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Devices

Every gamepad, joystick, keyboard, mouse, and touchpad PadForge can see lives on this page as a card.

Devices page showing detected controllers with status and slot badges

Page layout

Area What it holds
Left panel One card for each detected device
Right panel Detail pane for the selected device. Identity, slot assignment, hiding, live raw input.
Header Refresh button, Pair button (Wii controllers, DualShock 3, PS Move / Navigation, serial controllers and DJI remotes), Online count, Total count (includes disconnected)

Device card list

Physical devices sort first. Merged devices (All Keyboards, All Mice, All Touchpads, All Consumer Controls) sort to the bottom. Within each group, cards sort alphabetically by name, then by Vendor ID, then by Product ID.

Type filter chips

A row of chips sits above the card list: ALL, GAMEPAD, JOYSTICK, WHEEL, KEYBOARD, MOUSE, OTHER. Each chip carries a live count of the cards in that group, offline cards included. Click one to show only that type. Click ALL to clear the filter. The active chip lights up in ember orange.

GAMEPAD covers standard pads, plus First Person and Supplemental devices. JOYSTICK covers joysticks and flight sticks. WHEEL covers racing wheels. OTHER holds everything else: touchpads, MIDI devices, NFC readers, analog keyboard cards, Web Menus phones, and anything unclassified.

Type filter chips above the device list, each with a live count

Card layout

Top row:

Element Description
Status flame The same ember flame the driver cards wear. Filled and glowing for connected, outline only for disconnected.
Device name The name the hardware reports (e.g., "Xbox Wireless Controller"). Merged devices show "All Keyboards (Merged)", "All Mice (Merged)", "All Touchpads (Merged)", or "All Consumer Controls (Merged)".
Slot badges Slot numbers the device is assigned to, each with the slot's controller-type icon (a Nintendo slot wears the Switch mark). No badge shows if the device is unassigned.
Remove button X. Opens a Remove Device confirmation, and the device and its settings are deleted once you click Remove. Revealed on hover or keyboard focus.

Bottom row (one wrapping metadata line):

Element Description
Type Gamepad, Joystick, Wheel, Flight Stick, First Person, Supplemental, Mouse, Keyboard, Touchpad, Drawing Tablet, NFC Reader, Consumer Control, MIDI Controller, Microphone, Headset Tracker, Handheld Buttons, System Motion, Head Tracker, VR Controller, Logitech G-Keys, Keyboard Screen, Novint Falcon, Analog Keyboard, Web Menus, Game Telemetry, Haptics, Lighting, or plain Device for anything unclassified.
VID:PID USB Vendor and Product ID in hex (054C:0CE6 for DualSense). Omitted for merged and virtual sources that report no ID.
Capabilities Axis, button, and POV hat counts plus feature tags: Rumble, Gyro, Accel, Touchpad (a gamepad with a touch surface), and NFC (a Switch controller with a tag reader)
Battery A battery glyph and percentage for a connected device that reports a battery level. The glyph switches to a charging variant while the device is charging or plugged in at full charge.

Devices that report no battery (wired pads without one, most wired sticks and wheels) and offline devices show no battery indicator. A battery-equipped pad on a USB cable shows the charging glyph. The same percentage appears again as a small suffix next to the device name in a slot's assigned-device list, so you can read a controller's charge without opening its card.

Selecting a card

Click a card. A vertical accent bar appears on the left edge. The detail pane fills in.

Removing a device

The X button opens a Remove Device confirmation. Click Remove and the device and all its settings (mappings, slot assignments, hiding) are deleted. A keyboard screen's choices go with it, and a Bliss-Box port's go back to the defaults. The slot stays. It just becomes unassigned.

If the device is still plugged in, it comes back on the next scan as a fresh device with no settings.

Device detail pane

Device name and dossier

The detail pane opens with the device name as a large heading. Below it sits the Device Dossier, a recessed monospace card that gathers every identity field PadForge holds for the device into one place. A Copy button at the top-right of the card copies the whole dossier to the clipboard as text, handy when filing a bug report.

Rows whose fact the device does not report collapse instead of showing a blank placeholder. A wired pad shows no LINK row, a device that reports no serial number shows no SERIAL row, and a device with no path shows no PATH row.

Device Dossier card with labeled identity rows and a Copy button

Row Description
PRODUCT Product name from hardware
TYPE Device category
CAPS Axis / button / POV counts and feature tags
APP GUID The identity string PadForge builds for the device, from its serial number when it reports one and from its path otherwise. How the GUID is built has the full order. It is what keeps a device's settings across reboots and re-plugs. Marquee-scrolls if long.
SDL GUID The 32-character hex string SDL uses to look up the device's mapping. Shown when the device reports one. Marquee-scrolls if long.
PATH HID path used for HidHide hiding. A bridged device (such as a DualShock 3 over Bluetooth) shows its connection path here instead, and a merged row or a row PadForge builds itself shows its internal address, such as aggregate://keyboards or headtrack://opentrack.
VID:PID Vendor and Product ID in hex
LINK Reads BT for a Bluetooth connection. Absent for wired and other links.
SERIAL The serial number the device reports (a Bluetooth MAC address on most wireless pads). Shown when reported.
BATT Battery glyph and percentage. Shown only when the device reports a battery.

A row of capability icons sits at the bottom of the card, with a rumble, gyro, or touchpad mark for each of those the device has. Click the rumble mark to vibrate the device and identify it.

Submit Device Mapping button

Shows in the detail pane for any device PadForge does not already recognize. It is hidden for known gamepads, keyboards, mice, touchpads, drawing tablets, MIDI devices, NFC readers, headset motion trackers, Consumer Control devices, microphones, analog keyboards, Web Menus phones, Novint Falcons, and the Hidden Buttons, System Motion, Head Tracker, VR Controller, Logitech G-Keys, keyboard screen, Game Telemetry, Lighting, and Haptics rows. Everything else gets the button, so joysticks, wheels, flight sticks, and unclassified HID devices all qualify.

