New util to help with Freefone bluetooth headset connection

[miraclemaker]

Hey guys. Now I've got a decent phone (see this thread) I've been setting up bluetooth handsfree for my car PC.

I'm using FreeFone (thanks Skully) and have got it set up in the MC2.0 skin of roadrunner. Now FreeFone will create the required bluetooth serial connection that it needs for controlling the phone once you've got it set up but it won't create the bluetooth headset connection you need for routing voice to your PC.

Thanks to some quick Delphi coding from my brother I have this little app that will automatically create the bluetooth headset connection for you




Download here

I have it unpacked to c:\program files\BluetoothConnect there's a registry file there called 'Install.reg' that will add a registry entry to make the program run on startup.

Usage:

• Once installed, make sure bluetooth is enabled on your phone and hit the 'get original devices' button, which should discover a list of available local bluetooth devices
• Select your phone in the pulldown list on the left hand side and hit 'connect', the bluetooth headset should connect. You may have to do pairing at this point if you haven't paired your PC with your phone before.
• once you have verified that the bluetooth headset has connected successfully you may click 'disconnect'
• Click the 'poll' button. After a few moment the headset should be reconnected. This is exactly what the program will do on startup.
• Close down the util and set it to run on startup. Bluetooth headset connection will be established with your phone automatically when your PC starts up (remember you need to have bluetooth enabled on your phone).

Notes:

• Widcomm bluetooth drivers are REQUIRED. I'm using version 5.0.1.801
• Make sure your dongle is fully compatible with the drivers, if it's not cheap ones are available from the Bay.
• Set up the bluetooth serial connection and the headset connection through the widcomm drivers themselves first to make sure everything works correctly before you start doing anything with Freefone or this utility.
• This software is still a work in progress, it could use some tidying up and polish but it is fully functional.

[CdRsKuLL]

hi m8.. great job quick question ... Would it be possible to have the ability for freefone to handle the connection.. A simple open / close command would be good. I could then add it into freefone and it would control your app, so a call would come in and it would then send a message to your program to connect the headset, once the call had ended it would close the connection.. OR I could get it to send the open command when freefone connects to your phone and close it when it looses connection (hibernation) etc.. Freephone currently uses the windows message system, I think guino did an example in delphi if thats any help... (ATTACHED) let me know what you think...

cheers

CdR

[miraclemaker]

Hey Skully. Yes that sounds like a great idea I'll see what I can do.

I'm definitely of the opinion that the app / freefone should create the headset connection as soon as it's able and stay connected the whole time you're in the car. Connecting only when a call in incoming has too much associated delay I think.

Another related issue I have is that FreeFone only creates the bluetooth serial connection when you open the phone screen within RoadRunner. If you get in the car and start driving without visiting that screen, then you receive a call, then the phone will behave as normal unless you manually open the phone screen which will cause FreeFone to connect by which time you might have missed the call. Do you think it would be possible to fix that and have the serial connection created by FreeFone when RoadRunner starts?

You can see in the screenshot of the app that we did some work on opening the bluetooth serial connection too, but came to the conclusion that this needs to be done by FreeFone otherwise it won't be able to use the connection.

[CdRsKuLL]

Hi m8, I did release a version (latest one) that starts hidden, so you could add a runq command in the rrconfig thats starts freefone everytime rr starts, which gets round the having to visit FF.. I you can get them commands added I will spend a couple of hours sorting afew things out on it.. 1.5 release I thiunk may be due soon

CdR

[miraclemaker]

Sounds great! Any more details/instructions on that? I'm using v1.4 alpha atm.

[CdRsKuLL]

try the one included with the iphone skin..

[miraclemaker]

Great, I'll check it out. This fixes the problem when RR starts, what about when it resumes from hibernate as the PC doesn't see this as an 'application start' but the Bluetooth connection will have been broken all the same.

I have a version of the app with the requested comms interface - PM me your email address?

[CdRsKuLL]

Originally Posted by miraclemaker

Great, I'll check it out. This fixes the problem when RR starts, what about when it resumes from hibernate as the PC doesn't see this as an 'application start' but the Bluetooth connection will have been broken all the same.

I have a version of the app with the requested comms interface - PM me your email address?

FreeFone is already hibernation aware.. so will disconnect your phone before it goes into it and reconnect when it comes out.

pm sent..

CdR

[miraclemaker]

Sweet will email you tonight.

[richyrich]

Any tips on what is a good working Dongle with the Widcomm Drivers??? I've got 2 at home and they seem to strugle to work with the drivers?

[radiotrib]

I think I might have the same problem. I run the app above and get the "connected to" message in the status screen, but then it comes back with a not connected message immediately after the "Service State Change" dump.

I also seem to get Class not registered in certain places is that significant.

Here's a dump - In retrospect it looks like it's connecting correctly because when I start Freefone it reports a connection status of true and then does nothing until I exit freefone, when it goes back to false. The only oddity is that it doesn't mute the Wizard's speakers when it's connected as headphones .. so I'm confused ...

Connecting gateway
00:12:D1:B0:2F:12
Connect Status 0
Headset Status [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 WM6_kevin_salt] 4382 0
Connected
Service state change [00:00:00:00:48:65:61:64:73:65:74:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:
08:11:00:00:00:00:00:10:80:00:00:80:5F:9B:34:FB:00:00:00:00:00:
00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00: ... and lots of zeros]
Class not registered
Headset Status [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 WM6_kevin_salt] 4382 -2130706015
Device Found [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 - 12:01:14 - WM6_kevin_salt connected: False]
**** THIS is where I started Freefone
Device Found [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 - 12:01:14 - WM6_kevin_salt connected: True]
**** THIS is where I closed Freefone
Device Found [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 - 12:01:14 - WM6_kevin_salt connected: False]
Device Found [00:12:D1:B0:2F:12 - 12:01:14 - WM6_kevin_salt connected: False]

[Dave]

I saw this thread yesterday and thought I'd attempt to get FreeFone running again (no joy last attempt). I can get the phone connected to show phone list and battery levels etc. I can't seem to get any audio through the PC speakers. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by miraclemaker

Set up the bluetooth serial connection and the headset connection through the widcomm drivers themselves first to make sure everything works correctly before you start doing anything with Freefone or this utility.

How can I test the audio gateway without FreeFone?

Thanks guys,
Dave

[Gayno]

Will these 2 apps combined control and work with my o2 XDA Orbit??

[radiotrib]

I get it to connect. I can see my address books, I can dial a call, but I can't connect audio to the 'puter (at least - I still hear the phone when I would expect it to mute). Its a Qtek 9100 running Faria's "Real Thing" WM6 ROM.

---------------

OK - Update - I connected a USB headset to the PC and still got no audio using BTConnect although it looked like the gateway was open and connected ... but then I realised I hadn't set up the xda to accept the Widcomm handsfree profile as well as the audio gateway and the serial port ... doh !!!

---------------

Bingo .. sound and phone control works between the xda and the PC. Freefone works fine. It dials out, accepts calls, reads and displays address book .. only thing left for me to sort out is that it it doesn't show the battery/signal strength status indicators - I can't see them anywhere. I thik it polls for them and gets a response. It just doesn't display anything.

Is it a skin thing?

---------------

Great little app MiracleMaker .. I don't know how much extra work is involved, but might you consider writing a version whuch runs as a service rather than an app? It would be really tidy that way.

[miraclemaker]

Glad you got it working. I have supplied a version to CdR who is going to integrate it with the next release of Freefone, so there will be no need for a separate app.

If you can't wait that long there's a piece of software called SrvAny that will allow you to run any exe as a windows service.