Trying to connect to bluetooth device, can't see it at all (but phone can)

[Chris Green]

I'm trying to connect my laptop (running xubuntu 23.04 to a bluetooth
device, basically the device is a remote control 'slave' device, no
audio or anything.

Running bluetoothctl and doing 'scan on' shows me a couple of other
local bluetooth devices (a TV and an audio player) but no sign of the
device I want.

However if I can connect my 'phone to the device successfully and,
when I do, bluetoothctl sees *lots* of devices.  There seems to be a
new device for each remote control 'command'.

So when I run bluetoothctl I see:-

    chris$ bluetoothctl
    Agent registered
    [bluetooth]# scan on
    Discovery started
    [CHG] Controller 00:28:F8:3D:3B:AE Discovering: yes
    [NEW] Device 70:54:B4:63:84:1B TOSHIBA TV


Then, when I connect my phone to the remote controlled device and send
it some commands I see the following sort of thing from bluetoothctl:-

    [NEW] Device 60:6D:B1:DA:6A:62 60-6D-B1-DA-6A-62
    [NEW] Device 73:26:97:F3:0D:85 73-26-97-F3-0D-85
    [NEW] Device 53:2D:8A:ED:7C:DA 53-2D-8A-ED-7C-DA
    [NEW] Device 58:28:FD:4E:B9:65 58-28-FD-4E-B9-65
    [DEL] Device 60:6D:B1:DA:6A:62 60-6D-B1-DA-6A-62
    [DEL] Device 73:26:97:F3:0D:85 73-26-97-F3-0D-85
    [NEW] Device 7E:5E:F0:D3:5E:0D 7E-5E-F0-D3-5E-0D
    [DEL] Device 53:2D:8A:ED:7C:DA 53-2D-8A-ED-7C-DA
    [DEL] Device 58:28:FD:4E:B9:65 58-28-FD-4E-B9-65
    [DEL] Device 7E:5E:F0:D3:5E:0D 7E-5E-F0-D3-5E-0D

Each 'NEW' seems to correspond to a particular command.

Can anyone explain this and, even better, tell me how I can control
this device from my laptop using bluetooth?

-- 
Chris Green