Click it. Your browser opens a GitHub issue pre-filled with every field PadForge can read from the device:

  • Device name
  • USB Vendor ID (hex)
  • USB Product ID (hex)
  • SDL GUID (the 32-character hex string SDL uses to look up mappings)
  • Axis count
  • Button count
  • Hat / POV count

You fill in the per-input mapping by hand. Which raw axis index is Left Stick X. Which raw button index is A. Read those off the raw input section on this page while pressing each control.

Once the issue is merged, the mapping ships in the app's built-in controller mapping database and auto-loads on every PadForge install. Future users with the same hardware get the device recognized without further setup.

Why use the button over a blank template

The blank Device Mapping issue template makes you type the device identification fields yourself. The in-app button reads them straight from PadForge's live SDL3 enumeration, so the SDL GUID can't be mistyped. Use the button when the device is plugged in.

Switch Driver buttons

Five devices can give PadForge more when they run on Windows' WinUSB driver, but the switch takes something away from Windows, so PadForge moves them only when you ask. Selecting one shows a button in the detail pane:

Device Button What the switch costs
Xbox 360 wired controller, revisions 1.10 and 1.14 Read the Chatpad The controller then works only while PadForge runs, and games see it through PadForge's virtual controller. Every plugged-in controller of this model moves with it, and each needs assigning to its slot again.
Microsoft Xbox 360 wireless receiver Read Chatpads and uDraw Tablets Every controller and headset on the receiver moves with it, works only while PadForge runs, and needs assigning to its slot again.
Intel Wireless Series base station Read the Gamepads The Intel wireless keyboard on it stops typing in Windows.
Creative Prodikeys Read the Music Keys The keyboard's media and sleep keys stop working in Windows. Its typing keys keep working.
Logitech iFeel Mouse and iFeel MouseMan Play Rumble on This Mouse Windows stops using the mouse as a pointer until its driver is restored. PadForge moves the pointer from it only while PadForge runs and the mouse is assigned to a Keyboard + Mouse virtual controller. One mouse of a model moves at a time, so unplug the others of that model first. See Logitech iFeel mice.

A Switch to PadForge's Driver confirmation states the cost before anything moves. Once a device is on PadForge's driver, the same place shows Restore the Windows Driver, which removes PadForge's driver package and puts every device it served back on its Windows driver. A few seconds into each start, PadForge names any of these devices that Windows moved back on its own.

Pads in iCade mode

A pad in iCade mode pairs as a Bluetooth keyboard and types one letter when a button goes down and another when it comes up. The ION iCade cabinet reads as a controller on its own. For any other pad, select its keyboard's card and click Read as iCade Controller. The keyboard's card goes offline, and an iCade Controller card takes its place with a gamepad layout: A on Back, B on the left shoulder, C on Start, D on the right shoulder, E, F, G and H on the face buttons. Read as Keyboard, on either card, turns it back into a keyboard. The letters still reach the program in the foreground, because Windows still sees a keyboard. PadForge keeps up to 32 keyboard IDs in iCade mode and reads up to eight iCade devices at a time, the ION iCade cabinet included.

Namco USIO layout

One USB ID serves the Namco USIO boards of Taiko no Tatsujin and Tekken cabinets, and each game lays out the board's inputs its own way. PadForge reads the board as two Taiko drums until told otherwise. Select a drum's card and click Read as Tekken Sticks to read four arcade sticks instead. Read as Taiko Drums, on a stick's card, goes back. The board opens again in the new layout, so its cards leave and the other layout's arrive a moment later. While the engine is stopped, or paused in the background, the change waits and takes effect when it runs again.

Assigning devices to slots

Toggle buttons

The Virtual Controller Assignment section in the detail pane shows numbered toggles, one per existing slot.

  • Highlighted = assigned to that slot
  • Normal = not assigned
  • More than one toggle can be on at the same time (see Multi-slot below)

Assigning a device builds a default mapping if none exists and updates the slot badges. You stay on the Devices page. Open the slot's config page from the sidebar when you want to tune the mapping.

Drag and drop

Drag a card from the left panel onto a sidebar slot card. Same result as switching that slot's toggle on.

What happens on assignment

  1. The slot's virtual controller is created if it does not exist yet
  2. A default mapping is built for the device type and output type (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Extended, etc.)
  3. For gamepads, joysticks, wheels, flight sticks, and First Person devices, Hide from Games (HidHide) turns on if HidHide is installed
  4. Slot badges update right away

Unassigning a device from every slot clears both hiding options.

Multi-slot assignment

One physical device can feed more than one slot at the same time. Real uses:

  • Two output types at once. One pad feeding an Xbox slot for the game and an Extended slot for a flight sim overlay.
  • Split button subsets. Left side mapped to one slot, right side to another.
  • A/B testing. Compare deadzone, sensitivity, or macro setups without swapping hardware.
  • MIDI plus gamepad. Game input and MIDI signals from the same pad.

Toggle multiple slot buttons in the detail pane. Each slot keeps its own mapping, so the same physical input can mean different things on different slots.

Slot badges show every assigned slot number at a glance.

Raw input

The bottom of the detail pane shows live hardware data before any mapping, deadzone, or sensitivity work. Updates about 30 times a second while the engine runs.

