Pico2Maple

Example Project	Connected to Dreamcast

Pico2Maple is a Dreamcast Maple bus emulator for the RP2350. The goal of this project of to provide a way to for people to use a variety of non-Dreamcast controllers and accessories on the Sega Dreamcast.

Currently, it is possible to use several USB controllers, dongles, mice, and keyboards. Pico2Maple also integrates VMU support and saving to a micro-SD card.

Download

Download the latest firmware pico2maple_2025-02-09.

To install the firmware on the Pico 2:

• Hold down the BOOTSEL button while connecting the Pico to a PC. This should make it appear as a USB storage device.
• Copy the pico2maple uf2 file to the Pico. It should reboot itself with the new firmware.

Supported Controllers

• Steam Controller (wireless with dongle only)
• 8BitDo Wireless Dongle (great for connecting a huge variety of other controllers)
• XInput Controllers
• USB Keyboards
• USB Mice (variable compatibility)

Controls

Controls are mapped as you would expect with a few extra features:

• Select + Right Bumper/Left Bumper switch currently-active VMU bank (cycles through 10 different VMU banks)
• Select + A enable standard Dreamcast controller layout
• Select + B enable all controller inputs which activates the second joystick and the C,Z buttons. Z is mapped to left bumper and C to right bumper. Not all games will accept this layout.

Required Hardware

• Raspberry Pi Pico 2
• Dreamcast controller cable or plug
• Micro-USB to female USB-A adapter
• Optional:
  • SPI micro-SD breakout board and FAT32-formatted micro-SD card for saving VMU data (example)
  • SSD1306 128x64 OLED display for displaying VMU images and selected VMU bank (example)

Construction

Use a multi-meter to check which wires on the controller cable correspond to the following pins on the controller plug.

Connect the controller wires to the labelled pins on the Pico below by soldering or otherwise.

Optionally connect the SPI micro-SD board and the SSD1306 OLED screen to the labelled pins on the Pico 2.

With everything wired up, it's simply a matter of plugging in a USB device to the Pico 2 using the USB-A to Mini-USB adapter and plugging the Dreamcast controller cable into the console.

Changlog

2025-02-09

• Improved stability of the Maple bus
• Additional OLED display features showing what type of device is active (controller, keyboard, or mouse)

2024-12-15

• Initial release

Future Work

Feedback on this project is very welcome!

• Customizable controller layouts saved to micro-SD card
• Support a wider range of USB controllers.
• Bluetooth connectivity for Pico 2 W.
• Multiple controllers on a single Pico 2.

Libraries

• tinyusb - MIT
• tsub_xinput - MIT
• no-OS-FatFS-SD-SDIO-SPI-RPi-Pico - Apache 2.0