DualSense Tester — PS5 Controller Test Online (Edge too)

This DualSense tester checks a PS5 controller or DualSense Edge in your browser. Press any button to see every input on a PlayStation layout, trace both sticks, measure stick drift and watch the analog travel of L2 and R2. In Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer, the DualSense extras panel adds what other online PS5 controller tests miss: battery level and charging state, USB or Bluetooth, the real HID report rate, firmware version, both touchpad points, the gyroscope and accelerometer, the mute button and Edge back buttons — and it can drive the lightbar, player LEDs, mic LED, both rumble motors and the adaptive triggers.

How to run a PS5 controller test in the browser

Plug the DualSense in with a USB-C data cable or pair it over Bluetooth (hold Create and the PS button until the lightbar flashes, then pick it in your system's Bluetooth settings). Open this page and press any button: browsers hide controllers until they see input, so nothing appears before that.

Buttons. Press every button once. Each one lights up on the diagram and turns green when it has been seen, so a button that never registers stands out.
Sticks. Roll each stick slowly around its edge. The plot should trace a near-circle and the circularity readout should settle in single-digit percent; a flat side or a gap means a worn or dirty stick module.
Triggers. Squeeze L2 and R2 slowly. The bars should rise smoothly from 0.00 to 1.00 and fall back to 0.00 when released.
Drift. Put the controller on a table, take your thumbs off and run the drift test. It samples both sticks for five seconds and reports the peak, resting offset, jitter and a suggested deadzone.
Extras. In Chrome, Edge or Opera on a computer, click Connect DualSense and pick the controller.

What the DualSense extras panel reads over WebHID

The Gamepad API only reports sticks and buttons. WebHID opens the controller's raw HID reports, which is how this DualSense tester reaches the rest:

Battery and charging state. The DualSense reports its charge in ten-percent steps, so 75% means roughly 70–80%. "Charging", "On battery" and "Fully charged" come straight from the controller; "Charging error" means it refused to charge because of temperature or voltage.
Connection and report rate. USB or Bluetooth, plus how many input reports actually arrive per second. A Bluetooth rate that keeps sagging points to interference or distance.
Firmware. Build date, firmware and update version, read from the controller's firmware feature report; useful for checking a second-hand pad.
Touchpad. Both touch points on a 1920 × 1080 grid with trails, also drawn onto the touchpad of the diagram. Drag a finger over the whole surface: a strip where the trail breaks is a dead zone in the sensor, not a software issue.
Gyroscope and accelerometer. Degrees per second and g on three axes, using the nominal factory scale rather than your unit's calibration, so treat them as approximate. At rest the gyro should sit near zero and the total acceleration near 1.00 g; every axis should react when you tilt and turn the pad.
Hidden buttons. The mute button, and on a DualSense Edge the two Fn buttons and both back buttons, which the Gamepad API does not expose at all.

Testing the lightbar, LEDs, rumble and adaptive triggers

The same panel writes output reports back to the controller:

Lightbar. Pick any colour or a preset. A colour channel that never lights points to a failed LED.
Player LEDs and mic LED. Toggle the five white LEDs under the touchpad individually and switch the orange mute LED between off, on and pulsing.
Rumble motors. Two sliders run the left (strong) and right (weak) motors from 0 to 255, plus a one-second full-power pulse. A healthy pad ramps smoothly; buzzing, rattling or a motor that only starts at high values suggests a loose or failing actuator.
Adaptive triggers (experimental). Choose resistance, a click/wall, heavy resistance or vibration for L2 and R2, then press the trigger slowly while watching its travel bar. If one trigger never stiffens while the other does, its motor or gear train is the suspect.

Updates are rate-limited so the controller is never flooded, and when you disconnect, close the tab or leave the page, the motors and trigger effects are switched off. The rumble here is the DualSense's classic rumble emulation; the fine, audio-driven haptics that games like Astro's Playroom use are a different system that a web page cannot drive.

Adaptive triggers and haptics on PC: what really works

A DualSense that passes every test here can still feel "dead" in a PC game, because the special features depend on the game and the connection, not just on the hardware.

Haptic feedback is driven by an audio stream sent to the controller. On PC that stream is only carried over USB, so games with native DualSense haptics generally need the cable; over Bluetooth you get plain rumble at best.
Adaptive triggers are separate commands. They can work over Bluetooth, but only when the game implements them for PC, and that support varies from title to title.
Steam Input can sit between the pad and the game. Many native DualSense games only enable triggers and haptics when Steam Input is disabled for that game (Properties → Controller), and some only detect the controller if it is connected before the game starts.
Tools like DSX or DS4Windows may open the controller exclusively. Close them before connecting here, or the browser will not be able to open the device.

If the trigger effects work here but not in a game, the controller is fine; the game's PC support or your Steam settings are the problem.

USB vs Bluetooth on the DualSense

Test both ways if you can, because some faults only show on one of them.

USB is the reference. It supplies power, carries haptics audio on PC, and is required by Sony's firmware updater. A few PC ports supply too little current and a flat DualSense may die faster than it charges — try another port or charge it first.
Bluetooth starts in a reduced "compatibility" report. Reading the controller's calibration data switches it to the full report that carries battery, touchpad and motion. This page does that automatically when you connect the extras panel.

