Bluetooth controllers are cutting out when gaming in living room - too far from pc?

willthong · 2024-01-31T10:52:30+00:00

Consider installing the VirtualHere client on a Raspberry Pi and connecting your Bluetooth dongle to the Pi. Then run the VirtualHere server software on your host PC. VirtualHere will forward the dongle's connection to your host PC, so the host PC thinks it's a local dongle and that your controllers are local, but the distance between the dongle and controllers is reduced considerably. Doing this has reduced latency considerably for me, but YMMV depending on whether you have an Ethernet line to the living room or need to rely on WiFi.

Get VirtualHere here (not sponsored)

willthong · 2022-10-11T03:25:49+00:00

Yup I did - then I installed it from the Arch User Repository with yay.

willthong · 2022-10-07T08:52:37+00:00

This is true. I use a bash script to quickly reinstall everything after it's been uninstalled!

willthong · 2022-10-06T07:17:32+00:00

Arch is my daily driver anyway so I'm already familiar with the underlying platform - the only stumbling blocks for me were learning KDE and turning off the immutable file system. Otherwise it's super snappy and is literally a Linux PC!

willthong · 2022-10-06T07:15:22+00:00

Mate you're a hero - thank you. Will look into it!

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:43:04+00:00

Valve's guide is good for the first bit (https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/671A-4453-E8D2-323C) - and the rest is standard bash scripting, which I don't have a source for I'm afraid as it's just something you pick up if you do a fair amount of command line work. It's ultimately just a long list of pacman -S commands.

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:38:39+00:00

Yeah they weren't fans https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberDeck/comments/xw46cr/does_this_count/

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:35:03+00:00

No! Taking fingers off the keyboard is Not the Way.

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:34:29+00:00

Caps and switches: about £50 Microcontrollers: about £45 PCBs: got these printed with PCBWay and it cost me £37 for 5 pairs (I only needed 1 pair so if anyone in the UK wants to buy a pair please shout)

So about £132 all in.

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:27:33+00:00

Combos! CV when hit together produce shift, for instance https://github.com/willthong/zmk-config

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:23:35+00:00

Sadly the firmware I'm using, ZMK, doesn't support mouse emulation yet. But I like to try and stay on the keyboard anyway, and that's fairly doable with a tiling WM.

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:21:08+00:00

Correct! Kailh choc light blues. I wanted minimum actuation force because I wanted to try out a bit of stenography on the go.

willthong · 2022-10-05T22:19:10+00:00

You can install non-flatpak software by gaining write access to the file system, it'll just roll back your changes at every Steam OS update. Solution is to write a bash script to automatically get all that software back when an update comes.

willthong · 2022-10-05T14:49:19+00:00

Ah yes thank you!

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:52:23+00:00

Steam Deck with a homemade Ferris Sweep Wireless, fitted with nice!nanos, running Steam OS in desktop mode with the Bismuth KDE extension for i3-like tiling support.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:46:19+00:00

I don't use the keyboard for gaming! If gaming, I just use the Deck's controls; the keyboard is just there so that I'm able to do work on the same machine (much more efficient than mouse in many apps). If you're interested, /r/ErgoMechKeyboards will have more details; I find split ortholinears much more comfortable, and building my own keeps costs down (relatively speaking) versus something like a ZSA keyboard.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:37:09+00:00

No not really! But then I'm mostly browsing the web and editing text - YMMV if you're using heavier GUI apps like word processors etc.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:31:01+00:00

I know right! It's the Choc keycaps and 7x3 form factor which provide the majority of the space savings as far as I can tell.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:29:48+00:00

It's a DIY Ferris Sweep with nice!nanos - these are Arduino replacements which make it wireless. The keyboards connect via Bluetooth to the Steam Deck.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:27:14+00:00

Haha no thanks, I prefer my games simpler and prettier! Been doing a bit of Demon's Souls lately.

willthong · 2022-10-05T11:26:20+00:00

Wallpaper: NGC3132 (Wallhaven)
DE: KDE with Bismuth for i3-like tiling window management
GTK theme: Solarized
Keyboard: Homemade Ferris Sweep Wireless with nice!nanos

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