A damaged PlayStation controller would usually be a bummer, and if the difficulty is shedding calibration that’s saved in a non-documented format, you may as nicely bin it. For [Al] of [Al’s blog], nonetheless, it’s a problem, turning right into a four-part story – to date. The primary installment was printed January 1st this 12 months, and seeing the pure enthusiasm [Al] has reverse-engineering the DualShock 4 controller, you may guess that this can be a New Yr’s present from somebody who is aware of [Al] very nicely. The listing of issues with the joystick is quite a few, to start with – it’s simpler to listing all of the issues that work correctly, and it isn’t lots of them. Maybe, the firmware drawback is is probably the most attention-grabbing one to start out with.

We see the malfunctioning joystick torn aside, not actually as a lot as metaphorically, in that each nook and cranny on the way in which turns into acquainted. To be truthful, the controller did begin by placing up a struggle – connecting it to [Al]’s pc would fairly actually make the Linux kernel panic, inflicting to a divide-by-zero inside a driver. To not be delay, [Al] seems to be into the issues one after the other, and all roads result in a malfunctioning firmware inside this DualShock. Firmware it’s, then – after all, a proprietary mess. A labyrinth of DMCA-taken-down hyperlinks leads [Al] to a repository fork, with some seemingly-Sony-internal instruments for programming the DualShock’s inner information.

The rabbit gap continues on, main us by way of customized setting APIs and binary reverse-engineering, and it seems to be like we will anticipate an installment or two sooner or later – particularly if you happen to, the reader, may also help [Al] by offering some data from your personal DualShock. This can be a battle of wits by way of and thru, our hacker battling the depths of a proprietary piece of expertise made ubiquitous, and the aim is to get it working or kill time attempting. Hackers taming damaged expertise is a pleasure to witness. As an example, it’s essential that we keep in mind – in case your Bluetooth speaker is making annoying noises, you’ll be able to reprogram it. Now, alternatively, in case your DualShock behaves nicely, you’ll be able to reward it with a USB-C improve!