Axes

Each axis row has:

Element Description
Name Axis N, numbered by the axis's real slot. In gamepad mode a pad that lacks a stick or trigger skips those numbers, so gaps are normal (a PS Move Navigation reads Axis 0, 1, 2, then 6, 7, 10, and 12 through 15). Raw mode numbers densely from 0. The row never switches to friendly names like LX or LT. The Head Tracker and Game Telemetry rows are the exceptions: the Head Tracker's axes read Head Yaw through Head Z, and Game Telemetry's read Speed, RPM, Throttle, Brake, Clutch, Handbrake, Steering and each custom variable by name.
Progress bar Horizontal, 0-1 range. A centered stick reads ~50%.
Raw value Exact integer (0-65535) in monospace

Look for:

  • Center drift. The axis does not rest at ~32768 when you let go. Use Calibrate Center on the Sticks tab.
  • Trigger baseline. Some triggers rest at 0, others at 32768. Depends on hardware and input mode.
  • Dead axes. Axis never moves. The mapping database may have a bad entry. Try Force Raw Joystick Mode.

Buttons

Small circles in a wrap layout, labeled by index (0, 1, 2...).

State Look
Released Dim recessed cell
Pressed Outline and number lit in cold blue, with a glow

Gamepad mode shows the standard buttons the pad has (0 is A, 1 is B, on through Guide at 10, and a partial pad such as the PS Move Navigation skips the ones it lacks) plus every extended button the pad actually has: Misc1 at 11, paddles at 12–15, touchpad click at 16, Misc2–6 at 17–21. Physical buttons the mapping leaves unclaimed follow from 22 up. Each circle is numbered by its real index, the same number the mapping picker and recorder use, so gaps are normal. A DualSense shows a button 16 for its touchpad click with nothing at 12–15. Raw mode shows every physical button instead, densely numbered from 0. Either way the circles read as numbers, not letters.

Consumer Control and NFC Reader devices replace the numbered grid with named chips (media keys) or named tags, and a microphone replaces it with its voice phrases. The Hidden Buttons, VR Controller, Logitech G-Keys, and keyboard screen rows show a named button list instead, with no axis bars. See their sections below. A Novint Falcon adds a Handle square above its axes, with a dot where the handle is, and names its axes Left/Right, Up/Down and In/Out.

Keyboards

A QWERTY layout replaces axes and buttons. Main keys, navigation cluster, arrows, numpad. Keys light up in the same cold blue as the button circles as you press them.

Mice

A mouse graphic replaces axes and buttons:

  • Button presses highlight on the mouse body
  • Motion direction shows visually
  • Scroll wheel activity reads as scroll intensity

POV / D-pad

Compass widgets with a direction line, labeled "POV 0", "POV 1", etc.

State Look
Centered Background circle with center dot, no line
Direction pressed Cold blue line from center toward the pressed direction

All 8 directions are supported (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW). Some specialty controllers report continuous angular values.

Gyroscope

Shows on devices with a gyro sensor (DualSense, DualShock 4, Switch Pro, others). Rotational velocity. Used by the DSU Motion Server for motion-enabled emulators.

Axis Motion
X Pitch (forward / backward tilt)
Y Yaw (left / right rotation)
Z Roll (side-to-side tilt)

Three decimal places. A still controller reads near 0.000.

A second block, Aux Gyroscope, appears for the left Joy-Con of a combined pair. It sits beside the Aux Accelerometer readout, so you can see which half a reading comes from, and it maps as its own source (Left Joy-Con Gyro Pitch, Yaw, and Roll). Only the Joy-Con pair shows one. The Nunchuk has no gyro.

Accelerometer

Shows on devices with an accelerometer. Linear acceleration:

Axis Motion
X Left / right
Y Up / down. Gravity registers here, so a still controller reads about 9.8 or -9.8.
Z Forward / backward

Values are in meters per second squared. Gravity always shows up, so whichever axis points up or down sits near 9.8 or -9.8 at rest. Unlike the gyro, the accelerometer does not settle to zero when the controller is still.

A second block, Aux Accelerometer, appears when a device carries a second sensor: the Nunchuk's own accelerometer, or the left Joy-Con of a combined pair. Same three axes. It maps as its own source.

Touchpads

PadForge reads two kinds of touch surfaces on the Devices page.

  • Gamepad touchpads. The touch surfaces on DualShock 4, DualSense, Steam Controller, and Steam Deck. SDL3 reports them as part of the gamepad. They show up in the raw input view with contact position and finger count.
  • Windows Precision Touchpad. Laptop trackpads and external precision touchpads. PadForge treats each one as its own device card with a live touch preview. It reads no click from these trackpads, so no click input appears for them in the mapping picker or auto-map.

Surface count comes from SDL. Most pads report one. The Steam Controller 2026, the Steam Deck, and the 2015 Steam Controller each report two. A multi-surface device shows a separate live preview per pad, labeled Touchpad 1 and Touchpad 2 in the raw input view. The Devices page draws at most those two previews. Every surface still maps.

Pressure maps too on gamepad touchpads. Each finger gets a Touchpad N Finger M Pressure source in the mapping picker, and pads that report a touch as full pressure (DualShock 4, DualSense, Steam Controller 2015) can shape it with the per-device Enable Synthetic Pressure option on the Touchpad tab. A Windows Precision Touchpad reports no pressure, so it gets no Pressure source.

A third and fourth source live elsewhere: Web Controller clients in touchpad-only or DS4-with-touchpad mode, and the on-screen Touchpad Overlay. All four feed the same per-slot configuration on the Touchpad tab.

MIDI devices

A connected MIDI keyboard, pad controller, or control surface shows up here as its own device card. Select it and the detail pane shows a live preview: a piano that lights the notes you play and vertical sliders that follow the knobs and faders. Its notes, Control Change knobs, pitch bend, and encoder dials map like any button or axis.

