Which bluetooth audio transmitter should I use?

[Xenosaber]

Hi to all, I think it is at least two years that I do not write, but I follow with great passion the various posts on the creations of lightsaber and the different advice offered by the forum. Finally I can resume my project of the second lightsaber "Ordem Obscura" (started for over two years!). I am not an electronics expert at all, but I ask you for some help because I would like to try to insert a bluetooth audio transmitter inside the saber, but I do not know where to start. First what transmitter do you suggest me to use? I'm using a Petit Crouton 3.0 without color extender. I hope you can autarm me! Thanks so much.

[QUI-GON JINN]

This topic may be of some help: Wireless (Bluetooth) RICE for Plecter sound boards - HOW-TO

[profezzorn]

Regular bluetooth audio sender/receivers have very high latency, which would make it pretty useless for interactive use.
However, AptX transmitters/receivers could potentially do much better. Another option would be to use some protocol normally
used by wireless microphones, but I haven't found any way to implement those that doesn't involve taking an expensive microphone apart.

[jbkuma]

To what end do you wish to do this?

[Xenosaber]

As I have noticed from some lightsaber manufacturers, they transmit sound from the sound board to external speakers. But I do not know what transmitter to use and how to connect it to P.T. Crouton. I have now opened the posts of your answers, so I have yet to read the link to the suggestion of Qui-Gon Jin.Thank you!

[profezzorn]

As I have noticed from some lightsaber manufacturers, they transmit sound from the sound board to external speakers. But I do not know what transmitter to use and how to connect it to P.T. Crouton. I have now opened the posts of your answers, so I have yet to read the link to the suggestion of Qui-Gon Jin.Thank you!

The only remote sound solutions I'm aware of come from Naigon Electronics, and they don't use bluetooth. Instead they transmit the motion from the saber to a receiver, which then plays the same sounds that the saber would have produced. I don't think you can do do that with a petite crouton.

[profezzorn]

Maybe something like this could work:
Amazon.com: ammoon WS-10 Digital 2.4Ghz Audio Wireless Electric Guitar

[erv]

The only remote sound solutions I'm aware of come from Naigon Electronics, and they don't use bluetooth. Instead they transmit the motion from the saber to a receiver, which then plays the same sounds that the saber would have produced. I don't think you can do do that with a petite crouton.

Though the regular petit crouton firmware didn't have it, all my boards can do this with omnisabers since 2006.

[Xenosaber]

But as you can see, Ro-lightsaber makes sabers with a bluetooth transmitter connected to a Prizm board and transmits to JBL speakers. So I should be able to do it with a P.T. Crouton, right?

[erv]

As profezzorn said (andnas you can hear in the video) the latency is very bad

[Xenosaber]

Thanks Erv for this your first information! But the idea of being able to listen to the sound with external speakers is really captivating !!

[ShtokyD]

Yeah, Ro-lightsaber uses a cheap regular audio transmitter module that has a big latency (200+ ms), it's very noticeable with swings and blaster blocks. But I've successfully tested a few low-latency audio transmitters with latency around 40 ms. And the latency is almost unnoticeable. Keep in mind that most cheap bluetooth speakers don't support bluetooth low-latency codec, so to get a true low-latency audio transmission we need to have both Bluetooth transmitter and receiver modules that support low-latency codec: transmitter wired to saber sound board, receiver connected to remote speaker or stereo system via regular 3.5mm AUX cable. But another problem is bluetooth signal strength, because aluminum hilt blocks it big time, and bigger distance between bluetooth speaker and saber -> bigger latency we get... still have more tests to do to improve antenna and transmission distance now...

Video:

[James In CA]

Yeah, Ro-lightsaber uses a cheap regular audio transmitter module that has a big latency (200+ ms), it's very noticeable with swings and blaster blocks. But I've successfully tested a few low-latency audio transmitters with latency around 40 ms. And the latency is almost unnoticeable. Keep in mind that most cheap bluetooth speakers don't support bluetooth low-latency codec, so to get a true low-latency audio transmission we need to have both Bluetooth transmitter and receiver modules that support low-latency codec: transmitter wired to saber sound board, receiver connected to remote speaker or stereo system via regular 3.5mm AUX cable. But another problem is bluetooth signal strength, because aluminum hilt blocks it big time, and bigger distance between bluetooth speaker and saber -> bigger latency we get... still have more tests to do to improve antenna and transmission distance now...

Video:

Gents, this thread was started almost two years ago. Bluetooth technology has seen some advances since then. For example, the Feasycom BT-630 has been adopted by the community and it supposedly supports apt-x (or aptx) for ultra-low latency. Do you have new advice to share with someone who wants to implement this solution?

[James In CA]

Also - for Dmitry - which transmitter did you use?

[James In CA]

I've been feverishly researching Bluetooth 101 for the last couple of days and here's what I've found. aptX technology supports the low latency Dmitry highlighted in his video.

Here are some decent, compact aptX-equipped Bluetooth transmitters on Amazon. This one is skinny, while this one is a little shorter.

Meanwhile, this one and this one also include receivers. I don't see any reason to spend the extra money, but what do I know?
In addition, all of the above devices appear to offer fairly straight-forward pairing.
One more thing, I plan to remove the chip from the housing and hard-wire the board into my saber.

THAT WAS THE EASY PART! The hard part is finding a compact portable speaker that is also aptX-equipped. I used the "official" aptX website and found the Panasonic SC-NA10 is thin & small, and has decent performance specs.

During my research, I also learned that, even though the transmitters will connect more than one speaker at a time, the aptX technology does not (currently) support low-latency connectivity to more than one device, simultaneously. Therefore:
1) I need to try to get all of the sound level I want from one external speaker, or
2) See if the latency with two speakers is acceptable.

As there are numerous other BT transmitters that don't support aptX, I'm curious what the latency experience is like. If anyone else has experience with testing, please share.

Also, can an FSC-BT630 be re-programmed to be used as an audio transmitter?