Sometimes the commands do not seem to reach all the devices. How do I improve signal? (TTL, Relays, Retransmits)
The Bluetooth Mesh specification was designed with low energy in mind. The system was not designed to constantly stream data as this would consume excess bandwidth and power. The Mesh specification does however define three different mechanisms for improving message propagation throughout a network.
Network Relays: All BubblyNet devices(besides battery-operated Q-series) can act as relays to help forward that scene message throughout the network. The total number of relays on a site depends on many factors such as device density, concrete/metal walls, and the square footage of the site. If a message is struggling to get to a device in a network we can enable more relays around the misbehaving device to increase the likelihood of it receiving the message.
Message TTL: All messages that get sent through a mesh network whether it be from the app or a Q-series have a Time To Live(TTL) field. This number correlates to the total number of hops a message is allowed to do in a network. This mechanism allows us to define how far a message will propagate through a mesh network. This is useful in limiting the amount of traffic on a mesh network (e.g., Messages in an apartment on the 1st floor should not propagate to apartments on the 10th floor). On the flip side, if we increase the TTL on each message it is more likely to make it to its final destination as it now has more paths it can take to get there.
Network Retransmits: All devices that publish messages(App, Q-series) have a network retransmit setting. This allows us to do almost what you were talking about in your email by changing the number of times the message gets sent out when you send a command from the Q-series/App. This setting also allows for us to define the time period between those messages(e.g., 6 messages every 50ms). This would give the desired effect of a single press but multiple redundant messages get sent out. The app gives its best attempt at auto-configuring these settings but because it has no knowledge of the layout of the building some manual tweaks (at PRO Level) can be made to improve strength and reliability of messages.