MIDI input runs on Windows MIDI Services, the same API the MIDI virtual controller uses, or without it on the legacy MIDI API. Under the legacy API a MIDI device's port opens only while a slot has the device assigned, so its preview stays still until then. See MIDI Input for the full list of what maps.

Analog keyboards

With Read Analog Keyboards on in Settings, each supported analog or Hall effect keyboard gets a card of its own, typed Analog Keyboard, beside its normal keyboard card. Select it and a Key Depth panel replaces the axes and button grid. Each key you press joins the panel with a bar and a percentage for how far down it is. Every key maps as a button, a trigger or one side of a stick axis. See Analog Keyboards.

The card reads a vendor interface beside the keyboard, so it has no Input Mode or Input Hiding sections.

Bliss-Box ports

With Read Bliss-Box Adapters on in Settings, a Bliss-Box port's detail pane carries a line with its player number, the controller in it and the adapter's firmware, and the port's actions: Player Number…, Dreamcast Screen… for a Dreamcast pad, Back Up Controller Pak… and Restore Controller Pak… for an N64 controller on an adapter with firmware 3.0 or later, and Read Arrows One by One for a PlayStation digital pad or dance mat on a 3.x adapter. In the mapping picker the port's buttons take the names of the controller plugged in, assigning the port maps that controller the way SDL maps its console's pad, and a DualShock 2 adds a DualShock 2 Pressure panel to the detail pane. See Bliss-Box Adapters.

Keyboard screens

With Drive Keyboard Screens on in Settings, each keyboard screen is its own row: one for each monochrome keyboard and G19 plugged in, one for Logitech Arx Control and one for the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7. A screen's detail pane carries a line that says what draws the screen or why nothing does, and a button named for the kind of screen, Monochrome Screen…, Color Screen…, Arx Control… or S.T.R.I.K.E. 7…, which opens the dialog that sets what that screen shows. Two keyboards with screens keep their own settings. See Keyboard Screens.

Novint Falcons

With Drive Novint Falcon on in Settings, each open Falcon's detail pane carries a line with its name and how it runs, a homing prompt for its first seconds and then its rate, and Calibrate Reach, the four-second sweep that measures how far its handle travels. The reach belongs to the Falcon, so every slot it feeds uses it. See Novint Falcon.

Game Telemetry

With Listen for Game Telemetry on, on the Dashboard, the Game Telemetry row carries the speed, RPM, gear and pedals a driving game sends. Its axes are Speed, RPM, Throttle, Brake, Clutch, Handbrake and Steering, then one per custom variable, and its buttons are Driving, Reverse, Neutral and Gear 1 to Gear 18. The detail pane shows the same status line as the Dashboard, such as Listening on UDP port 20777. F1 25 from 127.0.0.1. The row stays listed with no game running, so you can map it first. See Game Telemetry.

Game mods

While a game mod made for DSX sets something that reaches a controller, the controller's detail pane names the mod's program and what it sets, such as GTA5.exe is setting this controller's triggers and lights. A DualSense shows its triggers and lights, a DualShock 4 its lightbar, and an Xbox controller with impulse triggers the trigger vibrations it plays while Translate Adaptive Trigger Vibrations is on. Clear Mod Effects below the line ends what the mods set on every virtual controller this device feeds, and the controllers' own settings return until a mod sends again.

Analog keyboards

With Read Analog Keyboards on in Settings, a Razer keyboard that waits for Razer Synapse says so in its own detail pane. See Analog Keyboards.

Consumer Control devices

Media keys show up here as their own device card, typed Consumer Control. A keyboard's media row, a standalone media remote, and a headset's media buttons all land here.

Consumer Control device detail pane with named media chips

Select the card and the detail pane shows named button chips instead of the numbered-button grid: Play/Pause, Mute, Volume Up, Volume Down, Next Track, Previous Track, and the rest of PadForge's standard media, menu, and browser keys, whether or not this device has them. A key outside that set gets a chip named by its usage code once a device on this PC sends it. A chip lights up in cold blue while its key is held.

Each named media key maps as a source and works as a macro trigger. These devices have no sticks or triggers. Consume Mapped Inputs does not apply to them, so that toggle is left out.

NFC readers

A contactless smart-card / NFC reader (PC/SC class, such as an ACR122U) shows up as a device card typed NFC Reader.

NFC Reader detail pane with the Register / Manage NFC Tags button

The detail pane has a Register / Manage NFC Tags button. It opens a dialog where you tap a tag to capture it, then give the tag a name. Each registered tag becomes its own button you can map, alongside an Any NFC Tag button that any tag triggers. The pane lists your named tags and highlights the one you just tapped.

The deep how-to (registering, naming, and mapping tags) lives on NFC Tags.

Microphones

Every active Windows microphone, the one in a wired DualSense included, shows up as a device card typed Microphone. The detail pane has a Manage Voice Macros button and a Voice Macros list in place of the numbered-button grid: Any Phrase plus one row per registered phrase, each lighting as its phrase fires. A DualSense on Bluetooth carries the same button and list on its own card. See Voice Macros.

Web Menus phones

A phone that opens the web controller's Web Menus layout shows up as a device card typed Web Menus, named Web Menus 1, then 2 for a second phone. It has no axes, buttons, or hats, so it adds nothing of its own to a slot's mappings. What it carries is taps: assign it to a slot and its tiles fire that slot's Touch Grid menus. Remote Link does not offer it to a paired PC.

Machine and tracker rows

Seven rows on this page come from the PC itself or from a program on it, not from a plugged-in device. Each has no HID path, so the Input Mode and Input Hiding sections are left out of its detail pane, and none of them offers Submit Device Mapping.

