CYBLE-416045-02 BLE Range

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TW_Chia
Level 3
Level 3
First like received 25 replies posted 10 sign-ins

Good day,

I have developed a datalogger using the CYBLE-416045-02 operating in the BLE mode.

BLE1.png

I am using a CY5677 BLE dongle to connect with my windows PC for testing.

At a distance of less than 1m apart, there is no issue connecting and transferring data between PC and the logger.

However, at a distance of greater than 1m, there is the timeout issue resulting in disconnection of the logger.

BLE2.png

May I ask the possible issue with the setup which limits the connection distance between the 2 devices.

Thank you & Best Regards,

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1 Solution

TaCh,

I figure what you are trying to do is a scheduled message.  If a message is missed on the client (receiving) end, the message is dropped and the connection is dropped.  The issue is more pronounced when the distance is increased between the server and client.

The issue is that the universe will conspire against you to always have a clean connection.  You need to incorporate into your protocol the occasional missing message.  Something like "x" number of consecutive missed messages is then considered a dropped connection.

If you were implementing a "hardwired" connection, the universe would have a harder time to scramble a good message.

Len

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."

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11 Replies
Yugandhar
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
500 solutions authored 1000 replies posted 5 likes given

Hello,

I tested the CYBLE-416045-02 module with the PSoC6BLE_FindMe example project, I didn't get any timeout issue at a distance greater than 1m. Could you please check with BLE_FindMe example project in the PSoC Creator and let me know the observations ?

Thanks,

P Yugandhar.

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Good day P Yugandhar,

Sorry for the slow reply as I was away.

I have followed another solution found which is to use an USB extension cable to connect to the USB Dongle and placed it at some height.

With this, I am now able to maintain connection up to about 6m unobstructed in my office.

I am not able to confirm the maximum distance yet due to the space constraint here.

Hence, it seems one is not able to directly connect the USB dongle to the PC USB port.

May I ask what other ways there are available to extend the sensing distance?

Thank you.

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Yugandhar
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
500 solutions authored 1000 replies posted 5 likes given

Hello,

Apologize for the delay response.

Could you please check your project with Cysmart Android/IOS App and let me know the observed range values ?

Also, please check the channel power in your master configuration in CySmart PC as shown in attached image.

Thanks,

P Yugandhar.

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Good day,

The range is about the same as what I have with the dongle on a android phone

The channel power is 3dBm.

FYI

Best Regards,

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Len_CONSULTRON
Level 9
Level 9
Beta tester 500 solutions authored 1000 replies posted

TaCh,

I've used the CY8CPROTO-063-BLE with the CYBLE-416045-02 module and the FindMeApp.  With my phone (iPhone) I can connect at the extreme opposite ends of my home (~15m) with no real issues.  In addition the 15m is not LOS (line-of-sight) and has multiple reflections between targets.

Len

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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Good day Len,

I have also no issue detecting the BLE device with the Cysmart app on my Android phone at some further distance.

However, when a command is sent to initiate constant sending of a 10 bytes of data at 100ms interval, the connection will drop easily when the distance apart is greater than 3 to 4m.

FYI

Best Regards,

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TaCh,

I think the issue here may be the assumption: "constant".   ANY WIRELESS communication is basically a "shared wire" with any device or even the cosmos asynchronously sharing the frequency band(s) being used.

BLE is designed to be a sensor network system.  If your BLE packet is intended as a "push", it sends the data available and hopes it gets to the client.  You hope that if it didn't make it to the client, the next packet would.

You can design a BLE packet that has a acknowledgement from the client.  This is a close loop that attempts to make sure the data is received by the client.  If not, within a short amount of time, the packet is retried until the acknowledgment is finally received.

I sounds like your packet design from your server is a "push" only.  In this case, you may have to assume that some percentage of the data stream is lost.  In this case, you may have to instruct the server and the client not to drop the connection.

Len

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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Good day Len.

Thank you for the reply.

May i ask how one can set to prevent drop connection?

Thank you.

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TaCh,

I figure what you are trying to do is a scheduled message.  If a message is missed on the client (receiving) end, the message is dropped and the connection is dropped.  The issue is more pronounced when the distance is increased between the server and client.

The issue is that the universe will conspire against you to always have a clean connection.  You need to incorporate into your protocol the occasional missing message.  Something like "x" number of consecutive missed messages is then considered a dropped connection.

If you were implementing a "hardwired" connection, the universe would have a harder time to scramble a good message.

Len

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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TaCh,

Check out this video.  It talks about the Slave latency and Supervision Timeout connection parameters.  These parameters affect when an established connection gets dropped.

Ellisys Bluetooth Video 4: Connections - YouTube

This video is just a part of a BLE primer.  Mostly high level but informative.

Len

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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Dear Len,

Thank you for the link.

It does help to gain more insignt.

Best Regards,

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