8Bitdo Nes30Pro bluetooth range issue

[justkiller91]

I'm running into a weird issue regarding the Bluetooth range on these controllers. The Controllers pair, register, and input correctly in Emulation station, retropie, and any emulator I've tried. However, they only connect when sitting directly beside the Pi3. As soon as I move the controller about one foot away I lose input signal or input is laggy. Shortly after the controllers unpair until I move it back within the one-foot range, then it reconnects.

I have reinstalled retropi a few times, followed many instructions found on forums and the official wiki but this issue seems to be persistent. I have tried all released firmware version on the 8bitdo website with the mapping hack on and off.

I have attempted to search the forums for a solution but couldn't locate any information on this issue. At this point, I think my Pi3 hardware may be the issue.

Edit: just tested a PS3 controller. It connects great and works and the range gets to about 1m away before cutting out. This doesn't seem like the normal range of a Pi3. I've read 4-10m from multiple sources. Any idea how to troubleshoot this further? Is there a way to control the power/signal of the Pi3 bluetooth?

Edit 2: Decide to scratch using the onboard bluetooth, decided to order a bluetooth dongle to configure instead. I will update this post on whether not it fixes the issue for documentation sake.

Pi Model: Raspberry Pi 3
RetroPie Version Used: 4.2
Built From: SD Image
USB Devices connected: wireless keyboard/mouse combo
Controller used: NES30 PRO 8bitdo controller

[DarkWolf]

@justkiller91 This behavior isn't normal.
I never saw something interfering a bluetooth signal like that so I guess your pi is broken at some point.

A bluetooth dongle should fix that, but I would send my raspberry back to whereever you bought it and get a new one

This is my opinion/way to solve it, it could be "correct" but it hasn't to.