the link has bt 4.0, it should be fine with the new controller

AFAIK the OG steam link never had built in dongle, you just plugged the controller dongle into the back of it. But it does have BT LE, so it should work with the new controller.

if the controllers come with a dedicated dongle, plug it into the link it will work

Originally posted by Broseph Joseph:

AFAIK the OG steam link never had built in dongle, you just plugged the controller dongle into the back of it. But it does have BT LE, so it should work with the new controller.

As an owner of the OG Steam Link and Controller, I can confirm this. The RF dongle is separate and plugs in to a USB-A port (of the Steam Link, your PC, whatever).

Originally posted by Arno:

Originally posted by Broseph Joseph:

AFAIK the OG steam link never had built in dongle, you just plugged the controller dongle into the back of it. But it does have BT LE, so it should work with the new controller.

As an owner of the OG Steam Link and Controller, I can confirm this. The RF dongle is separate and plugs in to a USB-A port (of the Steam Link, your PC, whatever).

No, Steam Link definitely does not need the separate dongle for the Steam Controller. This was one of it's selling points.
You can pair 'em together just like you would with the wireless dongle and freely switch between them
From the support FAQ:

Originally posted by Steam Link Hardware FAQ:

You can pair a Steam Controller to your wireless receiver or directly to the Steam Link. To pair a Steam Controller directly to the Link, remove all USB peripherals from the Steam Link, boot to the blue pairing screen, and power-on the Steam Controller by holding "X" with the Steam/Home button. You can repeat these steps for pairing additional controllers.

To toggle between pairing modes (the wireless receiver or Steam Link), press the Steam button while holding "A".

Originally posted by nicoper:

Originally posted by Arno:

As an owner of the OG Steam Link and Controller, I can confirm this. The RF dongle is separate and plugs in to a USB-A port (of the Steam Link, your PC, whatever).

No, Steam Link definitely does not need the separate dongle for the Steam Controller. This was one of it's selling points.
You can pair 'em together just like you would with the wireless dongle and freely switch between them
From the support FAQ:

Originally posted by Steam Link Hardware FAQ:

You can pair a Steam Controller to your wireless receiver or directly to the Steam Link. To pair a Steam Controller directly to the Link, remove all USB peripherals from the Steam Link, boot to the blue pairing screen, and power-on the Steam Controller by holding "X" with the Steam/Home button. You can repeat these steps for pairing additional controllers.

To toggle between pairing modes (the wireless receiver or Steam Link), press the Steam button while holding "A".

Tried it, didnt work. Whatever that FAQ is trying to say, it doesnt work like you claim, or it relates to how it worked before the BLE firmware, or its just wrong.
Also the pairing screen shows a graphic of the dongle along with the controller, so it seems to be telling me its definitely required.

Originally posted by nicoper:

No, Steam Link definitely does not need the separate dongle for the Steam Controller.

OK, so just to clarify what I meant here:

• The first-gen Steam Controller does have an RF dongle; support for RF connectivity is not built in to the hardware Steam Link itself.
  
• The Steam Link does have built-in Bluetooth, which you can use instead.

The dongle is required if you want to use RF connectivity (which, on a side note, I've found to have much lower latency) but it's not required overall since the SC also supports Bluetooth.

^ this
link hardware only does bt and wifi,

when xbox controllers connect to xbox, its using xbox wireless protocol, not bt.

steam and xbox controllers connecting to steam link hardware without any dongle use bt

but when using their usb dongles, they use the dedicated xbox or steam controller protocol to the dongle.

Alright, you folks have confused me to an unbelievable degree.

I've always used my Steam Controller with my PC via the dongle and with my Steam Link Hardware by switching between them with Steam+Back, as described in the pairing support article .

To test if the connection to my Hardware might've been over Bluetooth, I cleared the Bluetooth pairing list on the Hardware (Settings > Bluetooth > Y to reset) and paired the Controller to two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Y. I went with pairing two devices because the pairing support article also states that the Controller can only be paired to two native receivers and two Bluetooth devices at a time. After pairing, I could switch between the two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Start.
As soon as I pressed Steam+Back, the Controller started switching between my PC and the Steam Link Hardware again.

I'm fairly sure the Steam Link Hardware has a native Steam Controller radio.

Originally posted by Arno:

The dongle is required if you want to use RF connectivity (which, on a side note, I've found to have much lower latency) but it's not required overall since the SC also supports Bluetooth.

