Bluetooth adapter for long range

I am trying to set up some Mijia thermometers in a large space, I need suggestions for good Bluetooth adapters. went through this list, but can’t find those with external antenna on amazon.ae. Need these in UAE. Can I set up some kind of Bluetooth mesh?

Already using that, but need something else for another project.

Ok.
There is no such thing as a Bluetooth mesh and Bluetooth is a PAN technology, which means personal area network.
That means a range of around 10m in clear line.

Even a BLE<—> wifi solution will work, but can’t use esphome proxies for that project.

When you say you can’t use Bluetooth proxies, you can’t use an ESP32 or you can’t use the ble proxy software?

I can’t use the esp32s.

So you can’t use ESP32 at all, or just not esphome proxies? And how about RPis? Or what other hardware would you be able to use use for a BLE<—> wifi solution?

Assuming you have WiFi connection in the whole large space.

PVVX suggested an old OpenWrt router with Bluetooth 5.0+ USb dongle. but OpenWrt Bluetooth documentation still not updated.

So that is where I looking for, using multiple USB Bluetooth dongle perhaps?

Ok, that sounds a bit convoluted for what you are trying to achieve, and it also seems that you do have power outlets around in the large space.

I think that is why @1technophile asked if it had to be Esphome (proxies). His suggestion would have been to install OpenMQTTGateway on several ESP32s around the space, each one picking up the Mijia thermometers closest to them, all connecting to the same MQTT broker over WiFi reporting the decoded temperature, humidity and battery levels. Therefore covering all thermometers in the whole space, and having the results in one MQTT broker.

Alternatively OpenMQTTGateway could be set up to report all data undecoded so that one central Theengs Gateway could then centrally decode all the data received by the MQTT broker.

Tried and tested in large spaces, as long as you have power outlets around and WiFi coverage.

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Previously LORA based thermometers were being used there. Those need to be replaced, with something more accessible and reliable.

OpenMQTTGateway also supports LoRa, but with the Mijia thermometers, likely with PVVX firmware from your GitHub link above, they will be picked up nicely with the above suggested setup.

You can do a test install of OpenMQTTGateway with the pre-built esp32dev-ble binary, or any other -ble binary, depending on which ESP32 boards you have. Only the esp32dev-ble-mqtt-undecoded should only be used when wanting to delegate the decoding to a central Theengs Gateway install.

there aren’t any LORA based thermometer with display.

I will test it on my esp32 board.

Strange due to their range I found LORAWAN thermometers very reliable.
What was the issue with thoses?

Cost, the pervious contractor is charging too much per year to maintain that system.

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