sc2d — Steam Controller 2 Android Daemon

Turn your Steam Controller (2026) into a standard Android gamepad, no Steam required.

Works on any rooted Android device with CONFIG_HIDRAW + CONFIG_INPUT_UINPUT (Retroid Pocket 3/4/5, Odin, Ayaneo, etc.).

What It Does

Before	After
Controller only works in Steam	Works in any Android app
Lizard mode (keyboard/mouse on touchpads)	Real gamepad with buttons, sticks, triggers
No rumble	Format documented, needs verification
Requires adb to toggle	Quick Settings Tile + controller hotkey

Features

• Full gamepad — buttons, analog sticks, D-pad, analog triggers
• Trackpads — multi-touch via MT protocol
• Hotkey stop — press Steam + Menu + View 3 times in quick succession → back to lizard mode
• Quick Settings Tile — toggle on/off from the notification shade
• Auto-reconnect — detects disconnect, reconnects on replug
• Clean exit — re-enables lizard mode on shutdown
• Android Back button — hold L5 + R5 for 0.5s to trigger system back

Requirements

• Root (Magisk recommended)
• Steam Controller 2 + wireless dongle (PID 28de:1304)
• adb for setup

Quick Start

# Push the daemon
adb push sc2d /data/local/tmp/
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/sc2d

# Run it
adb shell su -c /data/local/tmp/sc2d

Press Steam + Menu + View 3 times to stop and restore lizard mode.

Quick Settings Tile

1. Install sc2d-tile.apk
2. Swipe down twice → tap the pencil/edit icon
3. Find SC2D and drag it to active tiles
4. Tap the tile to start/stop the daemon

Build from Source

Daemon

Requires Android NDK (r21e or later):

export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=/path/to/android-ndk-r21e

cd android
mkdir build && cd build

cmake .. \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$ANDROID_NDK_HOME/build/cmake/android.toolchain.cmake \
  -DANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a \
  -DANDROID_PLATFORM=android-28

make -j$(nproc)

Quick Settings Tile

cd sc2d-tile
bash build.sh
adb install -r build/sc2d-tile.apk

How It Works

The Steam Controller connects to its dongle via a vendor HID collection (usage page 0xFF00), sending 54-byte state reports (report ID 0x42) at ~60 Hz. By default the controller runs in lizard mode, emulating a keyboard and mouse so it works without drivers.

The daemon:

1. Opens the vendor hidraw interface
2. Sends ID_CLEAR_DIGITAL_MAPPINGS + settings to disable lizard mode
3. Creates a /dev/uinput virtual gamepad with standard Android axis mapping
4. Parses the raw 0x42 input reports and emits evdev events
5. Runs a background heartbeat to keep lizard mode suppressed
6. On exit, performs a two-step lizard mode re-enable sequence

The 0x42 report layout is documented in SteamController.h.

Button Combos

Combo	Duration	Action
Tap Steam+Menu+View ×3	Within 1.5s	Stop daemon, restore lizard mode
Hold L5+R5	0.5s	Android system Back

Rumble

Rumble is not yet functional. The intended output report format (0x80) has been confirmed by sniffing Steam's USB traffic, but the exact byte values for continuous rumble need verification.

Report ID	Name	Status
0x80	Haptic Rumble	Format confirmed, needs testing
0x81	Haptic Pulse	Not implemented
0x82	Haptic Command	Not implemented

The captured USB data is in android/test/. If you figure out the correct values, PRs are very welcome.

Input Report Layout

Offset  Size  Description
──────  ────  ───────────────────────────
00      1     Report ID (0x42)
01      1     Sequence counter
02      1     Buttons byte 0: A, B, X, Y, RS, Menu, R4
03      1     Buttons byte 1: R5, RB, D-pad, View, LS
04      1     Buttons byte 2: Steam, L4, L5, LB, RS_touch, TP_rt
05      1     Flags: LS_touch, TP_lt, TP_click, Grip_L, Grip_R
06-07   2     Left trigger  (s16 LE, 0–0x7FFF)
08-09   2     Right trigger (s16 LE, 0–0x7FFF)
10-11   2     Left stick X  (s16 LE)
12-13   2     Left stick Y  (s16 LE)
14-15   2     Right stick X (s16 LE)
16-17   2     Right stick Y (s16 LE)
18-19   2     Left trackpad X  (s16 LE)
20-21   2     Left trackpad Y  (s16 LE)
22-23   2     Left trackpad contact area
24-25   2     Right trackpad X (s16 LE)
26-27   2     Right trackpad Y (s16 LE)
28-29   2     Right trackpad contact area
30-31   2     Constant (0x03 0x46)
32-39   8     IMU quaternion (4× s16 LE)
44-45   2     Battery level (0xFFFF = full)

Android Axis Mapping

SC Input	evdev Code	Android Axis
Left stick X/Y	ABS_X / ABS_Y	AXIS_X / AXIS_Y
Right stick X/Y	ABS_Z / ABS_RZ	AXIS_Z / AXIS_RZ
Left trigger	ABS_BRAKE	AXIS_BRAKE
Right trigger	ABS_GAS	AXIS_GAS
D-pad	ABS_HAT0X / ABS_HAT0Y	AXIS_HAT_X / AXIS_HAT_Y

Credits

• SteamlessController — Windows reference implementation (MIT)
• sc-evdev — Rust port with unverified rumble
• SDL — Triton output report definitions (Zlib)

License

MIT