this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Steam Deck

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As mainly a console gamer over the years, I've become quite used to playing with a controller that has vibration. I feel that this is one thing the Deck is missing out on.

So I'm wondering if it's possible to somehow connect up a small vibration motor (externally) that can be connected to the Deck, and have it recognised as a controller?

Possibly more effort than it's worth but would be interesting to see if anyone has any ideas.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The deck does have a vibration motor. Do you mean to rig up a more powerful one?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yes that's right. The default ones are extremely weak!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

God damn these electric sex pants!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah because they're just using the haptics meant to provide feedback when you use the touchpads.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even though they use the same haptic motors, they do technically have the ability to be way stronger than they actually are while rumbling. Like when you first turn the device on and it vibrates, that is definitely more intense than it ever rumbles during gameplay.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't think I've ever even noticed it rumble during the gameplay I just assumed it was the fan speeding up lol.

It's not a deal breaker for me it stronger haptics would be nicem

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They can be stronger but then they start making audible noises. The original steam controller had stronger haptics and it sounded super loud.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

You can increase the vibration intensity in the steam deck settings. Have you maxed it out?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

For some reason this post reminds me of the good old N64 days where you had to load a vibration pak into the controller. Good time, good times.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, that is exactly what I want xD

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This may actually be the perfect solution! Internal vibration. Imagine playing Forza and feeling your insides jiggle as you accelerate through a corner. Possibly the closest thing to actually driving a car.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It sure sounds like a fun project to work on. If only I didn't have so many things in backlog already.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

*buttlog?

Usually would it be a case of game devs integrating buttplug.io support?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes as I understand it usually the game would call buttplug.io directly but since Steam Deck already has vibration motor that games use I think it could be possible to detect when the internal motor vibrates and then pass the same signal to buttplug.io. So kind of a bridge between the build in motor and a buttplug.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the idea! I'll look into this. Could be useful from a more generic perspective (i.e. just some kind of bluetooth vibration device that could attach to the Deck rather than a sex toy).

Sex toy genuinely would be great though lmao

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All the sim racers use them, only a casual would drive without the SportsPlugGTX

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've heard they're good for chess too

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

If you get your pawn to the other end you're allowed to put the plug on the board

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
  1. I'm in the work bathroom so I can't check, but I think you can crank the haptic settings up on the deck, maybe that might help hold you over.

  2. it might actually be easier to replace the vibration motors in the deck with those for another controller. They could be a standard size, and other motors might fit. It all depends on how the motors are controlled electrically, and whether sufficient power could be sent to the new motors, and if so whether the electrical system can handle it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Deck doesn't use conventional motors for vibration like most controllers do, it uses a haptic feedback engine built into each touchpad that works more like a speaker than a traditional vibration motor (which is just a motor with a spinning weight attached). You can't really interchange these.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do switch joy cons do that as well? I remember some indie games literally using vibrations as a speaker

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They have something similar, yes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Theoretically of course :D The Software side shouldn't be that hard either so if you get the motor somehow connected you could get fancy rumble instead of the haptic feedback which you can currently enable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Seems very doable, would just need a custom driver for the built-in controls that implements vibration.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How difficult would it be create a driver like that? Would someone with virtually no coding experience have any chance?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

As a programmer that has little to no idea how to program a driver, I think it's basically zero chance. It would take a LOT of research and learning. Define the problem, choose an appropriate language, choose and install the programming tools, learn how to program a device driver, learn about controller hardware, learn about Linux, learn the programming language, learn about Steam Deck, write code and test probably hundreds or thousands of times. If I were to wildly speculate I'd say it would be several months starting with basically zero knowledge but having time, will, and aptitude.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think OP thought you meant a software driver but you meant a hardware driver, didn't you?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I don't know LOL. My experience is mostly with Windows, I assume things are different with Linux.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, I would definitely struggle then! I guess my most realistic options would either be to take apart the Deck and replacing the existing motor with a stronger one, or hope that someone smarter than me has a similar idea and can code a driver

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

The Deck vibration isn't an ordinary motor like most console controllers use. It's a haptic feedback engine built into the touchpads. Basically it's kind of like a speaker - a coil (on the touchpad surface) placed over a fixed magnet. Instead of vibrating a cone like a speaker would to make sound, it vibrates the touchpad in a very precise way to mimic clicking and other haptic effects, but the downside is that it isn't as strong as just putting a spinning weight on a motor and making it go, which is what most controllers do.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The hardware can be as simple as a microcontroller with two motor drivers. The software would require some work though as you would have to somehow redirect the vibration commands from the game to go to your custom motor driver rather than the built-in controller (or split it to both). The other issue is providing power to your contraption.

I tried adding RGB lights to my Deck and modded in a microcontroller board with some LED strips. I found an interface to send data from the Deck to my microcontroller to control the LEDs (using some I2C pins I found) but I ended up killing a chip on my Deck's motherboard by pulling too much power from the 5V rail on the controller PCB. Motors also consume a lot of power so finding a safe power source for this mod would run into the same issue.

If you do attempt such a mod, don't try to draw power for the motors off of the integrated controller PCB. You run the risk of overloading the supply for it on the motherboard, and repairing that is messy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for this info. I think a hardware mod and/or software coding for this would be beyond my understanding.

Something externally plug and play would be amazing, but I doubt such a product exists.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Making a rumble pack type accessory that clips on the back wouldn't be too difficult from a hardware perspective, just a rumble motor and an Arduino with a type C connection would work fine, but the software involved to redirect just the rumble commands from the Deck controller to the rumble pack without also affecting the control input could be challenging. I'm not entirely familiar with how vibration is handled on Linux game controllers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Great info! I did wonder if something like that would be possible. Will look into this, thanks

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I always thought it would be a cool product idea to create a usb haptic feedback thing that attached to your desk, but no idea how you'd extract the vibration data unless you fake it based off of bass in the sound...

You could always use an external controller with haptics?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the game has native support for controllers, maybe the USB pack could act as a controller and you "mirror" the controller input between both the pack and the deck itself?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Probably, though that might not work if you wanted to actually use a mouse + kb on the desk

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Most things are possible with enough effort but the question is if it would be worth it. You could potentially replace the weight the motor spins with one that's heavier but then you risk burning out the motor and I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace. Adding an additional motor to the back could work. Maybe you could use an Adruino in combination with the Steam Deck's USB C port?

I imagine without a fair amount of effort though you'd lose any kind of feeling of 3D vibration. Depending on where it's mounted as well you might see diminishing returns.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Deck doesn't use a motor with a weight, it uses a vibration coil built into each touchpad that works more like a speaker. You couldn't just replace the motor or weight.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago