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I'm trying to connect several bluetooth devices with Raspberry PI to use them as speakers.

I'm using RetroPie as a distribution, because of the tests I've done it's the only one that matches and allows continuous synchronization with several bluetooth devices at the same time.

However, the system only detects the first device that connects as a sound card, the rest keep the bluetooth synchronization active, but it does not interpret them as audio cards even though it is indicated by blueman-manager.

Is there anything I can do to keep all devices synchronized and supported as audio cards?

O.Palm
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  • I don't know how your project is setup but make sure the PI board can host multiple Bluetooth devices otherwise only one will connect. Unless of course version of Bluetooth you're using supports that or you have two Bluetooth interfaces. – TheRealChx101 Oct 14 '18 at 17:33
  • I've Raspberry Pi 3B revision a22082, i don't know if this internal bluetooth has capacity for multiple devices... It appear connect for two devices at the same time but the system only load the first device as audio card while the second device only wait signal but also it's connected, the system not recognize it as second audio card, and so on with the rest of devices – O.Palm Oct 14 '18 at 20:20
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    Try this [link](https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/66537/can-raspberry-pi-3-connect-to-multiple-bluetooth-devices) – TheRealChx101 Oct 14 '18 at 22:27
  • Ok, i think that i can open new ask trought your link, thank'u – O.Palm Oct 15 '18 at 07:25
  • I have made some progress, although the problem remains the same. I have disabled the internal bluetooth by modifying the file [/boot/config.txt] adding the line `dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt`, then I used a bluetooth USB capable of connecting with multiple devices like the ASUS BT400. After pairing and connecting to the speakers, I launch the command `pacmd list sinks` and `pactl list cards` to see the configuration but I discover that Pulseaudio has only emulated the first device `bluez.XX.XX.XX.XX ...` . I suppose the problem exists in the **Bluez and PulseAudio** modules. Can somebody help me? – O.Palm Oct 17 '18 at 07:18
  • Maybe [this](https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/46868/raspberry-pi-3-cant-connect-to-more-than-one-bluetooth-speaker-via-pulseaudio). But seriously, you also have to search the Internet. – TheRealChx101 Oct 17 '18 at 21:21
  • Thank'u @TheRealChx101, i will read and return back with news. – O.Palm Oct 18 '18 at 09:53
  • Did you make any progress? – Geka P Apr 01 '19 at 21:09
  • No.. sorry i'm very busy. i couldn't keep multiple connection with one single dongle. Maybe return to this subject in the future. – O.Palm Apr 03 '19 at 07:48

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Palm, even so this a old post, it is not yet closed. As I just got the same issue, here my answer. What you try to do is to connect mutliple audio sreaming services (Speakers) to 1 audio bluetooth source, that is not possible like this. Therefore your PC only connects to the first box. You could try multiple bluetooth dongles, but then you run into the timing issue with audio stream syncronization between the boxes. The only solution is to use Bluetooth 4.1 upwards master-slave services. Therefore the Speakers need to be connected to each other and seen as 1 device from the PC. In that mode the stream is skewed to ensure syncronous playing. Many new Bluetooth speakers support this mode. Hope that helped.

Paul
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    Yes, maybe we'll see this skills on new Bluetooth versions. The finally solution for me was manage the relationship 1:1, one speaker with one dongle (USB). For spread the sound on all speaker i used an virtual audio card with "paprefs". – O.Palm Mar 27 '20 at 00:16