BLE5
I’m wondering on the status of the ble5 firmware update mentioned previously on the forums.
If it’s possible to get a pre-release version for us to test that would be great, as we have several hundred MetaMotionR units in the field, and have occasional (and expected) communications disruptions, and would like to see if ble5 makes any difference to improve the range and reliability.
Comments
@fryjs the ble5 firmware is still under development. Unfortunately, the long range extensions require new hardware, and cannot be enabled by firmware update. Its possible if your reliability issue is throughput related, that the higher throughput (2mhz carrier) mode may make a difference. Though, generally speaking this reduces range.
Matt
Ah ok, any guideance on when the new hardware will be available?
I don't think it's a throughput issue, as we are only sampling quaternions from 5 sensors at 10hz each. Which works fine indoors. However the sensors are placed on a person and when outdoors, the sensors that have their line-of-sight from the iPad obscured by the person's body frequently lose connection at even 5m away. Which isn't altogether surprising as people are mostly water which is an excellent shield, however it is sometimes limiting.
@Matt, does this mean existing metamotionR devices can have a firmware upgrade to support ble5 (without long range support)? but long range support then requires the new hardware you mention. My use case could most likely benefit greatly from a simple switch to ble5 (assuming I've understood you answer right!)
Thanks!
@fryjs, that certainly seems a reception challenge more than throughput. Our antenna is resilient to detuning from proximity to body parts, but at the wrong angles too much energy will be absorbed. I'm not certain what I can comment publicly on hardware projects under development, drop us a message to hello.
@ken, yes, with new firmware existing MMR devices are capable of running BLE5 with a subset of the new features.