Two simultaneous Bluetooth connections

[Countryman]

I wasn’t sure which Forum to put this in but here goes….

From the excellent CeBIT reports I have decided to purchase TomTom Navigator 5 when it comes out. I also intend buying the new Globalsat BT338. I have one slight worry though. TomTom Traffic would be invaluable but this would necessitate two simultaneous Bluetooth connections; BT338 and the phone (Nokia 6310i). Does having two BT connections cause problems? I did a search of the Forums but nothing came up.

Another site suggested disabling the IR function on the PDA but the manual does not indicate how. I am using a new IPAQ h2210 running PC2003 (Windows CE 4.20) and 1.10.07 ENG ROM version. The same site also suggested that the ability to re-connect dropped BT connections would be improved by downloading ‘BtRegTweak’. Any comments.

Many thanks.

[DavidW]

iPAQs have no problems connecting simultaneously to a Bluetooth GPS and a mobile phone - many people's TomTom Traffic setups, mine included, do just that.

The problem tends to come with mobile phones, which usually only allow one Bluetooth connection at once (the 6310i that you and I use certainly doesn't). Most mobiles don't allow simultaneously connection to a Bluetooth car kit or headset as well as connection to a Pocket PC for GPRS. I use a wired Nokia car kit, which gets round that problem.


You may want to revise your choice of Bluetooth GPS - in that the new TomTom GPS being offered with Navigator 5 is known to be a SiRFstar III unit. Indeed, TomTom have announced Navigator 5 bundled with a TomTom wired GPS or bundled with a Bluetooth GPS, but they've not yet announced whether there'll be a software only version.



David

[Pete2]

[DavidW]

Just because the switch has been made to SiRFstar III doesn't affect the output of the GPS - it's still NMEA 0183 format.

What is unclear is whether there'll be a "software only" version of TomTom Navigator 5, but I'm sure that, like many other currently unanswered questions about version 5, will be resolved in time.



David

[minion]

i know that with my ipaq 3870 there was a patch in PPC2002 to disable IR if not used. this is because sunlight can be interrpreted as an IR signal and cause the system to freeze as it waits for the IR transmissionto start - problem is, it never will. also disabling IR saves battery, so it'd be handy to find out how you can turn it off.

bluetooth technically allows connections with numerous (about 8?) other bluetooth devices at once - however it famously cannot cope with so much connectivity and simply fails. it should be fine with your two devices though.

like davidw mentined, it's usually the limitation of a mobile telephone's software that restrics connectivity to a single device at a time, but the actual bluetooth standard if adhered to can, in theory, connect to more devices 'easily'.

at university, i was told of a convention where bluetooth was being hailed as 'the future'. everyone there had a PDA, laptop, smartphone etc and when they all searched for other bluetooth devices - the whole system crashed, oops.

[DavidW]

Turning off reception of incoming IR beams is recommended on all Pocket PCs - Start Menu, Settings, Connections tab, Beam, uncheck the box and tap OK.


I have to say that modern Bluetooth stacks are, in my experience, pretty stable. The problem, increasingly, is the lack of bandwidth.



David

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