A Bluetooth dongle is only useful if your machine has no built-in Bluetooth — or if its range is not enough.
| Machine | Built-in Bluetooth? |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi Zero 2, 3, 4 / 400, 5 / 500 | ✅ Yes — no dongle needed |
| Anbernic RG353 / RG503 | ✅ Yes |
| PC | Depends on the model — useful on towers without a Wi-Fi/BT card |
| Odroid Go Super | ❌ No Bluetooth |
Once the dongle is plugged in, controller pairing works as usual — see pairing a Bluetooth controller.
The safe bets, recently confirmed by the community:
Some cheap dongles sold as "CSR 5.0" are counterfeits with erratic behaviour. If pairing fails, try the dongle on another port (away from USB 3.0 ports, a known interference source) and come discuss it on the Recalbox Discord.
A list compiled across Recalbox versions — an old model tested on 4.x generally still works, as Linux Bluetooth support does not regress on these chipsets.
| Device | Status | Chipset | Last tested version | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asus USB-BT400 Bluetooth 4.0 | ✅ | Does not work without heavy Broadcom firmware customization | ||
| AZiO BTD-V401 Bluetooth 4.0 | ✅ | |||
| AZiO BTD-V201 USB 2.0 Micro Bluetooth Adapter | ✅ | |||
| BCM2046B1 | ✅ | |||
| Belkin Mini Bluetooth v4.0 Adapter | ✅ | |||
| BigTec BIG121 | ❌ | |||
| Billionton USBBT02-B-DX | ✅ | |||
| Bluetooth Adapter USB 5.0 + EDR (Amazon) | ✅ | Realtek RTL8761B | 8.0.1 - RPi 2B | Range up to 20 m |
| Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth | ✅ | 4.0.0 - RPi 2B | ||
| CLiPtec USB Bluetooth Dongle Ver. 4.0 + EDR RZB939 | ✅ | |||
| CSL - V4.0 USB nano Bluetooth adapter Class 4.0 | ✅ | |||
| CSR Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) | ❌ | |||
| D-Link DBT-122 Bluetooth 1.2 dongle | ✅ | |||
| Digitus Adapter tiny USB Bluetooth V 4.0 | ✅ | |||
| Bluegiga Technologies BLED112-V1 4.0 0dBm dongle | ❌ | |||
| EMTEC USB Bluetooth dongle 100m | ✅ | |||
| Energy Sistem 1550T | ✅ | |||
| Essentiel B Micro Bluetooth 2.0 dongle | ❌ | |||
| Essentiel B USB Bluetooth 4.0 | ✅ | |||
| Generic Bluetooth 4.0 dongle, USB 2.0 | ✅ | |||
| ieGeek Mini USB Bluetooth CSR V4.0 Dongle Dual Mode | ✅ | |||
| IOGEAR Bluetooth 4.0 USB Micro Adapter (GBU521) | ✅ | |||
| Inateck (BTA-BC4B6) Bluetooth 4.0+EDR | ✅ | |||
| Inateck USB Bluetooth 4.0 (B00N2E3ZHG) | ✅ | |||
| Insignia USB Bluetooth Adapter NS-PCY5BMA2 | ✅ | 4.1 | Tested with a PS3 controller | |
| IT Works (DONGLE BT-150) USB Bluetooth 4.0 | ✅ | |||
| Lindy 52213 USB 3.0 WiFi Bluetooth dongle | ✅ | |||
| LogiLink BT0006A | ❌ | |||
| LogiLink BT0007A | ✅ | Range too short with the official DualShock 3 | ||
| Maxxtro Bluetooth 4.0 USB adapter micro | ✅ | |||
| Nano USB to Bluetooth Dongle V2.0 (Dynamode) | ❌ | |||
| ORICO BTA-402 USB Bluetooth 4.0 Micro Adapter (Model X) | ✅ | |||
| ORICO BTA-403 USB Bluetooth 4.0 | ✅ | RPi 3 | Tested with the PS3 controller cechzc2ua1 | |
| PANRICH PBT06H | ✅ | |||
| Plugable Technologies USB-BT4LE | ✅ | |||
| Sitecom CN-512 v1 001 | ✅ | |||
| Sitecom CN-516 | ✅ | 4.0.2 - RPi 3 | Tested with the 8BitDo Zero controller | |
| SoundBot SB340 | ✅ | |||
| Speedlink SL-7409-BK | ✅ | 8.0.1 - RPi 2B | BT 2.1, works but short range | |
| TP-Link UB400 | ✅ | 9.1 | Tested on an x86_64 PC | |
| TP-Link UB500 | ✅ | Realtek RTL8761B | 9.2.3 | Tested on a Pi 5 |
| TP-Link UE300(UN) USB3.0 → Gigabit Ethernet | ✅ | 9.2 patron 3 | Network adapter (not Bluetooth), tested on x86_64 PC/Mac | |
| Trendnet TBW-102UB | ✅ | |||
| Trendnet TBW-107UB | ✅ | 4.0.0-beta4 | Latency issues | |
| Trust Ultra Small Bluetooth 2 USB Adapter 10m BT-2400p (15542) | ✅ | 4.0.0-beta | ||
| Trust nano Bluetooth universal 4.0 Adapter | ✅ | |||
| VIVANCO USB Bluetooth Dongle v4.0 (30447) | ✅ |
Tested a dongle that is missing from the list? Share the model, chipset and Recalbox version on the Recalbox Discord.