Amazon's choice for bluetooth passthrough

Xharos · (This post was last modified: 07-01-2018, 11:54 AM by Xharos.)

(06-28-2018, 05:33 PM)mbc07 Wrote: When using the Dolphin Bar or a BT dongle with the "Emulate a Bluetooth adapter" option in Dolphin, you'll have the following issues:

* Wiimote audio will only work with -TR units (non-TR units output just a garbled mess of noises or no sound at all)
* The latency is higher, making some games (especially if they use Motion Plus) feel "harder" to play if compared with a real Wii
* It's guaranteed to work only with genuine Nintendo Wiimotes (fake/3rd-party units are hit or miss -- most of them won't even sync)
* Some games allows to write or read data into the Wiimote built-in memory (e.g. saving Miis from Mii Channel, storing controller and name settings from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, etc), most of these won't work correctly or the Wiimote will simply disconnect upon trying to use the feature.
* Games that require the Motion Plus have some detection issues (you might need to plug and unplug another accessory -- e.g. a Nunchuk -- before the game notices you have Motion Plus)

You won't have any of these issues with Bluetooth Passthrough assuming you have a BT adapter that works well (e.g. the real Wii BT module modded to USB is fully compatible), so, despite BT Passthrough being a bit more finicky to setup (and limiting the save-state functionality a little), it's overall the best option, anything Wiimote-related that works on a real Wii works the same in Bluetooth Passthrough...

I see, that's interesting. So using BT passhthrough is the equivalent of using the official Wii U GameCube controller adapter (aka 100% having a native controller), but for Wiimotes, right? Is anyone selling already-modded Wii BT adapters anywhere?

Or alternatively, is there a PCIe Wifi + Bluetooth combo card with good / almost perfect compatibility?. I'm gonna need to add WiFi to my desktop PC soon because I'm taking it somewhere else for college and I won't have ethernet, so it would be nice if I could kill two birds with one stone.

**mbc07** · 07-02-2018, 05:33 AM **#22**

(07-01-2018, 11:36 AM)Xharos Wrote: I see, that's interesting. So using BT passhthrough is the equivalent of using the official Wii U GameCube controller adapter (aka 100% having a native controller), but for Wiimotes, right?

Yes. Basically, your BT adapter will be directly exposed to the emulated software (e.g. the game you're playing) when you're in BT passthrough. Keep in mind all games assume they're communicating with a Wii BT Module (which is based on a BCM2045 with custom firmware), so, 100% compatibility is only guaranteed if you're using a real Wii BT Module modded to USB. Other adapters might work very well too, but might show minor issues (like not remembering which Wiimotes were paired).

(07-01-2018, 11:36 AM)Xharos Wrote: Is anyone selling already-modded Wii BT adapters anywhere?

Short answer, no. Long answer, Armada (a Dolphin dev) did some prototyping of an adapter which would let you plug a Wii BT module to it and then connect it to your PC through a micro USB cable, but the project hadn't any progress for quite a while. As of today, you'll need to mod the adapter yourself if you want the best compatibility possible and we have a guide here if you're interested.

(07-01-2018, 11:36 AM)Xharos Wrote: Or alternatively, is there a PCIe Wifi + Bluetooth combo card with good / almost perfect compatibility?. I'm gonna need to add WiFi to my desktop PC soon because I'm taking it somewhere else for college and I won't have ethernet, so it would be nice if I could kill two birds with one stone.

We have a list on the wiki. Those listed here are the only ones we got testing reports, and very few (besides the Wii BT Module) have perfect compatibility...

Xharos · 07-02-2018, 08:09 AM **#23**

(07-02-2018, 05:33 AM)mbc07 Wrote: Yes. Basically, your BT adapter will be directly exposed to the emulated software (e.g. the game you're playing) when you're in BT passthrough. Keep in mind all games assume they're communicating with a Wii BT Module (which is based on a BCM2045 with custom firmware), so, 100% compatibility is only guaranteed if you're using a real Wii BT Module modded to USB. Other adapters might work very well too, but might show minor issues (like not remembering which Wiimotes were paired).

Short answer, no. Long answer, Armada (a Dolphin dev) did some prototyping of an adapter which would let you plug a Wii BT module to it and then connect it to your PC through a micro USB cable, but the project hadn't any progress for quite a while. As of today, you'll need to mod the adapter yourself if you want the best compatibility possible and we have a guide here if you're interested.

We have a list on the wiki. Those listed here are the only ones we got testing reports, and very few (besides the Wii BT Module) have perfect compatibility...

Thanks! As a suggestion for the wiki (since I can't edit it myself), it would be nice if there was a column in the list for what type it connection each adapter uses (USB or PCIe basically), it would be useful for people who may be specifically looking for an internal bluetooth adapter and not an external one for example

**mbc07** · 07-02-2018, 10:25 AM **#24**

Well, technically all BT adapters available nowadays are USB (even the ones from PCIe WiFi + BT combo cards as they use the USB bus provided on the mini PCIe/NGFF socket -- in case of a desktop card, you would need to plug a cable from the add-on card to an available USB header of your motherboard to get BT functionality), so I'm not sure if that's a good idea as it would be somewhat wrong calling those adapters as PCIe.

If it helps, from the current list, all Atheros and Intel entries are from PCIe WiFi + BT combo cards...