Test Software

The GCReader test software is packaged with the GC library. The source code is located in /extras/GCReader and the executable is located at /extras/GCReader vX.X/GCReader.exe.

It was written in Visual Studio and is meant to run on 32 or 64-bit Windows. It works on my 64-bit Windows 10 machine, but I haven't tried it on anything else.

This was my first time writing any sort of program with a GUI, so a lot of the code was copied from the MSDN documentation. Also, I found the code for communicating with the serial ports here.

Before running the software, upload the code for the Arduino located at /examples/GCReader_INO/GC_Reader.ino. This is required for the software to work.

Next, launch the software. The screen should say that the Arduino is not detected. Navigate to Tools > Change Port... > COMX and pick the port your Arduino is connected to. This should be the same port your Arduino was connected to to upload the code. If you don't know, you can also go to the Device Manager and look for the name of the port. If the port is in the range COM1-COM9, you can press that number on the keyboard to switch to that port.

Connect your controller if it hasn't been already, and you should see the virtual controller mimicking the actions on the controller. The two meters on the top represent the position of the triggers. The values of the analog inputs are also displayed on the screen. If you want to see the exact value of the inputs (out of 255) instead of a percentage, go to Tools > Show Raw Bytes or press B on the keyboard.