Bluetooth rearview mirror

[damian]

http://www.seecode.de/index_e.php?go=vossor

What do you think?

[Rosco]

Looks good to me!

Is it compatible with all phones? My Samsung won't pair with my Tom Tom or either of our BMW's. Luckily in my porsche I've got an additional sim card, so that's jubbly! Gonna change my phone to a Motorola or Nokia in a couple of weeks now!

But still would be interested in this as I drive all sorts of cars/vans

[ColinC2]

http://www.seecode.de/index_e.php?go=vossor

What do you think?

I have to say that I find Bluetooth in cars pants ! I have Nokia C9W kit (i think ?) with cradle for 6230i and that works great but this kit also has bluetooth too to allow pairing of up to three more mobiles (for passenger for example or your alternative phone) I have paired my V3 with this and although i can hear a caller they get a lot of background noise.

To me the problem is that with bluetooth comms in the car the signal is not being boosted and the phone is not being charged (unless of course a cradle is used which sort of defeats the object?)

just my opinion of course :(

[StuartMartin]

There are 2 main considerations with Bluetooth carkits:

1. Although the standards are open and everything is supposed to interoperate with everything else, in practice this does not happen.
If you are going to buy something like the mirror thing, then go to a shop and check that it works with your phone first (even if you then buy it over the internet).
If you change your phone, you may also find that the new phone does not work with the Bluetooth jobby you've been using happily.
Things should get better with time, since it will eventually all settle down.

2. There is an issue with audio gain and echo cancellation.
With a hard wired carkit, the cradle generally only fits the phone that it was intended for. Also the connectors are often specific to the manufacturer.
Therefore, you tend to use a Nokia carkit with a Nokia phone, or a Motorola carkit with a Motorola phone.
This means the manufacturer can optimise the car kit settings to make sure the audio is setup correctly.
With Bluetooth, you can now connect any phone with any carkit (although see 1 above). The different manufacturer have different settings, so some will be too quiet, some will have background noise, some will have echo.
It is a bit of an issue to overcome, unless some standard can be agreed.

The current solution is to use the Bluetooth kit from the phone manufacturer, i.e. Motorola kit with Motorola phone. Kind of defeats the point I know.
The other option is to go for someone big (like Parrot - who have the biggest market share of the independent carkit people, I believe) since they test with a reasonable cross section of the phones.

The echo cancellation can be done in the phone DSP or in the carkit. How well it works is variable.


Other smaller considerations:
1. The phone is not charged, so will go flat if you talk a lot. So you'll probably want a cigarette lighter/power outlet charger.
2. The phone is not held anywhere, so could roll about inside the car. You might want to put it in the centre console or in your pocket.
3. If the phone is in a cradle or somewhere visible, i.e. not locked in the boot or in the glovebox, then the signal strength should be OK most of the time.
TBH in the UK the coverage in most places is good enough that if the phone is in your pocket or in the centre console the signal strength is strong enough. You don't really need an external antenna anymore.
4. Some carkits can display the callers number, and name if it is in your phonebook in the phone. Quite a few phones do not support this though, so you need to check the Bluetooth profiles that the handset claims to support compared with the carkit.