You must've misunderstood my comment.
Steam Link has built-in support for the SC's wireless radio without using Bluetooth.
I literally dug both of mine out after I wrote my earlier comment to make sure and just as I remembered, and as the support articles I linked state, the Steam Controller pairs and connects to Steam Link in dongle mode without using Bluetooth or plugging in the dongle.

It also doesn't show up under the bluetooth settings on the Steam Link when connected this way, so unless the interface is lying, and the SC firmware does something magically different when connected to a Steam Link using the regular wireless mode there's nothing here indicating that it's using Bluetooth.

the steam link has 4 antennas
2x for 2.4ghz and 2x for 5ghz

one each of the 2.4 for wifi and bt

5ghz is wifi only, probably to separate tx and rx

the steam controller only uses 2.4, for bt and its dedicated signal
it can change its bt id by holding steam+buttons or change to its protocol for its receiver

if it doesnt show on bt menu when connected without usb or its dongle, it may be using its own signal somehow

Originally posted by _I_:

if it doesnt show on bt menu when connected without usb or its dongle, it may be using its own signal somehow

Hence, my question about native support for the New Steam Controller. Especially since Valve mentioned through (at least) Gamers Nexus that the New Controller's protocol "comes directly from the original controller"

Originally posted by sarentig:

Originally posted by _I_:

if it doesnt show on bt menu when connected without usb or its dongle, it may be using its own signal somehow

Hence, my question about native support for the New Steam Controller. Especially since Valve mentioned through (at least) Gamers Nexus that the New Controller's protocol "comes directly from the original controller"

Yeah, exactly! Since they're still updating the Steam Link some seven years after it was discontinued, I imagine they'll add support for it if at all possible.

They used the same or a very similar protocol for SteamVR devices like the Index Controllers and Vive/Tundra trackers. Or at least the same hardware, since you can flash specific firmware on the SC's USB dongle to use it for a VR device instead. Tundra Labs even sells them specifically for that purpose.[tundra-labs.com] Or did anyways, it seems to have run out of stock by now.

Originally posted by sarentig:

Alright, you folks have confused me to an unbelievable degree.

I've always used my Steam Controller with my PC via the dongle and with my Steam Link Hardware by switching between them with Steam+Back, as described in the pairing support article .

To test if the connection to my Hardware might've been over Bluetooth, I cleared the Bluetooth pairing list on the Hardware (Settings > Bluetooth > Y to reset) and paired the Controller to two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Y. I went with pairing two devices because the pairing support article also states that the Controller can only be paired to two native receivers and two Bluetooth devices at a time. After pairing, I could switch between the two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Start.
As soon as I pressed Steam+Back, the Controller started switching between my PC and the Steam Link Hardware again.

I'm fairly sure the Steam Link Hardware has a native Steam Controller radio.

This did not work at all when i tried it. I had the link at the pairing screen, i had the controller in dongle pair mode with the LED flashing trying to pair. I tried both dongle 'slots' on the controller. it didnt work. Whats going on?

Originally posted by Broseph Joseph:

Originally posted by sarentig:

Alright, you folks have confused me to an unbelievable degree.

I've always used my Steam Controller with my PC via the dongle and with my Steam Link Hardware by switching between them with Steam+Back, as described in the pairing support article .

To test if the connection to my Hardware might've been over Bluetooth, I cleared the Bluetooth pairing list on the Hardware (Settings > Bluetooth > Y to reset) and paired the Controller to two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Y. I went with pairing two devices because the pairing support article also states that the Controller can only be paired to two native receivers and two Bluetooth devices at a time. After pairing, I could switch between the two Bluetooth devices using Steam+Start.
As soon as I pressed Steam+Back, the Controller started switching between my PC and the Steam Link Hardware again.

I'm fairly sure the Steam Link Hardware has a native Steam Controller radio.

This did not work at all when i tried it. I had the link at the pairing screen, i had the controller in dongle pair mode with the LED flashing trying to pair. I tried both dongle 'slots' on the controller. it didnt work. Whats going on?

Just to make sure, the controller is updated to the BLE firmware, right? Not for the BLE itself, but because I'm pretty sure it changed some of the button combos and I can't find the old ones to reference.
And you're pressing X+Steam to set it to dongle pairing mode? (so, not A+Steam for dongle connection mode - that's for after it's paired)

After this is done, it should show up under "Controllers" in the Steam Link settings, but not under "Bluetooth".

If that doesn't work, I actually don't know what else to try. I already had mine paired from years back and haven't had the need to reset any of the devices, so after putting a couple fresh batteries into my Steam Controller I could just use Back+Steam to switch between the dongle plugged into my PC and my Steam Link plugged into my TV in another room when I tried a few days ago.