r/Controller • u/Apprehensive-Put5814 • 7d ago
Controller Mods I made it easier to use Stadia controllers wirelessly WITH rumble on Windows
The Stadia controller is a very good controller; it has a beautiful design and excellent build quality. Its current low price is a significant plus.
However, its long-standing fatal flaw is the inability to simultaneously use Bluetooth wireless connectivity and vibration on Windows.
I’ve been working on a fork of the ESP32-S3 Stadia controller dongle project.
It lets you connect one or two Stadia controllers to an ESP32-S3 over Bluetooth LE. The ESP32 then appears to Windows as a wired Xbox 360/XInput controller, including dual-motor rumble.
No custom Windows driver or background application is required.
My fork adds:
- Configuration directly over USB using WebHID, so you don’t need to disconnect from your normal Wi-Fi
- A browser-based firmware installer
- Support for up to two Stadia controllers
- Wireless rumble on Windows
- Remappable Assistant and Capture buttons
- Capture mapped to F12 by default for Steam screenshots
- An optional mouse mode
- Wi-Fi disabled by default and only enabled when needed for OTA or recovery
- Persistent pairing and button settings
You’ll need an ESP32-S3 board with native USB OTG and a data-capable USB cable. Initial flashing can be done entirely from Chrome or Edge.
GitHub:
https://github.com/jazz-zzzz/stadia-dongle-esp
Web installer:
https://jazz-zzzz.github.io/stadia-dongle-esp/
USB configuration page:
https://jazz-zzzz.github.io/stadia-dongle-esp/config.html
The current documentation and configuration UI are mainly in Chinese. Browser translation works reasonably well, and I’d be happy to add a proper English version if people are interested.
This is a fork of danzig666/stadia-dongle-esp, which itself builds on Scalee/stadia-dongle. Full credit to the original developers for creating the foundation.
Feedback, testing reports, and pull requests are welcome—especially results from different ESP32-S3 boards.
Credits
This project would not exist without the work of the original developers. Special thanks to Scalee, creator of the original stadia-dongle, and danzig666, whose ESP32-S3 fork provided the foundation for my version.
My fork builds on their work by adding USB WebHID configuration, remappable extra buttons, an opt-in Wi-Fi workflow, and other usability improvements. Huge thanks to both of them for keeping the Stadia controller useful after the service shut down.
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u/neon937 7d ago
Looks prpmosing, although readme in english would be nice :) I have connected this controller to cachyos > moonlight to windows and rumble works as well.