Sense Bluetooth to phone range extender

[dschulpius]

Hi all,

I'm loving my Sense. It works great and I feel the data I get is pretty accurate. I have compared a lot of it to other trusted devices.  

Anyway, there is one part of the Fitbit sense I wish was better. The Bluetooth range is short in my opinion. As long as I have the phone within 20- 30 feet with no walls in-between I stay connected. Outside of that and I have to wait to get into that range to reconnect to the phone. I completely understand that this feature works as described and sold. Hopefully Fitbit will someday install a longer range Bluetooth or even total wifi conductivity in these watches. 

In the meantime, has anyone found a way to extend the Bluetooth range? I know little about this subject. There are Bluetooth signal extenders on the market. Has anyone found a way to use something like this? It would be great to just leave my Samsung Galaxy 8 on the charger and walk around the house and take advantage of the Sense's features! Am I just wishing that Santa Clause is real here? LOL!  Thanks in advance! 

[usher99]

Please report your findings.  Too bad they have  to be wired, but at least it is potential solution. I don’t know why the Ionic stayed connected, but in retrospect that was a treat. 

[DavidZz]

This Bluetooth repeater arrangement seems to be working, but it's not perfect and I'm not 100% sure that it's actually working. For about 2 hours, I was able to walk throughout my 1,200 sq. ft. 3-bedroom condo without losing the connection between my iPhone and Fitbit Sense. That never happened before. Before, I almost always lost the connection when I spent more than a few seconds in my kitchen. But then, after about an hour or 2 of working flawlessly, it disconnected for some unknown reason. I'll keep playing around with it to see if I can improve the performance.

I decided to go with this transmitter/receiver instead of the one I mentioned earlier. I put one of these in my office bedroom set up as a receiver and paired it to my iPhone, which I leave in my office bedroom. I connected this receiver to the transmitter with a 100' audio cable. I put the transmitter in my living room near the kitchen. I wasn't able to pair the transmitter to my Fitbit Sense, but it doesn't appear that I need to. Apparently, the transmitter is transmitting the signal from the iPhone sufficiently enough (without it being paired to my Fitbit Sense) to maintain the connection for a long period of time in my kitchen.

[dschulpius]

Cool! Thanks for the work on this and sharing! I'm very interested in how
it ends up. I may give it a try myself.

[usher99]

Thanks again.  I can’t easily run the wire. Turns out I lose the BT signal right at my bedroom door.  Need another 8 feet is all.  My Ionic had no issue staying connected to my phone.  My wife’s Apple Watch stays connected but that can use WiFi as on the same network— burns more power I read .  That would be a nice optional feature for the Sense.  

Since I can’t easily run the wire, what about a more powerful BT receiver/transmitter pair?

Avantree TR500 Long Range Bluetooth Transmitter Receiver Set for TV & PC Audio, Home Stereo Speakers, Certified aptX Low Latency, Voice Guide, Digital Optical Toslink 3.5mm AUX RCA

https://a.co/d/edENm5b

Does anyone think that would work?  Rather an expensive solution though.

[DavidZz]

The Avantree TR500 is the same type of device as ones I've been experimenting with.  These devices are not designed to do what we want them to do.  These devices are designed to connect Bluetooth speakers (wireless) to a source (TV, PC, etc.) that's wired into the device.  They're not designed to increase the range between of two Bluetooth wireless devices like a watch and a phone..

Also, what these manufactures don't tell you is that in order to get long range performance both the receiver and the transmitter must be long range capable (i.e., Class 1).  Since the Fitbit is Class 2, it's not capable of long range.  When a Class 1 device is paired with a Class 2 device, the signal defaults to Class 2.

I'm coming to the conclusion set up I put together (2 of these devices wired together) is not working.  I have a support email request in to one of the manufacturers of these devices to see if this set up can work or if there's another solution.  I'll let you know what I find out.

[usher99]

Thank you.  Please do.  Even if the effort gets 30 more feet, it will be worth it.  

[dschulpius]

Again, thanks for all the work on this issue. I can't believe in this day and age of technology that someone hasn't come up with a bluetooth extender like we are discussing here. Maybe because BT is an old technology and there is no real money in updating it. If so, then the Fitbit Sense is old technology. Perhaps If I want it to do something it can't then I need to use another watch that is WIFI capable. After looking at the Sense features, the Fitbit is WIFI capable but only for downloading music. I've never used it for that though. 

[DavidZz]

Here's TaoTronics response:

• It is not possible with our transceivers. When paired with a phone via Bluetooth, the TT-BA014 can only function as a "receiver," not a "transmitter." As a result, it will be unable to communicate or transmit the signal from the phone to the second TT-BA014 It will only be able to receive Bluetooth audio from the phone and play the audio files on a speaker to which it is wired, but it will not be able to relay commands to another device (2nd TT-BA014 or smartwatch). We recommend that they contact the smartwatch provider to determine what type of 3rd party device (if any) they can purchase to achieve this goal.
• Because the Smartphone and Smartwatch will need to communicate back and forth, each device must have 'transmitting' and 'receiving' capabilities at the same time in order for both devices to communicate. They'll need something that can act as both a transmitter and a receiver at the same time. Unfortunately, none of our Bluetooth Adapters have that feature, and we have no idea if such a device exists.

[usher99]

Thank you so much for posting that.  We should all appreciate your efforts.  Sounds like a definitive knife in the heart of that idea though. 
I suppose the only hope is for fitbit to change the firmware so wifi on the same network can be used if BT is out of range.  I believe Apple watches do this.  Probably a hit in battery life but can revert to BT when back in range.  They could make that feature optional.  

[dschulpius]

OK, well, that answers that. That was a good answer and told us exactly
what is needed.

Thanks for posting.

[DavidZz]

Update: I can now put my phone down and walk around my condo without losing the Bluetooth signal on my watch. Here's how I did it.

As you may recall, I live in the three-bedroom condominium. The three bedrooms are to the south and my kitchen is at the north end. If I put my phone in the kitchen and walk into one of my bedrooms, my watch loses connection with the phone. And when I put the phone in one of my bedrooms, and walk into the kitchen, I also lose the signal on my watch. Here's how I solved the problem.

I found that when I put my phone in the most central spot in my condo, I can walk anywhere in the condo and not lose the signal on my watch. That central spot happens to be in a hallway. So, I got a small shelf and mounted it in the hallway to put my phone on. It's an 8-inch shelf and I mounted it 32 inches from the floor. Also, my research and experimentation indicate that the phone has better reception when upright rather than lying flat. So I bought a little phone stand.

Now, with my phone in the stand on my small shelf in the hallway, I can walk anywhere in my condo and not lose the signal on my watch.