pad2c

Use an 8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless Controller on a jailbroken PS5, as a second controller next to your DualSense.

pad2c is a payload for a jailbroken PS5. It reads the 8BitDo 2.4G dongle plugged into the console's USB port and shows it to the system and to games as a virtual DualSense. No Bluetooth is involved, so it never touches your DualSense's pairing.

Screenshots

Switching the 8BitDo on and off, with pad2c running on the console:

 

Left: switched on; the console asks who is using the controller. Right: switched off.

Which controller

Controller	Supported
8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless Controller (the one sold for PC / Android, with a 2.4G USB dongle), through its dongle	✅
8BitDo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth Controller (the Switch edition, no dongle)	❌ different product
The Ultimate 2C Wireless over Bluetooth, without the dongle	❌ not yet
Other 8BitDo 2.4G dongles	untested: run pad2c-probe.elf and open an issue with its output

Why this controller, and why the dongle

The controller is simply the one I own: pad2c was made to play with it on my PS5, next to the DualSense. It is also a cheap way to get a second controller: a DualSense costs at least twice as much as the Ultimate 2C Wireless, which still has Hall effect sticks and triggers.

The dongle instead of Bluetooth, on purpose:

• No conflicts. The PS5 has one Bluetooth chip, and the system uses it for the DualSense. Sharing it from a payload risks taking over or unpairing the DualSense, and the chip is laid out differently from one console model to another. The dongle is a plain USB device: pad2c never touches the console's Bluetooth.
• Simpler. No pairing, no Bluetooth stack to keep alive, no reconnection logic: the dongle and the controller already talk to each other, and pad2c only reads what the dongle sends.
• Practical. Plug the dongle into a USB port and switch the controller on. That is all.

FAQ

Can I use an 8BitDo controller on a PS5? Not on a stock PS5: it only accepts its own and a few licensed controllers. On a jailbroken PS5, pad2c makes the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C appear as a DualSense.

Does it work in games, or only in the menus? In games too. Give the controller its own console user (the console asks when you press Home) and it is player 2, like a second DualSense.

Do I lose my DualSense? No. Both work at the same time. pad2c does not use Bluetooth at all.

Which firmware? Tested on 13.60 (PS5 Slim). It needs a console that already runs a payload loader such as elfldr or Payload Manager; it does not jailbreak anything itself.

Status

Tested on	PS5 Slim (CFI-2114), firmware 13.60, elfldr 0.26, kstuff-lite 1.11, Payload Manager 0.5.2
Controller	8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wireless, 2.4G dongle (2dc8:301c)
Works	all buttons, sticks, analog triggers, d-pad, Home = PS, console menus and games, sleep and wake, the console's "who is using this controller" screen, remembers its user, "turn off" from the console's menu
Not yet	vibration, light bar, motion sensors, audio

Other firmwares and console models are untested.

Notes:

• The 8BitDo has no touchpad: its extra L4 / R4 buttons press the touchpad.
• "Turn off" in the console's menu disconnects the controller from the console, as with a DualSense, and Home connects it again. The 8BitDo itself stays on until it goes to sleep by itself (the dongle's commands to switch it off are not known).
• Vibration: PS5 games send DualSense haptics as audio to the controller, and a virtual DualSense has no known way to receive them yet.

Button map

8BitDo	DualSense
A / B / X / Y	✕ / ○ / □ / △ (by position)
LB / RB / LT / RT	L1 / R1 / L2 / R2 (analog)
View / Menu	Create / Options
Home	PS
L3 / R3	L3 / R3
L4 / R4	touchpad click

Install

1. Plug the dongle into a USB port of the PS5 and switch the controller on in 2.4G mode.
2. Send pad2c-<version>.elf to your payload loader (elfldr listens on port 9021), or add it to Payload Manager and to its autoload list, so that it starts with the console.
3. A notification says it is running. Press Home on the 8BitDo: the console asks who is using the controller. For a second player, pick a second user (a game takes one controller per user). pad2c remembers the choice and gives the controller back to that user next time, as a DualSense does.

Files, all in /data/pad2c/:

File
pad2c.log	the log
stop	create it to stop pad2c (it also stops by itself before rest mode)
owner	the user the controller was last given to (delete it to forget)
bind_user	optional: main, other or a hexadecimal user id, to give the controller to that user at once

How it works

• src/usbpad.c opens the dongle's /dev/ugenB.A node and reads its interrupt IN endpoint. The console's own HID driver holds the interface but ignores the device. The internal Bluetooth chip (ugen0.2) is never touched.
• With no controller the dongle shows up as "8BitDo IDLE". When the controller connects, the dongle enumerates again and sends report 1. src/map8bitdo.c turns that report into DualSense buttons (make test checks it against reports captured on a console). When the controller sleeps, the dongle enumerates again and the open device ends.
• src/ps5_vpad.c creates the virtual DualSense (scePadVirtualDevice*), finds its device id in the kernel log, gives it to a user (sceMbusBindDeviceWithUserId) and feeds it. It follows the kernel log while running: the console's choice of user is remembered, and its "turn off" (sceMbusDisconnectDevice) removes the virtual pad.
• src/probe.c is a read-only diagnostic payload: it dumps the USB descriptors and the reports of whatever is plugged in. Useful to add support for another USB controller.

Build

Needs ps5-payload-sdk and clang, lld and llvm (Linux or WSL):

export PS5_PAYLOAD_SDK=/opt/ps5-payload-sdk
make test     # the button map, on the PC
make          # dist/pad2c-<version>.elf and dist/pad2c-probe.elf

Credits

• The virtual DualSense code (ps5_vpad.c) and the helpers log.c, util.c, lock.c, ps5_power.c and pad.h come from AnyPad PS5 by @elmonomalvad0 (sinfiltros), GPL-3.0-or-later, adapted here.
• ps5-payload-sdk by John Törnblom.

Licence

GPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

No Sony code, keys or firmware are part of this project. pad2c does not jailbreak anything: it needs a console that already runs a payload loader.