrary pincodes when Bluetooth legacy pairing is used (Nintendo hardcodes a value of '0000', ignoring IPC arguments). This enables Wii(U) devices to be paired with the console.

The btm service is now also MITM'd, allowing for faking controller names on the fly while retaining the original names in the pairing database.

Building from source

First, clone the repository to your local machine and switch to the newly cloned directory

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ndeadly/MissionControl.git
cd MissionControl

MissionControl currently uses a custom fork of libnx that adds Bluetooth service wrappers and type definitions. This needs to be built and installed first

cd libnx
make && make install

Next build Atmosphere-libs

cd ../Atmosphere-libs
make

Finally, build and package the distribution .zip. This will build bluetooth-mitm and package it up with bluetooth exefs patches.

cd ..
make dist

The resulting package can be installed as described above.

Planned Features

• Controller management application
• Rumble support
• Motion support
• Keyboard and mouse support

Known Issues and Limitations

• Non-Switch controllers cannot be used to wake the system from sleep.
• Controllers that haven't had their hardware ID whitelisted for identification will not be recognised as connected. They will however still store their details to the database if they are able to successfully sync. If you encounter such a controller, please create an issue requesting support.
• Xbox One, Wii/WiiU and (especially) some Dualshock v1 controllers can take some time to be detected and subsequently pair with the Console. Be patient and re-enter the sync mode of the controller several times if neccessary. Once synced, controllers should work as usual.
• Xbox One button layout was changed at some point in a firmware update. Please ensure your controller firmware is up to date if you have issues with incorrect button mappings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this run on <insert CFW here>? No. MissionControl will only run under Atmosphère. This is not some petty act of malice toward other CFWs and their users. Others simply don't (currently) provide the framework neccessary for this sysmodule to work.

Does this support USB controllers? No. MissionControl is Bluetooth-only for now.

Does this work with sys-con installed? Yes, I have had several reports from users that the two can be used together without issue.

Installing this bricked my console!!!!!11!!1!11 No. If you are seeing errors about title 0100000000000008 upon rebooting your console you are almost certainly using an outdated Atmosphere version. Install the latest version from the official github release and follow the MissionControl installation instructions again. Custom boot2 was dropped in v0.2.0. 0100000000000008 errors should be a thing of the past.

How can I use this with multiple sysNAND/emuMMC launch configs? Pairing controllers across multiple unique HOS installations requires multiple pairing databases and is essentially the same as pairing with two different consoles. The only exception being the case where you paired the controller(s) prior to making sysNAND copies. For now you will have to re-pair your controllers when switching back and forth. In the future I hope to include an option to load/store the database on the SD card to avoid this issue.

Why have my official Joycon/Switch Pro Controllers stopped working over Bluetooth after installing MissionControl? It is possible to pair these controllers via the Joycon rails or a USB connection. In these cases a garbage hardware ID gets stored to the pairing database and the controller fails to be identified. Failure to identify a controller means I don't know how its input data should be handled, so I ignore it. This issue can be resolved by physicall disconnecting the controller from the console, deleting the pairing database with the System Settings->Controllers and Sensors->Disconnect Controllers option, and then re-pairing via bluetooth in the Change Grip/Order screen. This should no longer be an issue with the latest version of MissionControl.

Why doesn't my 3rd-party knockoff controller work? Many 3rd-party controllers also use garbage hardware IDs, making them difficult to identify reliably. If a controller can't be identified, I ignore it, since I have no idea how to process the incoming data. I am currently trying to find an alternate way to identifying them without creating problems elsewhere. Same as above.

My Xbox One Controller buttons are mapped incorrectly. Can you fix it? You didn't read the Known Issues and Limitations section, did you? You need to update your controller firmware to the latest version. This can be done on Windows using the Xbox Accessories app. You can also do this on the Xbox itself.

Can you add support for PS3 controllers? It's on my list of things to look into. The pairing process is non-standard and may require modifications to the bluetooth driver. If it can be done non-destructively I will add support eventually.

Can you add support for Xbox 360 controllers? No. These don't use Bluetooth. Try sys-con with a wireless USB adapter.

Can you add support for wake from sleep? Probably not. As far as I know, wake from sleep involves a controller sending a special control command to the Switch Bluetooth hardware. There is no way to make a non-switch controller send the command recognised by the Switch without modifying its hardware/firmware.

Can you add bluetooth audio support? No. The bluetooth module on the switch only implements a small set of services required to make hid controllers work. Of this small set of services, only a handful of high-level functions are exposed to the rest of the system. Adding audio support would require implementing the services neccessary for audio transport, for which any sane person would require an open-source re-implementation of the bluetooth module in order to have access the low-level functions required to pull it off.

Credits

• switchbrew for the extensive documention of the Switch OS.
• devkitPro for the homebrew compiler toolchain.
• SciresM for his dedicated work on the Atmosphère project, libstratosphere and general helpfulness with all things Switch related.
• misson20000 for his handy debug monitor Twili and IPC logger Ilia
• dekuNukem, CTCaer, shinyquagsire23 and others for their work in reversing and documenting the switch controller communication protocol.
• friedkeenan for helping to test Wii extension controller support.
• Everyone else over at the ReSwitched discord server who helped answering technical questions.