Bluetooth Devices Visualizer

64 LEDs is not enough. In most environments outside of home I am finding 64 Bluetooth devices is quickly exceeded and the 8x8 matrix only showing the last 64 devices seen is not as cool. At Hackaday Supercon 2023, I saw over 300 devices at one point and then it averaged in the 200s.

I found a 16x16 addressable flexible LED matrix on Amazon for $18. Then I designed and 3D printed and tight fighting case to house the matrix and controller. I printed the first few layers with white PLA to act as a light diffuser to soften the LEDs. The rest of the case is printed from a wood fiber/PLA filament. I wanted this version to be something that you can sit on a desk or table top and not look like bomb or a low budget sci-fi movie prop. Something that would blend in with modern furniture. 

I tested it at the office today and it worked great. I need to print the back cover for it yet and then I think this will live at the office. The office didn't have as many people as a usual week day but it was enough to test it. By the end of the day it trickled down to the low teens for devices seen.

Field Tested at the office and Mall food court today to see how a large number of devices would look with color based on RSSI. It did not disappoint.

Signal Strength Mode is working!  The RSSI data comes back in the passive scan for devices as an integer. Based on what I found from a quick google search the following is the 4 color scale I used for this new mode:

>= -70  STRONG  Green
-70 to -85 GOOD  Yellow
-86 to -100 FAIR  Orange
< 100 POOR  Red

I should probably call this disco mode. I should be pretty awesome with a full grid of devices represented. Next is going to be adding a button to switch between modes.

A V3 of the frame/holder for the prototype so it can be worn with a lanyard. I also added the 10x mode once there are more than 192 devices (3 pages) seen. Each LED represents 10 devices which will support 640 devices on the display.

V1.0 is alive and working! To really test it out, I brought it to the office today to see how it performed in the wild. I arrived early and it was only seeing about 20 devices. Most of the desk phones in my office have Bluetooth always on for pairing headsets. It was not long and I watched the number of devices climb to over 100 and stay there for most of the day. Towards the end of the day it dropped steadily back down to around 20. It ran for around 10 hours straight and didn't crash or let any smoke out.  Great success!