Bluetooth remote control using Sony Ericsson phone - anyone interested?

[MikeGTi]

Originally Posted by cheetah05

What bluetooth dongle/adapter have you got?.

I couldnt tell you mate, its just a dongle i had lying around and it doesnt say anything on it apart from bluetooth.....

I did try Bluetooth Remote Control from Blueshareware.com earlier and that worked but it was only a trial program. I dont know if that helps determine where the problem is....

Here is a screenshot of the options tab

[cheetah05]

Next thing to try is seeing if you can install Widcomm drivers (TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!)

Look here: Jons Guides: Bluetooth Help Guide: Introduction

....otherwise, I'm all out of ideas.

[MikeGTi]

Thanks for your help, I will have a read through that link....

If i was to try and find the driver cd that came with the dongle would that make any difference at all?

[cheetah05]

Originally Posted by MikeGTi

Thanks for your help, I will have a read through that link....

If i was to try and find the driver cd that came with the dongle would that make any difference at all?

Could do...yeah...depending on the driver.

[Marcusb]

I tried this yesterday and all worked well.
I use the standard MS drivers in Vista (IE, I didn't use any extra disks or anything, windows just did its own thing).

I think you also need to make sure the dongle supports the Remote service, but the fact the phone asks permission seems to indicate it does.

I have no other ideas, sorry...

[cheetah05]

Originally Posted by Marcusb

I tried this yesterday and all worked well.
I use the standard MS drivers in Vista (IE, I didn't use any extra disks or anything, windows just did its own thing).

I think you also need to make sure the dongle supports the Remote service, but the fact the phone asks permission seems to indicate it does.

I have no other ideas, sorry...

See, from my understanding, bluetooth (what it is actually does) is purely software, so technically a bluetooth dongle can support all the bluetooth profiles, so long as it has the right software/drives for it.

[Marcusb]

Different BT dongles support different services. Mine doesn't support LAN sharing, so my BT PDA cannot use it to browse the web.
Other makes can though.

I think this is mostly determined by the BT drivers that come with it.
Mine uses the basic MS stack and MS have pretty much hobbled this, since they never really wanted BT to catch on. MS aren't too enthusiastic about standards they didn't create themselves.

If you look at packages for BT dongles, they always list the supported services they have. You'll find they are not always the same.

[cheetah05]

Originally Posted by Marcusb

Different BT dongles support different services. Mine doesn't support LAN sharing, so my BT PDA cannot use it to browse the web.
Other makes can though.

I think this is mostly determined by the BT drivers that come with it.
Mine uses the basic MS stack and MS have pretty much hobbled this, since they never really wanted BT to catch on. MS aren't too enthusiastic about standards they didn't create themselves.

If you look at packages for BT dongles, they always list the supported services they have. You'll find they are not always the same.

See I have learnt that the services are totally dependant on the bluetooth software on the device that is bluetooth enabled (in this case a computer)......and in the case of the of the Phone, it would be the phone software.

...so therefore it doesn't matter what bluetooth dongle you have, the services you can use are dependant on the software installed on the pc. To demonstrate this, if you installed a Bluetooth stack such as BlueSoleil (bloatware - i dont suggest installing this), you would be able to use the LAN service.

There is a bluetooth stack called WidComm (or Broadcomm - one company took over another...so not exactly sure which one its called). This stack is an extension of the microsoft stack and works "ontop" of it providing extra bluetooth profiles. This is what i use, and if your dongle/bluetooth works with the microsoft stack, i suggest you try the widcomm stack, although it may not work if it is not officially supported.

Have a look at the link i posted earlier.


[I could be totally wrong though... :p]

[Marcusb]

Originally Posted by cheetah05

...See I have learnt that the services are totally dependant on the bluetooth software on the device that is bluetooth enabled (in this case a computer)......and in the case of the of the Phone, it would be the phone software.

yep, that's pretty much what I said
The Widcom drivers that I found seem to need a license key or are bound to certain hardware. They would not work with my dongle despite me trying.

[cheetah05]

Ah shame....its a much better stack.