Support the SteelSeries Stratus XL Controller!

[AEIDOLONE]

Just been reading latest Steam patch release notes and saw there has been no sopport for this controller, and now I know WHY it dont work 100%.

I am fighting with this problem since I bought it a few montths ago but without success. This controller is recognised as an Xbox Controller in Windows but it doesn't work right! It keeps triggering some random buttons from time to time and the button that are triggering depends from user to user,,, I have been investigating a lot in this case, and it it seems it has something to do with the Windows drivers AND Steam... When I bought it I thoght they have given me a broken controller I contacted SteelSeries and they give me another, but the problem stays the same!

Now that I read it is not even listed on the supported devices it makes more sense...

Sorry for my bad english, but here is a link where a guy explains the problem very well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Buf2kfsP5o&t=53s


Please Steam, fix this!

[AEIDOLONE]

!

[austinp_valve]

Can you try installing the Steel Series engine and updating the device firmware? I tried with a brand new controller and it was indeed not working well, but once I updated the firmware it worked fine. I did around 10 minutes of games and did not see any unexpected inputs.

[AEIDOLONE]

You think that in those several months I haven't done so? In order to make the controller work you MUST install the SteelSeeries Engine. When you have it installed it automatically promt you to update the firmware. So yes, I have updated the firmware to the latest version - 1.68.0.0.

And reading that you have played it around 10 minutes gives me also this thought that you aren't played it long enought. Because, mine also worked JUST fine the very first couple of hours, and than, just like out of nothing, it went random triggering L2/R2 buttons, wich is very weird. But, what's most interesting is that I also read a bunch of other posts where users are complaining also that their controller went crazy, out of nothing, after some time with the exact same problems...

[Boogalou18]

Originally posted by AEIDOLONE:

You think that in those several months I haven't done so? In order to make the controller work you MUST install the SteelSeeries Engine. When you have it installed it automatically promt you to update the firmware. So yes, I have updated the firmware to the latest version - 1.68.0.0.

And reading that you have played it around 10 minutes gives me also this thought that you aren't played it long enought. Because, mine also worked JUST fine the very first couple of hours, and than, just like out of nothing, it went random triggering L2/R2 buttons, wich is very weird. But, what's most interesting is that I also read a bunch of other posts where users are complaining also that their controller went crazy, out of nothing, after some time with the exact same problems...

I'm also having issues with the controller. The camera pans left without me touching the analog stick. It's not just on steam, origin and uplay games do this too. This seems like its either an issue with the newest update to the firmware, or there is something wrong with windows like the guy in the video said. I just wish there was a way to rollback the firmware update to see if it is completely a windows issue

[austinp_valve]

@Boogalou18: If you're having input from the sticks when you don't intend to then you should increase the deadzone size in the controller config.

@AEIDOLONE: That sounds like it might be a problem with either the device firmware or your wireless connection. We don't do anything special for particular Xinput style controllers so I'd expect other devices to have the same problem if it is a Steam bug.

Can you make sure your bluetooth adapter is away from USB 3.0 devices, as far away from the chassis of the computer as possible and has a good line of sight to where you are using it?

[AEIDOLONE]

Originally posted by austinp-dev:

@AEIDOLONE: That sounds like it might be a problem with either the device firmware or your wireless connection. We don't do anything special for particular Xinput style controllers so I'd expect other devices to have the same problem if it is a Steam bug.

Can you make sure your bluetooth adapter is away from USB 3.0 devices, as far away from the chassis of the computer as possible and has a good line of sight to where you are using it?

I have a MSI Trident, so the bluetooth adapter is integrated. I am using my bluetooth headophones, which works with no problems, I have paired my phone with bluetooth, also works fine. I tought maybe it conflicts in some way with those devices, so I removed it all, and tried just the controller, but with no luck. Than I guess it can only be the freaking firmware, fo rwhich they don't really care about. It's more than a year, or even two, idk, and it isn't fixed.

But I CAN NOT understand how can they sell I controller that doesn't even work. And they sell it with a premium price tag of 60 €! It cost even more than a XBX1 Controller! And does NOT work!!!

[Boogalou18]

Originally posted by AEIDOLONE:

Originally posted by austinp-dev:

@AEIDOLONE: That sounds like it might be a problem with either the device firmware or your wireless connection. We don't do anything special for particular Xinput style controllers so I'd expect other devices to have the same problem if it is a Steam bug.

Can you make sure your bluetooth adapter is away from USB 3.0 devices, as far away from the chassis of the computer as possible and has a good line of sight to where you are using it?

I have a MSI Trident, so the bluetooth adapter is integrated. I am using my bluetooth headophones, which works with no problems, I have paired my phone with bluetooth, also works fine. I tought maybe it conflicts in some way with those devices, so I removed it all, and tried just the controller, but with no luck. Than I guess it can only be the freaking firmware, fo rwhich they don't really care about. It's more than a year, or even two, idk, and it isn't fixed.

But I CAN NOT understand how can they sell I controller that doesn't even work. And they sell it with a premium price tag of 60 €! It cost even more than a XBX1 Controller! And does NOT work!!!

heres the deal. I got another stratus xl sent to me. I set up the bluetooth connection. Turn it off then on again. I choose not to update the firmware on the new controller...works perfect. So I'm guessing that when the firmware is "updated" from the steelseries engine, that's when issues come up. So far Ive only seen people have issues after firmware updates. The trick now is finding a way to rollback firmware updates. So far I have not found a way to do this through steelseries sites and apps.

[austinp_valve]

What are the two firmware versions? Valve has done some branded SteelSeries stuff before so I might be able to find someone who can get a bug report to their controller team.

[AEIDOLONE]

Originally posted by austinp-dev:

What are the two firmware versions? Valve has done some branded SteelSeries stuff before so I might be able to find someone who can get a bug report to their controller team.

I don't really remember what was the exact firmware version back than when I got the controller, but I can for sure say that it didn't work in at least six firmware updates. The actual version is 3.11.10.

Here is the official version history:

http://techblog.steelseries.com/

heres the deal. I got another stratus xl sent to me. I set up the bluetooth connection. Turn it off then on again. I choose not to update the firmware on the new controller...works perfect. So I'm guessing that when the firmware is "updated" from the steelseries engine, that's when issues come up. So far Ive only seen people have issues after firmware updates. The trick now is finding a way to rollback firmware updates. So far I have not found a way to do this through steelseries sites and apps.

Yeah, than my previous post makes sense, saying that my controller worked in the begining just fine, and than "out of nowhere" went crazy.

It seems "out of nowhere" is when I updated the firmware.

[Pico]

Is this still an issue? I'm thinking of picking one of these up to use with the steam link.

[AEIDOLONE]

I gave up on this years ago. I have two of them, sitting there, collecting dust. I just quickly scrolled through their official update post, couldn't see any mention for the Stratus XL. Speaking of it, I'll check them in the upcoming days and let you know...