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opendroneid / receiver-android

Example Android receiver application for unmanned aircraft Remote ID
Apache License 2.0
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Add more information/links regarding Bluetooth 5 Long Range support #88

Open BluemarkInnovations opened 2 years ago

BluemarkInnovations commented 2 years ago

I found several links interesting links regarding Bluetooth 5 Long Range/LE coded PY support in smartphones.

A manufacturer that provides a list. (It seems to be a bit outdated as iPhones do not support LE coded PHY, but they are listed here):

A method to look up LE coded PY on the Bluetooth website for any smartphone/device:

I think that even with a free membership you can look up the SIG Qualification details to see if it is qualified for LE coded PY. @friissoren Intel is a Bluetooth member, would it be possible for you to extract a list of phones with LE coded PY support?

Interestingly most Apple iPhones seem to support LE coded PHY (first link), but it looks that Apple has dropped it after iOS 14 https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/665542. So it is a software issue, that Apple could potentially enable again in the future.

friissoren commented 2 years ago

Thanks. This is very interesting and those sites are new to me.

Perhaps we can extend the list with supported phones from this list and have a remark that it is unverified information?

I will try do some updates based on this information. I don't know the details of how exactly they are doing their testing (most likely they don't need the Extended Advertising feature supported) or whether this info is just scraped from e.g. Google Playstore info about which devices supports which Android feature flags.

A method to look up LE coded PY on the Bluetooth website for any smartphone/device:

I tried to look-up the OnePlus 6T, which I know do have support for receiving the long range signals (at least part of the time). However, it was listed to not have LE Coded PHY support. So a clear contradiction there. Looking up each phone via this method would clearly take some time and I wonder if it is worth the effort if the information can't be relied on anyway. Let's see. (I apparently did have some Bluetooth SIG credentials, maybe via Intel?, don't remember when I got them, and was able to log into the site).

Apple has dropped it after iOS 14

I have read similar discussions earlier. If I understood correctly, even when they did have Coded PHY support, they had not implemented the Extended Advertising support to support more than some 100+ bytes, which meant it still wouldn't have been able to pick up all the pings, since they can be up to 255 bytes.

The lack of support in iOS (BT5, NaN, Beacon) has all the time been a SW issue. Apple really likes to do their own thing and not play ball with anyone else. Let's see what the future brings.

BluemarkInnovations commented 2 years ago

I tried to look-up the OnePlus 6T, which I know do have support for receiving the long range signals (at least part of the time). However, it was listed to not have LE Coded PHY support. So a clear contradiction there.

Of course a manufacturer can decide not to declare that the device supports LE Coded PHY officially. I guess if a manufacturer mentioned LE Coded PHY support for a phone, it will work for sure. If it is not listed, it may work like in the OncePlus-6T case.

sxjack commented 1 year ago

would it be possible for you to extract a list of phones with LE coded PY support?

The problem is such a list only gives you a list of possibles. I am about to return a tablet (Samsung A7 Lite) that has a column of YESs on nRF Connect, but in reality only picks up a coded message every few seconds.

BluemarkInnovations commented 1 year ago

Consider making a PR for the list of supported devices: https://github.com/opendroneid/receiver-android/blob/master/supported-smartphones.md#list-of-devices-and-their-capabilities

But yes I agree that Bluetooth Long Range support is rare for smartphones and tablets and the situation does not seem to improve. The suggested links, but also the nRF Connect app are a first check to look for Bluetooth Long Range support for a particular model. As a second step users should verify that there is indeed good/continuous reception of those signals.

sxjack commented 1 year ago

I'll probably do a PR when I find a tablet that works.

The problem is that there is no killer app that needs BT LR coded, so there is no incentive for the manufacturers to prioritise it. I just want the manufacturers to put it in their FAQ and/or in the script that they give to their 1st/2nd line support people.