Pro micro ghosting retro pi controller

Projects General Guidance
1

hey everyone i've been tearing my hair out trying to get my arduino pro micro (atmega32u4) to work as a controller for my pi zero 2 w running retropie-i'm using Bounc2 for debounce and wiring buttons straight gnd→button→pin (no diodes or matrix) but every time i play a game (e.g. pokemon) and press A it instantly fires B too and deletes the letter i just picked i've tried Keyboard.releaseAll each loop which stopped the ghosting but broke holding, i've tried tracking pressed states with bool arrays and only doing Keyboard.release(mapping[i].key) on rose(), i've tried blocking B for 300ms after A with millis checks, i've tweaked debounce intervals and loop delays-nothing works in‑game it still ghosts B after A and i'm totally stumped any ideas or pointers? thank you in advance! here's my current sketch:

#include <Keyboard.h>
#include <Bounce2.h>

// Pin definitions
const uint8_t PIN_DOWN = 2;
const uint8_t PIN_UP = 3;
const uint8_t PIN_RIGHT = 4;
const uint8_t PIN_LEFT = 5;
const uint8_t PIN_SELECT = 6;
const uint8_t PIN_START = 7;
const uint8_t PIN_B = 8;
const uint8_t PIN_A = 9;
const uint8_t PIN_HOTKEY = 10;

// Pin → key mapping
struct { uint8_t pin, key; } mapping[] = {
{PIN_UP, KEY_UP_ARROW},
{PIN_DOWN, KEY_DOWN_ARROW},
{PIN_LEFT, KEY_LEFT_ARROW},
{PIN_RIGHT, KEY_RIGHT_ARROW},
{PIN_SELECT, ' '},
{PIN_START, KEY_RETURN},
{PIN_B, 'b'},
{PIN_A, 'a'},
{PIN_HOTKEY, 'h'},
};
static const size_t NUM_BTN = sizeof(mapping)/sizeof(mapping[0]);

Bounce debouncers[NUM_BTN];
bool pressed[NUM_BTN] = {0};
uint32_t lastATime = 0;
const uint16_t BLOCK_B_MS = 300;

void setup() {
Keyboard.begin();
for (size_t i = 0; i < NUM_BTN; i++) {
pinMode(mapping[i].pin, INPUT_PULLUP);
debouncers[i].attach(mapping[i].pin);
debouncers[i].interval(50);
}
}

void loop() {
for (size_t i = 0; i < NUM_BTN; i++) {
debouncers[i].update();

// Press
if (debouncers[i].fell()) {
uint8_t k = mapping[i].key;
if (k == 'a') {
lastATime = millis();
Keyboard.press(k);
pressed[i] = true;
}
else if (k == 'b') {
if (millis() - lastATime > BLOCK_B_MS) {
Keyboard.press(k);
pressed[i] = true;
}
}
else {
Keyboard.press(k);
pressed[i] = true;
}
}

// Release
if (debouncers[i].rose() && pressed[i]) {
Keyboard.release(mapping[i].key);
pressed[i] = false;
}
}

delay(10);
}
2

You[quote="Paul_KD7HB, post:2, topic:1383080, full:true"]
You can't be too stumped because your code does not show you have used the serial monitor to actually debug your program. Try that rather than guessing and trying. There must be a logic error somewhere in your code. By using serial print to show you the values used at critical times in your program may help.

3

If you put your cursor in an opening brace, then the closing brace will have a rectangle drawn round it.
So do this with the brace at

Then you will see the matching brace is the end of the loop function. Clearly not correct.

If you follow this through your tangle of if .... else statements you will find the code does not make any sense at all.

So sort this out, or better still use a switch / case structure to implement your logic and get it right first time.