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Bluetooth 5 Now Available

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Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#161

Post by NoGravitas »

ricardobeat wrote: post #93
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #75

Considering every phone I've tested (iPhone 5S, iPhone 6+, Samsung Note, Moto X, Nexus 6P) with 7 different bluetooth headphones (ranging from cheap Amazon ones to expensive LG) I have NEVER found a phone, paired with headphones, that stayed connected especially when the phone is in my side pocket and I'm walking in an open space which seems to make connectivity significantly worse. For instance getting on the BART b…

I have a cheap Bluedio Turbine (€25 on amazon) I've been using for a month without any issues whatsoever, phone in pocket, cycling, rain... plus I haven't charged the battery even once, 3+ weeks of daily usage in. I'd say bluetooth tech is getting quite amazing!

I've read that those are exceptional value for the money until the plastic breaks...so maybe handle them gently!

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#162

Post by ascagnel_ »

sjellis wrote: post #158
nsxwolf wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing I've seen work reliably with Bluetooth, ever, is the PlayStation 4 controller. And only when pairing with the PS4 and not a PC. Sony seems to have gone out of their way to add some magical layer to establish and maintain those connections without the end user having to know or see anything about it.

The Apple keyboard and trackpad are rock-solid with Macs, probably for the same reason: the same vendor controls both ends.

I use the Apple BT keyboard & mouse with a work MacBook Pro, and it was fine. When I added a pair of BT headphones into the mix, it quickly became a mess (audio would drop out when I started typing or moving the mouse). I wonder how much of that is on the headphone manufacturer vs. saturation of BT.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#163

Post by digi_owl »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #162
sjellis wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple keyboard and trackpad are rock-solid with Macs, probably for the same reason: the same vendor controls both ends.

I use the Apple BT keyboard & mouse with a work MacBook Pro, and it was fine. When I added a pair of BT headphones into the mix, it quickly became a mess (audio would drop out when I started typing or moving the mouse). I wonder how much of that is on the headphone manufacturer vs. saturation of BT.

I remember seeing something similar when one or more devices used the serial profile, or related ones (PPP for instance).

When those where in use, it would basically block all other traffic for the duration.

I noticed this back in the day when i really pushed my bluetooth usage.

My setup was a SonyEricsson featurephone, a Nokia N800, some Jabra headphones, and a white box folding keyboard.

As long as i used the "LAN" connection between the N800 and the phone to get online, it all worked fine. But switch it to PPP and the music would stutter whenever there was network activity.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#164

Post by digi_owl »

robotjosh wrote: post #86
lasryaric wrote: post #9

Why is general bluetooth connectivity so "buggy"? Why am I always struggling connecting my iPhone 6s to my bose bluetooth speaker? I would love to understand that.

Bluetooth drivers in both ios and android never work right. You might get random undocumented error codes on some devices. Some of your connection/transmit functions will just get lost never activating a callback so every single thing needs a timeout handler. I've seen on older androids a callback inexplicably starts getting called twice in a row. I've seen the bluetooth object suddenly is null so you get a hard cras…

Frankly on Android it went to hell when Google decided to drop bluez and go with a stack co-developed with Qualcomm from 4.4 onwards.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#165

Post by pdx »

Thimothy wrote: post #145
pselbert wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a magnificent explanation, and precisely the kind of comment I hope for when reading HN. Thank you for taking the time to share.

If I were you, I'd try to forget it as soon as I can, becouse it's wrong. 2.4 GHz is not in the water absortion band (I'd show you a nice graph, but I can't find one that goes to such low frequencies), a microwave would work as nicely in 1 GHz or 5 GHz, what matters is the H-O bonds, that are esentially electric dipoles and are excited when high-ish frequency and power hits them. You probably have noticed that fat he…

If you re-read my comment, you'll note that I only said that 2.4GHZ was in the 1-20 GHz band that is easily absorbed by water.

Engineers juggle multiple constraints, cost, size, power, and efficacy, and 2.4 GHZ choice was the result of the size of the magnetron that would be cost effective and physically fit into the oven. But it did, of course, have to be within the range of frequencies best absorbed by water, which 2.4GHz is, and which is why it's difficult to get bluetooth through your body.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#166

Post by qdot76367 »

joshschreuder wrote: post #141
qdot76367 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in adult toy design/consulting, and radio/antenna design is actually a HUGE problem there. Trying to figure out how to build antennas for mobile-connected wireless adult toys (versus the cheaper < 1ghz radio toys that just come with a remote) that can work in a myriad of situations is a big problem that's delayed some products, killed others. Any glitches on those products usually guarantees online comment/rev…

Sounds like an interesting job, how did you get into it?

I started https://metafetish.com (NSFW, and when I started it was https://slashdong.org) in 2004, as a hobbyist kinda blog about the engineering behind adult toys. Almost 13 years later now and I'm still at it. Things just built up over the years to where my name kinda became synonymous with certain topics. Consulting has always been a smallish side-gig, because the industry is not a great place to make cash, but damn if it ain't constantly weird and interesting.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#167

Post by whutwhatt »

hollander wrote: post #142
intransigent wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered possible interference and noise introduced by other rival devices competing for the same spectrum? This has been my hypothesis, considering the disruption patterns I've noticed. At home, well removed from other possible bluetooth sources, I rarely experience signal cut-out, or choppy reception. When I move into high traffic areas, the amount of signal loss skyrockets. The worst areas are areas wit…

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13126964

See

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13128401

hint: both are possible, simultaneously. one does not contradict the other. each one is a different concern, with its own merits.

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#168

Post by pdx »

Thimothy wrote: post #145
pselbert wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a magnificent explanation, and precisely the kind of comment I hope for when reading HN. Thank you for taking the time to share.

If I were you, I'd try to forget it as soon as I can, becouse it's wrong. 2.4 GHz is not in the water absortion band (I'd show you a nice graph, but I can't find one that goes to such low frequencies), a microwave would work as nicely in 1 GHz or 5 GHz, what matters is the H-O bonds, that are esentially electric dipoles and are excited when high-ish frequency and power hits them. You probably have noticed that fat he…

Why don't you look at this link. I think it will prove your understanding is incomplete, and that water does have significant absorption in the microwave region of the spectrum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_absorption_by_...

Re: Bluetooth 5 Now Available

#170

Post by tinus_hn »

rasz_pl wrote: post #98
Sephr wrote: post #72

Still no audio profile that supports Opus. Why are we still using a 20 year old audio codec (SBC) for Bluetooth speakers? Opus is low enough bitrate that it could even theoretically be used over BLE (ignoring latency problems), while still wiping the floor with SBC. Regardless of whether BLE transport is possible, it depresses me that Opus support still hasn't been added to the A2DP.

We got brand new 25 year old codec now! PATENTED and owned by Qualcomm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AptX

If it's 25 years old the patents either already have expired or are due to do so soon. Patents don't last forever.
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