BOB WALKER posted:Several of my BlueRail equipped engines also have an on-board bluetooth speaker which connects with the BlueRail app where the sounds are stored. I have never experienced any difficulty connecting with the main decoder board and the speaker decoder simultaneously with several engines running at the same time. Can't say for sure what the ultimate breaking point would be, but it's probably higher than any sensible number of engines to run simultaneously, so don't see any fundamental weakness in bluetooth for most train control applications.
The Bluetooth speaker option will only work with one engine. If you run more than one, you can only pick sound for one Bluerail engine at a time. Bluetooth isn't capable of streaming multiple audio streams to multiple specific destinations from one device.
The general rule with Bluetooth is that you can pair as many devices to a master device like a phone or tablet but you can only interface and communicate with seven at the same time. Using a brand new laptop, I tested this theory and seven was the limit. By the time device number eight was activated, other Bluetooth devices stopped working.
Train control apps are not your limitation, the way the Bluetooth stack is written and the way the 802.15 protocol operates will be what holds you back.
