Xbox One Controller Adapter for Windows 10 - How many dongles per machine?

BlizzardX · 10 Jun 2020 at 10:06

Hi

This might seem like an odd title and thing to do but bear with me.

I have my PCs housed away from any display and use gamestreaming software to connect and play (Steam Link, Parsec etc.). Steam Link has the ability to use VirtualHere to connect a locally connected USB device directly to the host PC as if it was local and not over the network; its essentially USB over IP. I have sucessfully used this approach to share a xbox one controller adapter from an nVidia Shield TV to my gaming pc with the original xbox one controller synced.

What I want to do is get another adapter and sync a different controller to it and pass that through as well; this would allow the controllers to be completely mobile across all the devices in the house and not tied via bluetooth to a single TV.

Reason? Kids move across devices and currently I have to repair the controllers as they move and its time consuming and frustrating! This is simply plug and play.

Anyway, the main point of the post is asking if anybody knows if two dongles can actually connect to a single pc and be recognised without them conflicting; I only have one and at $40NZD each I'm not too keen to purchase another one for a trial.

Cheers

Chris

spudbynight · 10 Jun 2020 at 10:55

Get the bluetooth revision of the controller and you can pair multiple ones to a PC without that dongle.

Tupro · 10 Jun 2020 at 10:58

Im not sure i fully understand what your trying to do, but im assuming you know you can connect more than 1 controller to a dongle - and that wouldn't achieve what your trying?

as far as connecting more than 1 dongle to a PC im fairly sure you can (not 100% as i haven't done it myself, but technically its 2 separate devices so shouldn't conflict) do this without issue, what i dont think will work is connecting 1 controller to 2 dongles

but im sure there wouldnt be any issue with returning the dongle if you wanted to buy one to test this out (even better if you can borrow one from someone)
as long as its still in an "as new" state when you return it of course

BlizzardX · 10 Jun 2020 at 12:02

To expand, all games are played via steam link, parsec or the soon to be released rainway for Android TV; I also play on my laptop via the same methods. The kids also do the same from their gaming pc as well... however we kick them from the Sony Android TV to the nvidia shields elsewhere in the house; the reason this works so well with this system is that they can simply unplug the dongle and take it with them and plug it in to the new device... Steam Link connects to the virtualhere server on the android device and passes it through automatically, saves having to unpair and pair a controller every time we need them to move, especially the 4y old that loves to move around the house playing lego games.

We have only 3 controllers and with 2 TVs and several laptops its just annoying hence the question about the dongles.. one works well but I wasn't sure if windows could use two at the same time... The plan is to have one per controller, expensive yes, but simple and effective allowing all controllers to be used across all hosts and clients without hassle and without my kids making me do everything everytime they're asked to move around the house.

Tupro said:
but im sure there wouldnt be any issue with returning the dongle if you wanted to buy one to test this out (even better if you can borrow one from someone)
as long as its still in an "as new" state when you return it of course

Alas New Zealand has different consumer laws to the UK hence the questions.

Tupro · 10 Jun 2020 at 13:48

BlizzardX said:
Alas New Zealand has different consumer laws to the UK hence the questions.

ah yes i didnt even think of that sorry, anyway i think the best bet to get a clear answer is to contact microsoft directly and ask them

either that or go to a larger PC focused forum and ask the question there too.. there must be someone out there who uses a similar method

im still very confused about what you want to achieve

BlizzardX said:
the reason this works so well with this system is that they can simply unplug the dongle and take it with them and plug it in to the new device... Steam Link connects to the virtualhere server on the android device and passes it through automatically, saves having to unpair and pair a controller every time we need them to move

if this is the case then what is the issue?

BlizzardX · 10 Jun 2020 at 21:23

the main thing is to have the controllers on seperate dongles so if I'm playing on my PC, I can pass that through without the kids loosing access to their controls... At one time we could all be playing different games on different devices (Minecraft on a laptop, Lego games via an Android TV device and my via my laptop or another android TV device); having two or even three controllers paired to a single dongle would make it impossible to do it where as having 3 dongles allows them to be used seperatly but also, and the point of the post, to play co-op games when ever they want without me having to act as troubleshooter when I'm at work etc.

Tupro · 11 Jun 2020 at 10:07

ah that makes things a bit more clear, unfortunately my advice is still the same.. because its such a unique situation i dont think many people buy multiple dongles for 1 PC so the best way to get a clear answer is to ask Microsoft directly, they should have a support email address on their website

the only other options i can think is, since you dont want to pay full price just to test this out.. maybe look for someone selling a used one
or buy a non-official one, although you would need to find a decent one (dont bother with a cheap Chinese knock-off, they're unreliable in my experience)

sorry i couldn't be more help