Wireless range of WRL-084 series of bluetooth chips

Wireless & IoT
1

I’m wondering what experiences other people are having with the useable range of WRL-084 series chips. They’re supposed to support class 1 power output, but I can barely get any range on them. The best I can do is maybe 15 feet.

I’ve tried connecting them with a multitude of bluetooth devices (MacBook, D-Link DBT-122, and a few others), and the limited range is the same for all.

The docs say that Class 2 trimming is disabled by default, and just to be sure, I disabled it again in the configuration. I can’t think of any other solution to get the range going higher. I know it’s silly to expect the theoretical maximum of Class 1, but I really need a better range than what I’ve got.

2

A class 1 Bluetooth device will only have effective class 1 range if connecting to another class 1 Bluetooth device. Most laptops and the D-link you listed are class 2 Bluetooth devices.

3

Interesting, I didn’t realize that laptops usually only had Class 2. By chance, are there any USB dongles that do Class 1 that you’d recommend? Bonus points if it operates under Linux.