Row Type Where it is turned on What it carries
Your machine Hidden Buttons Handheld Buttons Enable Handheld PC Buttons in Settings One button per paddle or key you have learned, at a stable index. The detail pane lists them by name and lights each one while it is down. A Learn / Manage Hidden Buttons button opens the learn dialog.
Your machine Motion System Motion The same Settings toggle. Appears only when Windows reports a gyroscope. The machine's gyroscope and accelerometer as a motion source
Head Tracker (OpenTrack), or Head Tracker (OpenXR) when OpenXR is its only input Head Tracker Any of the three inputs in the Head Tracking section of the Dashboard Six absolute axes, Head Yaw through Head Z, with a status line that says which source is live
VR Controller (Left) and VR Controller (Right) VR Controller Enable OpenXR Headset Input on the Dashboard Six pose axes in the head tracker's convention, plus a thumbstick, a trigger, a grip and four buttons. Each hand is its own row, so one going to sleep leaves the other alone. See VR Controller Input.
Logitech G-Keys Logitech G-Keys Read Logitech G-Keys in Settings The G-keys and extra mouse buttons on Logitech gaming gear, read through the vendor SDK. See Logitech G-Keys.
Logitech G15 Screen, Logitech G19 Screen, Logitech Arx Control, Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Screen and the like Keyboard Screen Drive Keyboard Screens in Settings One row per screen: the keys beside it, five on a monochrome screen and eight on a G19, none on Arx Control or the S.T.R.I.K.E. 7, and the button that sets what it shows. See Keyboard Screens.
Novint Falcon Novint Falcon Drive Novint Falcon in Settings The handle's Left/Right, Up/Down and In/Out and the grip's four buttons, one row per Falcon, opened through Force Dimension's library, with its line and Calibrate Reach in its detail pane. See Novint Falcon.

The machine name in the first two rows is the product name the firmware reports, or the family name when the product name is a bare model code. See Handheld PC Buttons and Head Tracking for setup.

A drawing tablet is not in this group. Windows HID pen and digitizer devices are real HID devices, so they enumerate normally and keep their Input Hiding section.

Pairing a controller

The header has a Pair button next to Refresh. It opens the Pair a Controller dialog. A Controller Family selector offers Nintendo Wii, Sony DualShock 3, PlayStation Move / Navigation, Serial Controller (COM Port) and DJI RC or RC 2 (Network).

The Wii family walks a Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or Wii U Pro Controller through Bluetooth pairing. The Windows pairing wizard can't pair these on its own, since their PIN is raw bytes rather than a typed code, so PadForge runs the handshake itself. See Wii Controllers for the pairing steps and the per-controller button layouts.

The DualShock 3 family pairs over USB: connect the controller with a cable, click Pair, and PadForge writes this PC into the controller. Unplug it and press the PS button to connect over Bluetooth. See DualShock 3.

The PlayStation Move / Navigation family pairs over USB the same way. PadForge writes this PC into the controller, saves the Move's motion calibration, and registers it. Unplug it and press the PS button to connect over Bluetooth.

The Serial Controller (COM Port) family adds a controller on a serial port. Windows cannot tell which controller a COM port carries, so pick the Port and the Controller, then click Add. PadForge opens that port from then on, and Added Controllers lists each one with a button that removes it. Adding a controller to a port that already has one replaces it. PadForge reads up to 16 serial controllers.

The Pair a Controller dialog set to Serial Controller (COM Port)

Controller list entry What it is
SpaceTec Spaceball 1003, 2003, 3003, 4000 FLX Six-axis ball with 12 buttons. The 2003B, 2003C and 3003C take this entry too.
SpaceTec SpaceOrb 360, SpaceBall Avenger Six-axis ball with 7 buttons
Magellan, SpaceMouse, Spaceball 5000, CadMan Six-axis puck with 12 buttons
Gravis Stinger Gamepad
Logitech WingMan Warrior Flight stick with a hat. Its spin dial reads as Mouse Motion X.
Logitech CyberMan Six-axis controller with a tactile motor
Zhen Hua RC RC transmitter on the five-byte Zhen Hua protocol, four axes
FlySky i-BUS The i-BUS output of a FlySky FS-iA6B receiver, 14 channels as axes
JVS I/O Arcade JVS I/O boards on an RS-485 adapter, an arcade stick for each player, up to four
VRinsight CDU II, MCP Combo I Flight simulator panels, 70 or 72 buttons
Kettler Ergometer Kettler ergometers with an RS-232 port: cadence, power, speed, heart rate and target power as axes
I-Force I-Force wheels and joysticks on a serial port, among them the Boeder Force Feedback Wheel and the Trust Force Feedback Race Master. Force feedback works as on the USB models once the device reports its effects.
Pony Canyon Master Controller Master Controller and Master Controller II train controllers: the lever and the reverser
DJI RC-N1, DJI Mavic Mini, DJI Phantom 3, DJI Phantom 2 DJI drone remotes on DJI's USB serial driver, which DJI Assistant 2 installs
Konami BIO2 (beatmania IIDX), Konami BIO2 (SOUND VOLTEX) The BIO2 I/O board of a beatmania IIDX or SOUND VOLTEX cabinet
Konami KFCA (SOUND VOLTEX), Konami PANB (Nostalgia), Konami RVOL (MUSECA), Konami MDXF (DanceDanceRevolution A) Konami cabinet I/O boards on RS-232

An RC-N1 family remote on its bottom USB-C port opens without an entry. A BIO2 needs one. PadForge leaves Konami boards closed until the list holds one, so a game on the same PC can use a BIO2 in the meantime. Add the BIO2 with the entry for its cabinet.

Some devices need a step first. Windows may install a serial mouse on a CyberMan's port, so disable that device in Device Manager. A JVS adapter must switch direction on RTS or by itself, and the bus needs 120 ohms across A and B at the PC end if the adapter has none. A FlySky receiver's i-BUS, ground and power pins wire to the cable's RX, ground and +5 V. A Kettler needs only RX, TX and ground.

