Adding a Bluetooth USB dongle to Raspberry Pi with LibreElec

  • Hi. I've got a Rasberry Pi 2 (Model B) with LibreElec installed on it (latest version v8.2.5). I recently purchased a Harmony Elite universal remote control which can control devices via IR and Bluetooth. Having got it setup with all my other devices, I decided to set it up with my Pi using a Vitalitim Bluetooth 4.0 USB dongle (Vitalitim Bluetooth 4.0 USB Low Energy Micro Adapter Dongle for PC with Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, Raspberry Pi, Linux and Stereo Headset Compatible (Black): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories). The product page says it's compatible with the Pi. I believe the Harmony remote appears as a Bluetooth input device but I can't figure out how to add/search for the remote in the Kodi interface. Even getting the Bluetooth dongle to work seems odd because it only seems to start working when I disable and re-enable the Bluetooth service. When I then search for Bluetooth devices, it finds my Panasonic TV but nothing else.

    Just to confirm, when I set the Harmony remote to control the TV, Kodi can be controlled as I believe this uses CEC. However, this doesn't have all the functionality and thus I wanted to use the Bluetooth feature. Am I better off upgrading to a Pi 3 which has built in Bluetooth?

    Any help?

  • You need to pair the Harmony to the USB BT dongle via the Harmony App. Once it's paired it should show up in the LE settings as "Harmony Keyboard" where you can connect.