ESP32 Bluetooth Source Range limited when not debugging

[Al-Zahir]

Problem Description

Expected: ESP32 as a bluetooth source should play music at normal bluetooth distance when not debugging (i.e. plugged into a computer without PlatformIO/Arduino or plugged into a wall)

I am using player-sdfat-a2dp.ino example sketch to play music from an SD card to a bluetooth speaker using an ESP32.

When I upload the sketch to the ESP32 from PlatformIO and start the device monitor, everything seems to be working; the bluetooth speaker is connected, music is playing, and I can move the bluetooth speaker around the room. The moment I exit the device monitor script and restart the esp32, the bluetooth range is severely limited. It will stop playing the music if I move the speaker more than a few inches away from the esp32. This also happens when I use power from the wall. The only time I was able to get it to work was when I had the serial monitor running. This is not ideal because I would like to plug the ESP32 into the wall and have it play music to a bluetooth speaker. I do not want to have to constantly run the serial monitor.

Here is my platformio.ini file:

[env:esp32dev]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32dev
framework = arduino
build_flags = -DCORE_DEBUG_LEVEL=5 -Wno-unused-variable -Wno-unused-but-set-variable -Wno-unused-function -Wno-format-extra-args 
monitor_speed = 115200
board_build.partitions = huge_app.csv
lib_ldf_mode = chain+
lib_deps = 
	https://github.com/pschatzmann/arduino-audio-tools
	https://github.com/pschatzmann/arduino-libhelix
	https://github.com/greiman/SdFat
	https://github.com/pschatzmann/ESP32-A2DP

Device Description

ESP-WROOM-32

Sketch

/**
 * @file player-sdfat-a2dp.ino
 * @brief see https://github.com/pschatzmann/arduino-audio-tools/blob/main/examples/examples-player/player-sdfat-a2dp/README.md
 * 
 * @author Phil Schatzmann
 * @copyright GPLv3
 */

//remove this, to find issues regarding mp3 decoding
#define HELIX_LOGGING_ACTIVE false

#include "AudioTools.h"
#include "AudioLibs/A2DPStream.h"
#include "AudioLibs/AudioSourceSDFAT.h"
#include "AudioCodecs/CodecMP3Helix.h"

const char *startFilePath="/";
const char* ext="mp3";
AudioSourceSDFAT source(startFilePath, ext); // , PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_CS);
A2DPStream out;
MP3DecoderHelix decoder;
AudioPlayer player(source, out, decoder);


void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  AudioLogger::instance().begin(Serial, AudioLogger::Warning);

  // Setting up SPI if necessary with the right SD pins by calling 
  // SPI.begin(PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_CLK, PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_MISO, PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_MOSI, PIN_AUDIO_KIT_SD_CARD_CS);

  // setup output - We send the test signal via A2DP - so we conect to a Bluetooth Speaker
  auto cfg = out.defaultConfig(TX_MODE);
  //cfg.name = "LEXON MINO L";  // set the device here. Otherwise the next available device is used for output
  //cfg.auto_reconnect = true;  // if this is use we just quickly connect to the last device ignoring cfg.name
  out.begin(cfg);

  // setup player
  player.setVolume(0.1);
  player.begin();

}

void loop() {
  player.copy();
}

Other Steps to Reproduce

Things I have tried or learned:

• My computer does not have bluetooth support, so the ESP32 cannot be using the computer’s bluetooth range when it is working in debug mode (therefore this is probably a software issue and nothing is wrong with the board itself)
• I used multiple different cables with multiple outlets and nothing worked except for the device monitor.
• Running the device monitor works, but unplugging and replugging the esp32 caused the bluetooth range to diminish
• I tried multiple bluetooth speakers in case it was the speakers fault, and they all resulted in the same issue
• I tried multiple ESP32s and they all also result in the same issue
• I also tried updating the firmware on one of the boards and still did not fix the issue
• I tried streams-generator-a2dp.ino example sketch with an ESP32 with no pins connected (as this sketch sends a sine wave and maybe the SD reader did something), but it still had the same issue.
• I tried switching to the denky32 board and removing the build_flags in the platformio.ini file, but I got the same issue in both cases
• I tried switching to the espidf framework, but that broke a whole ton of things.
• I tried increasing the TX power level of the bluetooth to P9 with esp_bredr_tx_power_set in the btStart() method and that did not work either.
• I tried setting the bluetooth mode to ESP_BT_MODE_BTDM in BluetoothA2DPCommon.h, and that didn't work either.
• I tried using the ArudinoIDE on both a windows and mac computer in case PlatformIO was doing something weird, but the bluetooth range was still limited
• I also posted on the PlatformIO forum in case there is some weird setting or function I am missing: https://community.platformio.org/t/esp32-bluetooth-range-limited-unless-debugging/39905

What is your development environment

PlatformIO

I have checked existing issues, discussions and online documentation

• I confirm I have checked existing issues, discussions and online documentation

[pschatzmann]

Did you try to set the log level to a reasonable value ?
You should use 5 only to debug your functionality and otherwise leave it at 2 (to see warnings) or 1 (to see errors only)

[Al-Zahir]

Yes, the AudioLogger is set to Warning in the setup function of the sketch. I also tried removing the build_flags entirely and I still got the same issue. I just tried to remove the logging entirely and see if that would help, but I still got the same issue.

The problem is, I cannot debug this, because it works properly in debug. Everytime I try to see the logs, it works as intended.