The DJI RC or RC 2 (Network) family reads a DJI RC or DJI RC 2 over the network. Put the remote and this PC on the same network, type the remote's IPv4 address under Address, with the port after a colon when it is not 40007, and click Add. Added Remotes lists each one with a button that removes it. PadForge reads up to 8 remotes this way. A remote serves its sticks on port 40007 only on firmware from before DJI closed that port, so one on current firmware never answers. The DJI RC also reads over USB with no entry.

The Pair a Controller dialog set to DJI RC or RC 2 (Network)

Once paired, a controller appears as a normal device card here, with the same slot assignment, hiding, and live raw input as any other pad.

Input hiding

When a physical device feeds a slot, games can see both devices and double up the input. PadForge offers two ways to stop that, set per device.

Hide from Games (HidHide)

Hides the physical device at the OS level using HidHide. Anything that already had the device open, Windows included, keeps it until it reconnects. When PadForge hides a USB controller that was already connected, it reconnects it in Windows for you, so anything that had it open loses it. A Bluetooth controller, or one that shares a receiver with another controller, stays with whatever opened it first until it next connects. From then on it is hidden from every app that is not on the whitelist. PadForge is whitelisted automatically, and it checks that it can still open what it hides. A controller hidden from PadForge itself stops responding, so when HidHide refuses PadForge, PadForge takes the hide back and says so in the status bar. The setting persists across restarts. Best for gamepads, joysticks, racing wheels, and flight sticks. The toggle is grayed out if HidHide is not installed. Install it from Driver Management.

PadForge hides every interface of the device that HidHide can filter, including the XInput node of a controller built into a USB composite device, such as a handheld PC's controller or a pad on the Xbox 360 wireless receiver. An interface that appears on this page as its own connected device, such as a handheld's touchpad, follows its own checkbox. Leave that checkbox off and the interface stays visible while the pad is hidden. An offline card does not count once PadForge's engine has listed the connected devices: from then on only a connected row with hiding off keeps its interface out of the pad's hide list. Right after the engine starts, and while it is stopped, PadForge cannot tell which cards are connected, so a card with hiding off keeps its interface from being newly hidden until the engine has listed its devices.

Hiding is not permanent and does not reach into Windows itself. HidHide blocks only programs that open the device after the entry lands, and only programs that are not on the whitelist. Windows' own drivers keep using a hidden touchpad or keyboard, so the cursor still moves. A game that opened the controller before you hid it keeps it until the controller reconnects, which PadForge does in Windows for a USB controller, the built-in controller of a handheld included. It leaves alone Bluetooth controllers, since dropping the link turns most pads off, and a USB device that carries more than one controller, such as the Xbox 360 wireless receiver or a Steam Controller dongle with two pads. PadForge removes its entries when it exits and puts them back when its engine starts. Turn on Keep Devices Cloaked Between Launches in Settings to keep them in place while PadForge is closed, so a controller is hidden before any game or launcher can open it.

You can whitelist more apps in Settings so they can still see hidden devices (streaming overlays, secondary remappers, etc.).

Consume Mapped Inputs (Hooks)

Suppresses only the specific keys or mouse buttons mapped to a virtual controller output. Unmapped keys still type. The cursor still moves. No driver needed. Windows low-level input hooks handle it. The toggle only shows for keyboards and mice.

A mapped Numpad Enter is consumed like any other key. Earlier builds let it through to other programs, and consuming the main Enter key swallowed Numpad Enter as well.

Windows' low-level hooks do not say which keyboard or mouse sent an event. Consuming a key consumes it on every keyboard connected to this PC, and a consumed key reads as pressed on every keyboard's row, whichever keyboard pressed it. Mouse buttons work the same way across mice.

An Up, Down or modifier key counts as mapped on the keyboard or mouse it was picked or recorded from.

Keys and clicks PadForge itself sends, from a Keyboard + Mouse slot or a macro, are never consumed. A key you consume as a source can still go out as an output.

Which to use

Situation Method
Xbox / PlayStation / Switch controller Hide from Games
Racing wheel or flight stick Hide from Games
Keyboard with a few keys mapped Consume Mapped Inputs
Mouse with side buttons mapped Consume Mapped Inputs
Hide a keyboard entirely Hide from Games (read the warnings)

Auto-enable defaults

Device type Hide from Games Consume Mapped Inputs
Gamepad / Joystick / Wheel / Flight Stick / First Person Auto-enabled (if HidHide is installed) Not shown
Keyboard Off Off
Mouse Off Off

Keyboards and mice do not auto-enable any hiding. Blocking them by accident makes the PC hard to use.

Unassigning a device from every slot clears both hiding options.

Safety warnings

PadForge shows a confirmation flyout when you turn on hiding for a keyboard, mouse, or Consumer Control device:

  • HidHide on keyboard. Every app loses keyboard access.
  • HidHide on mouse. Every app outside PadForge loses mouse control.
  • HidHide on a Consumer Control device (media keys). The media collection sits on a physical keyboard, so cloaking it hides that whole keyboard from every app. You get the same keyboard warning.
  • Consume on keyboard. Mapped keys stop working in other apps while PadForge runs. On "All Keyboards (Merged)" that covers every connected keyboard.
  • Consume on mouse. Mapped buttons (possibly left / right click) are suppressed. On "All Mice (Merged)" that covers every connected mouse.

Click Cancel to back out or Proceed to confirm.

Master switch

The global Hide Devices from Games toggle in Settings (under HidHide Driver) is the master on / off. With it off, no hiding or suppression runs, no matter what each device is set to. Flipping it back on restores every per-device setting.

