Help Bluetooth Connectivity Questions

[jlo]

Good afternoon,

I currently work in bluetooth technologies and was testing a Nexus 9 tablet and a Nexus 6 phone in bluetooth connectivity. I found a substantial difference with the Nexus 6 of about 5 meters less connectivity than the 9, and was wondering if anyone could provide a technical reasoning for this. I was considering it to be a codec difference, or perhaps a difference in battery output, or perhaps the scanning app I am using is not optimized for my nexus 6...

Anything helps,

Thanks!

 

[marctronixx]

Power requirements?
Smaller device so lower output for heat /real estate /SAR requirements?
Etc etc and so forth...

Do you have a WiFi or lte model? Perhaps betwixt the LTE/wifi models of nexus 9 there maybe differences there as well...

 

[AZgl1500]

my thoughts are the one with the shorter range has a cheaper, lower sensitivity bluetooth Tx/Rx radio.

I have run into that with other BT devices. I just accept that brand 'x' is not as good as brand 'y' and move on.

 

[jlo]

I appreciate the responses!
Forgive my ignorance, but power requirements? Is there a set amount of useable power due to capacity of the battery? Can that be directly correlated to the distance of connection?

The 9 is LTE enable, and Active... currently I'm looking into the 6.0 update playing a role in adapter protocols? More of a backend problem, but that's not accounting the discrepancies we're seeing.

The chips are nearly identical so i'm assuming that's not the issue...I wish it were as simple as brand x not being as good as y, but just trying to find the technical reasoning here...

 

[marctronixx]

just throwing out things to discuss. i am not an engineer nor am i a "bluetooth" specialist.

maybe you have a defective unit. only way to get any sense of things is to test another pair of devices.

i have a nexus 6 and nexus 9 lte and bluetooth works for me in my environment. do i know the range? not really but i ive not had problems and both models are first run launch day devices...

 

[Madbat]

Nexus 6 Bluetooth = v4.1, A2DP, LE
Nexus 9 Bluetooth = v4.1, A2DP, apt-X
Maybe the nexus 9's 64 bit tegra cpu handles Bluetooth better.
Great topic and question by the way. Got me clicking and reading this morning.

 

[jlo]

So to field some questions and offer some updates;

The test was performed over a large quantity of nexus 9's and 6's (Roughly 240 devices) and we've found that standard substantial difference across the board unfortunately. We are trying to provide an accurate connection via bluetooth and other means, and this was an unforeseen circumstance.

Madbat, can the codec's affect the connectivity ranges? I understand they can stream line the data and provide higher quality of data without a comprise of latency, but would that affect a total reception?

I'm thinking perhaps I could dive into the snoop hci's and maybe find a reasoning there with sharkwire? but so far no dice...

I appreciate the interest in my headache!

 

[marctronixx]

If you are having these issues with multiple units, have you contacted htc directly?

And if not, why not?

 

[jlo]

Well what we're seeing here isn't an "issue" in HTC's terms, the connectivity is strong, and functioning perfectly, the issue is presiding within the "why" . Two chips, same technology, with a massive difference in ranges. Especially when we look towards providing accurate locations via bluetooth....

 

[marctronixx]

Wouldn't the manufacturer offer some bit of info?

If this means so much to you, why not utilize their support staff? Perhaps if it's warranted it can be escalated.

However these tablets are ending their 15 minutes of fame soon, so may be moot.

Based on traffic here, not many people have this issue or its not a problem in their environments.

Much success on your investigating...

 

[Madbat]

Wouldn't the manufacturer offer some bit of info?

If this means so much to you, why not utilize their support staff? Perhaps if it's warranted it can be escalated.

However these tablets are ending their 15 minutes of fame soon, so may be moot.

Based on traffic here, not many people have this issue or its not a problem in their environments.

Much success on your investigating...

Maybe you don't understand. There is no issue. They are trying to find out why the nexus 9 has so much better Bluetooth range than the nexus 6.

 

[marctronixx]

great.