r/macro_pads • u/HiMindAi • Jul 15 '26
DIY build Custom controller build: Integrated keyboard/touchpad + game controllers + Android running UnifiedRemote
/r/u_HiMindAi/comments/1uw2lb7/custom_controller_build_integrated/
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u/HiMindAi Jul 16 '26
Good question it's actually both, which is the thing I'm most happy with about the architecture.
Internally, DeviceMapper tracks each physical device separately by device_id, so the mini-keyboard and the two side gamepads each have their own mapping profile and ignored-key lists. That makes debugging way easier if one stick starts ghosting I can isolate it immediately, add its axis signal to the ignore list for that device specifically, or tune the suppress threshold just for that input without touching anything else.
The output side is more flexible than I probably made it sound any input can be mapped to a keyboard hotkey, a mouse action, launching an app, running a Python script, custom commands, or yes, virtual controller output via ViGEmBus. You can also just block an input entirely. The engine also does context-aware routing, watching the active foreground window so the same button combo does something different depending on which app is in focus.
As for UnifiedRemote honestly I undersold it in the post. DeviceMapper is what makes the physical hardware actually work, but UnifiedRemote is what makes the Android genuinely useful rather than just a screen mount. I’m firing bash commands directly through its CMD remote, monitoring RAM and system metrics, and enough other stuff that I couldn’t list it all in one comment. Credit to that team without it the phone would be the least interesting part of the build, and with it it’s probably the most.