u/jack-of-some

Two days ago I posted about OpenPuck, my project for reimplementing the Steam Controller puck communication protocol using an $8 microcontroller so that we could make replacement pucks and also emulate other controllers at a hardware level. Since then I've been hard at work improving the firmware and have some updates to share:

• Haptics should now feel exactly like they do with the official puck. A rare bug where the controller could make a buzzing noise until the Steam button was pressed appears to be fixed.
• More controller types can be emulated now, including Switch Pro with gryo (won't work on the console but will work on things like Yuzu) and DS4 and 5 (maps gyro and trackpads). I have no use for this but I've been assured that this is useful for games that support gyro natively but don't support Steam Input.
• The "lizard mode" which activates when Steam is not running can be activated on command now even when Steam is running. This can be useful in situations where a UAC dialog comes up (which is a problem for the Steam controller as is unless Steam is running in administrator mode).
• The shortcuts for activating different emulated controllers can be changed now using the WebUSB configurator. A is reserved for Steam controller but the other 3 can be mapped to any of the other modes.
• Waking the host computer is now supported and it (in my opinion) works better and more reliably than the official puck. When the computer goes to sleep, if the controller is still on and you press the Steam button, it'll wake the computer. If the controller is shut down and you turn it on, it'll wake the computer. If you walk up to the computer and press the power button with your little toe, it'll wake the computer. If you burp so loud th... you get the gist.

You can find the project here with an updated readme and improved build instructions. If you end up trying this out please let me know how it goes.

Before I go out putting together a sniffer and trying to do this myself I wanted to ask if anyone has done any work on reverse engineering the communication protocol between the puck and the controller.

I'm an American that's currently living in Germany for a few months. How do I order the controller to be delivered in Germany using my account?

When I look at changing the country in Steam it says I need to use a local card (I still use my American credit card while in Germany).