BLE max transmission range

[maldus]

Hello everyone,
I am working on an Android application to communicate with an ESP32 as a GATT server.
I'm a novice in Bluetooth communication, but I'm not having many problems starting with the gatt_server tutorial (https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf/tr ... att_server).

To test the communication capabilities I'm using nRF connect, an app by Nordic.

I was under the impression that the ESP32 could work with different power classes to manage energy consumption and transmission range. With the basic gatt_server example I am able to connect at ~10m, but I lose signal after getting further away (both advertising and communication).

I tried setting the transmission power both with PHY config (as stated here viewtopic.php?t=3264) and whith the esp_ble_tx_power_set function (documented here https://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/lates ... er_level_t.

Is 10m the maximum range, or is it possible to increase it? Power consumption is not a problem for me, but I would like to have a larger area of effect.

[maldus]

The datasheet states (https://www.espressif.com/sites/default ... eet_en.pdf , section 1.3) that the esp32 should be able to transmit as class-1 device without external power amplifier.
Has anyone succeded in doing that?

The idf documentation mentions something (https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp ... _vhci.html), but those function don't seem to have a real effect for me.