I don't know about increasing range. I can telly you about something with codes.Only you have to do is comunicate them over UART. I use this module with micropython so I will try to convert some but I don't really know arduino coding.
#define RX 0
#define TX 1
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
String data = Serial.readString();
//I am writing this line in micropython if data !=None:
// I am writing this line in myicropython data=data.decode('utf-8')
serial.println(data)
That's it. You have to figure it out utf-8 line.