BT Range

[archived]

Hey all,

I've been considering embarking on a home automation project using Pluto, I'm wondering what the range is on these bluetooth devices?  If I have the Core on one side of my house, and a BT device on the other, will they be in range?  I was under the impression that BT will only reach about 9 meters.

Thanks,
Kevin

[archived]

I would be surprised if your core even needs a bluetooth dongle, unless it is operating as a hybrid or unless you are using that as the single base station for your mobile orbiter(s).

My understanding of the way Pluto wants to use bluetooth, and I could be wrong, is to have lots of different bluetooth dongles distributed as child devices for each media director. This effectively sets up a wireless bluetooth network all over the house which serves two puposes. Firstly it enables the mobile orbiters to work everywhere, but secondly (and in my view more importantly) it can pinpoint, based on single strength triangulation, where a particular bluetooth device (usually a mobile orbiter) is in the house, which then related back to where a certain person is in the house. This then enables events based on the movement of the person and things like 'follow me' to work.

I have just ordered sone USB dongles for my media directors that are supposed to have up to 160 metre range, but I would guess that the real range depends upon the device you are using and obstacles in the way.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit

Regards
Darren

[archived]

I have following setup. I have core hybrid and have dongle on longer usb cable that is located near the entrance - so I can identify users on their entry. At that point I have all MDs powered off, so hybrid is only chance...

On the other hand there are some potential problems with more MDs and bluetooth dongles. You need to have clear situation, where bluetooth dongles do not overlap too much. The problem is that BT device cannot measure or connect to several sources, so it's hard threshold value, where if signal strength falls below it and there are other possible sources, device will switch to other source. But if they overlap too much, you'll have constant switching on their boundaries.

So it's best to have solid walls between rooms so BT signal don't get mixed too much....

HTH,

regards,

Rob.