I am running Zorin 17.2 on a Firebat T8 Pro Plus N100 mini pc. It has onboard wifi and bluetooth through a RTL8821CE realtek card.
I am using an echo dot 3rd gen speaker for audio via bluetooth. I also use a Monsgeek m1w v3 keyboard via bluetooth.
I have noticed a strange issue whereby the bluetooth audio will crackle and go out of sync when my keyboard is disconnected and reconnected. I use the keyboard to switch between this pc and my WFH home pc.
i have looked at using bluetoothctl to switch from the onboard bluetooth via the card to another bluetooth 5.0 dongle i have. however to change the default seems like it would require a script.
Anyone have any advice? Or is my best option to give up on the echo dot as a speaker and get a wired set of speakers?
My gaming pc seems fine when connecting to the echo dot for audio btw.
When you reconnect, does the audio eventually fix itself, or does it always stay out of sync? And does your gaming pc use windows or linux? Having multiple things on bluetooth can create some fun issues, and given this is a lower spec machine, this doesn't surprise me too much honestly.
Also you state you switch between "this pc and my WFH pc". So is there 3 pcs involved (firebat, wfh, gaming pc) or is the gaming pc also the WFH pc? Personally I don't like to use bluetooth for connecting keyboards, I've had dropout issues on the best hardware I could find, so I find it unreliable at the best of times. I know this keyboard you're using also has USB, could you use that instead for wireless? I see it has 3 methods of connecting (USB, dongle 2.4, bluetooth).
Sorry, it's also just hard to tell how things are setup in the room you're in to make sense in my head of how things are working.
Yes once I disconnect and reconnect it resolves everything.
Yes there are 3 PCs at play.
Firebat n100 pc, running Zorin, used for Plex/Docker/general use
Work pc - Lenovo micro pc, windows based, just used for remoting into work vpn
Gaming pc - windows based.
So yeah, my keyboard supports 3 bluetooth connections and 1 usb connection. I use the wired connection for my gaming pc as i found the bluetooth connection on the gaming pc got saturated.
I use the echo dot for bluetooth audio from the Firebat pc and the gaming pc.
The keyboard is switched between the Firebat pc, work pc and gaming pc, depending on what i am using.
I have read that Ubuntu isn't great with bluetooth, although i think there can be general bluetooth issues regardless of OS.
I was hoping to find out if there was anything i could do to improve the bluetooth performance from the firebat pc.
This keyboard also has a 2.4ghz dongle correct? That would be the third method of connect. Personally, we could go through getting the bluetooth adjusted, but multiple streams on bluetooth in my experience isn't the best even when it works well. I would use the 2.4 on your firebat, bluetooth for wfh, and wired for your gaming pc.
That way you can still just hit your keybind for switching connection, and that 2.4 should be much more reliable than a bluetooth signal.
I think I'll never use Bluetooth headphones again, mine were also beautiful for their LEDs on the left and right changing colors by fading, but actually there was a delay in the audio output. For listening music they're fine, the delay is irrelevant, but for watching videos it's not so great (voices and sounds in delay compared to video output ).
I only use a professional wired audio setup, using a DAC, EQ, AMP, and top of the line Dennon headphones, I don't have audio issues. While I do find Bluetooth to be convenient for use with cell phones, I find it unreliable for pro usage. I also agree with the statement that WIFI is more reliable then Bluetooth as well.
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