BLEDevice setPower having no affect on TxPower Level

[gb53smith]

Using ESP32 BLE Arduino 1.0.1 in Platformio IDE
I have tried several power levels using this command immediately after BLEDevice::init
BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7);
The advertised TxPowerLevel is always 3 in the iPhone BLE Scanner App and the RSSI values
don't change.
Seems like an old issue that was claimed to have been fixed?

Edit:
Fixed by adding all this:
BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7); // Changing had no affect. Client reports power level = 3 esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_DEFAULT, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL0, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL1, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL2, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL3, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL4, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL5, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL6, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL8, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9); esp_ble_tx_power_set(ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_ADV, ESP_PWR_LVL_P9);
The advertised TxPower Level is now 9 and getting about 6 dB more power than default.
Perhaps BLEDevice::setPower should call the other esp_ble_tx_power_set statements.

[gb53smith]

Fixed using source code from
https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/tree/master/libraries/BLE
This provides TxPower level 9. Not sure if all statements are actually necessary.

/* The power level can be one of:
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N14
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N11
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N8
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N5
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N2
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P1
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P4
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P7
 */
  // Using maximum power for greatest range
  // Raises the TX Power from 3 to 9 as seen by the iPhone Client
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_DEFAULT);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL0);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL1);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL2);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL3);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL4);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL5);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL6);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL7);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL8);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_ADV);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_SCAN);

[kevin71246]

Fixed using source code from
https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/tree/master/libraries/BLE
This provides TxPower level 9. Not sure if all statements are actually necessary.

/* The power level can be one of:
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N14
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N11
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N8
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N5
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_N2
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P1
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P4
 * * ESP_PWR_LVL_P7
 */
  // Using maximum power for greatest range
  // Raises the TX Power from 3 to 9 as seen by the iPhone Client
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_DEFAULT);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL0);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL1);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL2);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL3);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL4);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL5);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL6);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL7);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_CONN_HDL8);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_ADV);
  BLEDevice::setPower(ESP_PWR_LVL_P7, ESP_BLE_PWR_TYPE_SCAN);

For the maximum range, "ESP_PWR_LVL_P9" should be used, which is the same as +9dBm. See https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/v4.1/api-reference/bluetooth/controller_vhci.html for more info. I also have more details here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/66556561/3147100

[gb53smith]

I think that ESP_PWR_LVL_P7 should also be equivalent to ESP_PWR_LVL_P9 for "backward compatibility" according to the document above.

[MemeCornucopia]

no matter what i try its still -49 dbm

[octotus]

I saw this discussion on Espressif forum - https://esp32.com/viewtopic.php?t=21011 -- looks like it is possible with ESP's API. Haven't tried it yet - but worth a try.