@Johan_Ha - been trying to find a way to ping you based on this thread from '21:
In short, (1) I had an issue where my connectivity was sub-1 meter but I've found the issue this post, and (2) I want to prototype a dog collar controlled by my phone, which sounds similar to what you were exploring, or at the very least I'd look to prototype functionality you largely may have already built.
In short, it's crazy to me this is the current status of dog training collars, and we can do better to at least have the device be bluetooth connected and controlled via phone.
If you're open to it - would love to chat and connect (can we not send private messages on here?).
You can find me on twitter (here)[https://twitter.com/pstav90] or whatever medium we can actually connect.
We could as well chat here. Someone else could as well be interested in the topic.
I put my project on hold back then (as I've done with too many projects). But I try to find time to continue with it, since I have a very smart dog, who just loves learning new things.
I never thought connecting my phone to it. Instead I had a touch screen connected to a Nordic prototyping board, which in turn would have the long range contact to the collar. I don't think phones can have long range bluetooth contact. However, a phone could have close range contact to a device, which in turn could have the long range contact to the collar.
I bought the Nano BLE to answer this question you highlight: I don't think phones can have long range bluetooth contact.
Would love to know what makes you say so? I live in the city, and sometimes take my dog on hikes. I've been thinking that if I can achieve a range of 30-50m, that should suffice. Of course, connecting it to another long-range device to interact with the collar would of course yield something like a 0.8 km radius.
I'm not sure, but I think the Bluetooth contact happens on a system level, not on the app level. I mean, the app relies on the system providing a Bluetooth data stream. Long range Bluetooth does the job by repeating sending data packages until each bit is correct (very simply explained), by checksums and whatnot. And this happens on the system level, or hardware level. An app trying to do the same will only get a respond from the system that the Bluetooth contact failed. Unless the system, or the hardware, includes support for long range Bluetooth. This is the picture of long range Bluetooth I got, when I read about it. Phones could of course have such support, but I don't think the manufacturers care to include that in phones. Who would need it? Correct me, if I got it all wrong.