Wednesday, May 17, 2006
A Fresh Catch: Bluetake's BT400 G5 Bluetooth Headset on the Platter
Posted by Darius Wey in "HARDWARE" @ 08:00 AM
Getting Started
The BT400 G5 is powered by a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Just like most other electronic devices, it requires an initial charge to get it going. This takes approximately two hours (using the supplied power adapter), and the same applies for every subsequent charging cycle. The headset's indicator light displays the status of the battery - that is, solid red while charging; blue when fully charged.
Figure 4: Charging the BT400 G5.
A Bit About Profiles
Before I talk about pairing and connecting the headset, it's worth pointing out what your mobile device requires in order for the headset to be functional. Like most of today's headsets, your mobile device's Bluetooth stack must support the Hands-Free Profile (HFP) and/or the Headset Profile (HSP). An overview of these two profiles is provided below, courtesy of the Bluetooth.com web site.
Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
"HFP describes how a gateway device can be used to place and receive calls for a hand-free device. A typical configuration is an automobile using a mobile phone for a gateway device. In the car, the stereo is used for the phone audio and a microphone is installed in the car for sending outgoing audio. HFP is also used for a personal computer to act as a speaker phone for a mobile phone in a home or office environment. HFP uses SCO to carry a mono, PCM audio channel."
Headset Profile (HSP)
"The HSP describes how a Bluetooth enabled headset should communicate with a computer or other Bluetooth enabled device such as a mobile phone. When connected and configured, the headset can act as the remote device's audio input and output interface. The HSP relies on SCO for audio and a subset of AT commands from GSM 07.07 for minimal controls including the ability to ring, answer a call, hang up and adjust the volume."
Almost all the latest Pocket PCs (in particular, Phone Edition devices) include HFP & HSP. But there are exceptions, such as the Windows Mobile 5.0-upgraded Dell Axim X50v. Unfortunately, Dell excluded these two profiles when implementing the Microsoft Bluetooth stack in its release of the Windows Mobile 5.0 upgrade, and as of now, no further 'correctional' ROM updates have been issued for the device. :(
