BLE clients connecting to Raspberry Pi Zero W

Support Raspberry Pi
1

We’re looking at using some Raspberry Pi Zero W in an environment to manage some BLE devices.

For reference, we’re looking at having around 12-15 BLE devices spread out in a circle around 12m diameter and the Pis would be sitting in the centre. The BLE devices are similar to beacons and will be connecting to the Pi and sending tiny amounts of data which the Pi will then be transmitting to our cloud portal.

What we are looking to find out is:

  • What is the maximum number of BLE clients that the Raspberry Pi Zero W can handle
  • What is the effective BLE range of the Raspberry Pi Zero W

Any assistance provided would be greatly appreciated.

2

Hi Will,

I’m not too sure about this, but taking a look at the Pi datasheet, the Bluetooth chip can handle seven simultaneous slaves. I’m sure you could work out a way for the bluetooth devices to pair, send their payload, and then disconnect to allow for more devices to be connected.

The effective range of the Bluetooth depends on a lot of external factors. So let’s say the range is somewhere from 5 meters to 60 meters maximum.