Power

Wireless controllers get a Power section in the detail pane. It draws when either of its two controls applies to the device: Idle Disconnect for any pad PadForge can tell to disconnect, and Disconnect Bluetooth When Plugged In over USB for a pad that reports its Bluetooth address as its serial number, which keeps that checkbox on the card while the pad is on a cable.

Power section with the Idle Disconnect timer and the Quick Charge checkbox

Idle Disconnect

Sets how long a controller can sit with no input before PadForge tells it to disconnect. The controller sleeps and saves battery. The value is in minutes, and the suffix reads minutes (0 = never). Set it to 0 to leave the controller on.

Idle Disconnect drops the Bluetooth link. Over a USB cable there's no radio link to drop, so nothing happens. Charging doesn't hold it off. Dropping Bluetooth doesn't interrupt the charge, so an idle pad left on a charger still disconnects. It targets any Bluetooth-linked pad (Sony, gen-1 Switch Pro and Joy-Cons, Wii Remote, and the rest), Xbox controllers on the XInput driver, the Switch 2 family, and the combined gen-1 Joy-Con pair, where PadForge drops both halves' links. A pad reaching this PC through Remote Link is excluded. This machine holds no radio link to it.

Quick Charge

A Bluetooth pad that you plug in to charge keeps its radio link up, and the radio keeps drawing from the battery you are trying to fill. Disconnect Bluetooth When Plugged In over USB drops that link the moment the pad reports it is charging. Off by default, saved per device.

Power section with the Disconnect Bluetooth When Plugged In over USB checkbox

The trigger is the pad's own charging report, read from SDL's battery state, which PadForge refreshes about every five seconds. Any power source that makes the pad report charging counts, a PC port and a wall charger alike. The drop fires once, on the change from not charging to charging:

Situation What happens
Pad is on Bluetooth, cable goes in The Bluetooth link is dropped. On a PC port the pad carries on over USB. On a wall charger it goes quiet and charges.
You re-pair Bluetooth while the cable stays in Left alone. The pad already reads charging, so there is no change to act on until the next unplug.
You turn the checkbox on while already plugged in Nothing until the next unplug and replug.
PadForge starts with the cable already in Nothing. The first reading only seeds the check.

A Sony pad reports the same Bluetooth address as its serial number over both links, so PadForge holds one device card for it, and a cable rebinds that card to the USB path. That is why the checkbox stays on the card while the pad is wired, and why the drop can still find the radio link: it is addressed by that serial. A pad that was never paired makes that a lookup that finds nothing.

The checkbox appears for any pad Idle Disconnect can target, plus any device whose serial number parses as a nonzero Bluetooth address. In a diagnostics log every outcome prints a QUICKCHARGE line, so a silent log means the charging change never arrived or the checkbox was off.

Light gun

A Namco GunCon 2 gets a Light Gun section in the detail pane. The gun times the picture of a 15 kHz CRT, and the readings that meet the picture's edges depend on the CRT, the video mode and the game. The section shows the aim range PadForge reads the gun with, in the gun's own counts. It starts at X 175 to 720 and Y 20 to 240, the range the PC tools for the gun start from.

Calibrate turns every monitor white and shows four targets in turn, set in from the corners. Aim the gun at each target on the CRT and pull the trigger. The gun sees only the CRT, so the other monitors show the same targets to no effect. A shot the gun takes off the screen is asked for again, and four shots too close together start over from the first target. Esc, or the gun's A or B button, cancels. The range is saved for that gun and applies at once, and the section's reset button returns it to the starting range. The gun has to be connected to this PC to calibrate. A gun reached through Remote Link is calibrated on the PC it is plugged into.

A Wii Remote with its IR camera gets the same section, and its line says whether the remote is calibrated to the screen. Calibrate shows the same white screens and targets. From where you play, point the remote at each target and press B. A press while the remote can't see the sensor bar is asked for again, and Esc or Home cancels. The range is saved for that remote, and every IR Pointer source and pointer mode aims through it. A calibrated remote ignores the Pointer tab's Sensor Bar Position and Vertical Offset, because the calibration measured where the bar sits. The reset button returns the remote to its default range. Wii Controllers covers a light-gun setup.

A gun or remote reached through Remote Link has no Light Gun section here, because it is calibrated on the PC it is plugged into. The calibration screen closes if the gun disconnects or reconnects partway through, including a Wii Remote reconnecting when an extension is plugged in. A GunCon 2's aim takes no Sensor Bar Position or Vertical Offset either, which a Copy From of a Wii Remote's settings would otherwise carry onto the gun.

Force Raw Joystick Mode

By default, PadForge uses SDL3's gamepad layer for known gamepads. SDL3 translates raw button and axis indices into a standard layout (A/B/X/Y, LX/LY, LT/RT) via a built-in controller database.

Force Raw Joystick Mode skips that translation and reads raw hardware indices straight, the same values Windows Game Controllers (joy.cpl) shows.

Turn it on when

Symptom Why
Buttons map to the wrong outputs SDL3's mapping does not match the device
Some buttons read no input SDL3 ate the button and sent it to a slot that does not match
Extra buttons go missing The mapping consumed physical buttons, so they never surface in gamepad mode
Works in joy.cpl but not PadForge SDL3 mapping is wrong
Off-brand or niche gamepads Budget controllers, retro adapters, arcade sticks often have wrong database entries
DsHidMini SDF mode DualShock 3 via SDF needs raw mode. SDL3 drops some buttons.