One side effect is worth knowing: once a Bluetooth DualSense is in its full report mode, the browser's Gamepad API may stop updating for it. When that happens, this page detects it, keeps the diagram and stick plots moving from the HID data and tells you so. The drift test and raw input panel still read the Gamepad API, so run them with the extras disconnected or over USB.

DualSense Edge test: Fn buttons, back buttons and profiles

The DualSense Edge (CFI-ZCP1) has its own USB product ID, so the extras panel switches to Edge mode automatically. On top of the normal checks you can test:

Both Fn buttons and both back buttons, shown as separate indicators. If a back button is assigned to another input in the active profile, that input may light up on the diagram as well.
Profiles. Holding Fn and pressing a face button switches the controller's onboard profile; change profile and press the back buttons again to confirm each mapping.
Stick modules. The Edge's sticks slide out as complete modules. Run the drift test, swap a module, and run it again to prove whether the stick or the controller was at fault.

If the back buttons register here but not in a Steam game, the hardware is fine and the Steam Input binding is the place to look.

Stick drift on the DualSense

Standard DualSense and Edge sticks use potentiometers: a wiper sliding over a resistive track. Wear, dust and loss of grease make the reading wander, which shows up as a stick that moves on its own. That is drift, and it is the most common DualSense fault.

Run the drift test with the controller flat and both thumbs off. A healthy stick rests within a few hundredths of centre; a stick that wanders past the deadzone most games use will drift in play. For a deeper analysis — run history, deadzone preview and a snap-back test — use the dedicated stick drift test.

Fixes in order of cost: compressed air around the stick base, a warranty claim if the pad is still covered (drift counts as a defect), a module swap on an Edge, or a replacement module on a standard DualSense, which means desoldering. Hall-effect or TMR modules avoid the wiper wear that causes drift.

DualSense tester not working? Browser support and fixes

Nothing appears. Press a button — the page cannot see the controller before that. Then try a different cable: many USB-C cables only charge and carry no data.
No Connect button or it is disabled. WebHID exists only in Chromium browsers on desktop: Chrome, Edge and Opera on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. Firefox, Safari, every phone and tablet browser and in-app browsers cannot use it; the Gamepad API tests still work there.
"Could not open the controller". Another program holds it exclusively. Close DS4Windows, DSX or similar tools (and HidHide rules), unplug the controller and reconnect.
Firmware. On Windows 10 (64-bit) or 11, Sony's Firmware updater for DualSense wireless controller updates the pad over USB without a PS5.

Everything runs locally in your browser. No controller data, IDs or results leave your device. To check other pads, use the gamepad tester, the Xbox controller test or the Joy-Con test — or the joystick test for flight sticks and wheels.

Frequently asked questions

Do the DualSense's haptics and adaptive triggers work over Bluetooth on PC?

Haptic feedback generally does not: on PC it is fed by an audio stream that only travels over USB, so plug in the cable for games with native haptics. Adaptive triggers can work over Bluetooth, but only in games that implement them that way on PC, so results differ between titles. You can confirm the triggers themselves work by choosing an effect in this page's extras panel over either connection.

Will a PC game give me the same adaptive triggers and haptics as the PS5 version?

Not automatically. The controller is identical, but each PC port decides which DualSense features it implements and over which connection. Some ports match the PS5 closely over USB, others support only rumble or nothing at all. Check the game's store page or patch notes for DualSense support, connect over USB and disable Steam Input for that game if the triggers stay soft.

I disabled Steam Input to get adaptive triggers, and now the game doesn't detect my DualSense. What do I do?

Disable Steam Input only for that game (Library → Properties → Controller), make sure PlayStation Configuration Support is not forcing the pad into Steam's layer, and connect the controller before launching the game. If it still is not seen, try USB instead of Bluetooth. Test the pad on this page first: if every button, the triggers and the trigger effects work here, the controller is fine and the problem is how the game detects it.

My DualSense Edge back buttons are mapped in Steam but do nothing in games. Are they broken?

Probably not. Connect the Edge here: if both back buttons and both Fn buttons light up in the extras panel, the hardware works. Steam's handling has been the usual culprit — resetting device inputs in Steam's controller settings, or clearing stale bindings in Steam's configuration, has fixed it for users. Also check the controller's active profile, since the onboard profile decides what the back buttons send.

How do I fix stick drift on my DualSense?

Measure it first: run the drift test on this page with the controller flat and your thumbs off. If a stick rests well off centre, the potentiometer module is worn or dirty. Contact cleaner can help for a while when dirt is the cause, but the lasting fix is replacing the stick module, which needs soldering on a standard DualSense. On a DualSense Edge you can swap the module by hand. If the controller is still under warranty, claim it before opening anything.

Steam sees my PS5 controller but no inputs register. What's wrong?

Check the battery first. One user's DualSense kept losing power faster than the PC's USB port could charge it, so it was detected but did not respond. Connect the extras panel here to see the battery level and charging state, charge the pad from a wall adapter or another port, and test again. If the battery is fine and this page sees every input, reset device inputs in Steam.

Why does my DualSense lightbar colour keep reverting when I change it in Steam?

The colour is set by whichever program last sent the controller an output report, so the game, Steam and other tools keep overwriting each other. Early Steam client versions also failed to save DualSense LED settings, which Valve later fixed. To check that the lightbar hardware works, set a few colours here: each should appear immediately. Reverting later is a software conflict, not a faulty LED.