How to turn it on

  1. Select the device card
  2. In the detail pane, find the Input Mode section (gamepad-type devices only. The section is hidden for sources with no Windows HID path: web controller clients, the touchpad overlay, MIDI devices, NFC readers, microphones, the Hidden Buttons, System Motion, Head Tracker, VR Controller, Logitech G-Keys, keyboard screen, and Novint Falcon rows, and pads reaching this PC over Remote Link. A device that already has Force Raw Joystick Mode on shows the section whatever its type or source, so you can turn it off.)
  3. Check Force Raw Joystick Mode (Bypass Gamepad Remapping)
  4. Saved right away. Persists across restarts.

What changes

  • Axis count can change. The raw layer often exposes more axes than the six the gamepad layer reports. Rows stay labeled Axis 0, Axis 1, and so on in both modes.
  • Button count can rise. Raw mode exposes every physical button, including any the gamepad layer folded away. Circles stay labeled by number in both modes.
  • Auto-mapping is off. Record each mapping by hand from the Record button.
  • The raw input display updates right away

When not to use it

If the controller works fine in gamepad mode, raw mode gains you nothing. Gamepad mode gives you friendly names and a default mapping.

The toggle shows for devices SDL3 recognizes as gamepads, and for any device that already has it on. Devices already running as raw joysticks (flight sticks, wheels, generic HID) always use raw indices.

Reconnection and GUID persistence

PadForge identifies devices with deterministic GUIDs so they survive reboots and re-plugs, and port changes too when the device reports a serial number.

How the GUID is built

Priority Source Stability
1 Serial number (e.g., Bluetooth MAC address) Stable across reboots, re-pairing, and port changes
2 Device path Stable for the same USB port. Changes if you switch ports.
3 SDL GUID, for a device with no path Stable across reconnects
4 SDL instance ID + VID:PID Can change on every reconnect

What that means

  • Bluetooth controllers (DualSense, DualShock 4, Switch Pro). GUID stays the same across reboots and re-pairs. Settings stick.
  • Wired USB controllers that report no serial number. GUID stays the same on the same USB port. A different port makes a new GUID. The old settings stay on the offline (gray) card. A wired DualSense or DualShock 4 reports its Bluetooth address as its serial, so it keeps one GUID on any port.
  • Profiles. A profile falls back to VID:PID. If a profile was saved with a device that now has a different identity (a port change, for example), PadForge matches by VID:PID so the profile still applies.

Offline device cards

Disconnected devices stay in the list with an unlit status flame.

  • Every mapping, slot assignment, and setting is kept
  • Reconnect with the same GUID and everything comes back
  • Remove with the X button if you no longer need it (a Remove Device confirmation asks first)
  • Offline cards cost nothing at runtime. Stored settings only.

Stick calibration

Center offset

Fixes center drift: a stick that does not rest in the middle.

  1. Go to the Sticks tab on the controller's config page (see Stick Deadzones)
  2. Click Calibrate Center while the stick is at rest (do not touch it)
  3. PadForge samples hardware values for ~500 ms and calculates the offset

The offset is applied before deadzone processing, which keeps the deadzone circle centered on the real rest position.

Max range

Sets how much physical travel (1-100%) maps to full output, with one slider per direction: Min Range X (Left), Max Range X (Right), Min Range Y (Down), and Max Range Y (Up). If the stick cannot reach the corners, lower the range so full output is reachable within the stick's actual travel.

Troubleshooting

Device does not appear

  • Start the engine if it is stopped. PadForge looks for new devices every two seconds while the engine runs, and every five while it idles. Refresh only redraws the list.
  • Confirm the device shows up in Device Manager or joy.cpl
  • For Bluetooth controllers, check pairing in Windows Bluetooth settings
  • For a Wii controller, pair it with the header Pair button, not Windows Bluetooth settings. See Wii Controllers.
  • PadForge filters out its own virtual controllers (HIDMaestro outputs) on purpose
  • Some devices need a manufacturer driver

Device appears but shows no input

  • Check the raw input section. Are axes, buttons, and POVs drawn?
  • If they show but never change, try Force Raw Joystick Mode
  • For Bluetooth devices, confirm a stable connection (lit status flame)

Buttons missing or mapped wrong

  • Turn on Force Raw Joystick Mode (Bypass Gamepad Remapping) to skip SDL3's mapping
  • Compare PadForge's raw input view with joy.cpl
  • For an unmapped joystick-type device, click Submit Device Mapping to contribute a mapping

Double input in games

  • Turn on Hide from Games (HidHide) on the device, or Consume Mapped Inputs (Hooks) for keyboards and mice
  • Confirm the master Hide Devices from Games toggle in Settings is on
  • Confirm HidHide is installed via Driver Management

Settings lost after reconnecting

  • A wired controller that reports no serial number gets a new GUID on a different USB port. Old settings stay on the offline (gray) card. Plug back into the original port, or reconfigure on the new card.
  • Bluetooth controllers keep their GUID via MAC address. Settings persist.

Center drift after calibration

  • Make sure the stick was completely at rest during calibration
  • For bad drift, the stick may be worn out. Raise the deadzone on the Sticks tab to cover it.

HidHide toggle grayed out or missing

  • Grayed out: HidHide is not installed. Install it from Driver Management.
  • Missing: the device has no Windows HID path to hide (web controller clients, the touchpad overlay, MIDI devices, NFC readers, microphones, the Hidden Buttons, System Motion, Head Tracker, VR Controller, Logitech G-Keys, keyboard screen, Novint Falcon, Game Telemetry, Lighting, and Haptics rows, pads reaching this PC over Remote Link), or it is a merged row such as "All Keyboards (Merged)", which stands for many devices and has no HID instance of its own. HidHide cannot cloak either kind, so the toggle is left out instead of shown disabled. An analog keyboard card has no toggle either, since hiding its analog interface would hide it from the vendor's own software, which a Razer keyboard needs before it reports at all.

Last updated for PadForge 5.2.0.