bluetooth always on?

[nycdave]

is there a way (or app) to set the bluetooth connection as always on as opposed to the temp setting within settings?

thank you in advance.... and I did search this and came up with nothing.

 

[Hrethgir]

Menu>Wireless & network settings>Bluetooth (click the checkbox next to Turn Bluetooth on). This should turn on the Bluetooth until you turn it off. What phone are you using?

 

[nycdave]

Menu>Wireless & network settings>Bluetooth (click the checkbox next to Turn Bluetooth on). This should turn on the Bluetooth until you turn it off. What phone are you using?

thanks for the reply man... im on the mytouch 4g. i can only set it on for a short amount of time (somethign like 120 seconds) my nokia n900 was always discoverable. doesnt stay on with the mytouch 4g. any ideas?

 

[Hrethgir]

thanks for the reply man... im on the mytouch 4g. i can only set it on for a short amount of time (somethign like 120 seconds) my nokia n900 was always discoverable. doesnt stay on with the mytouch 4g. any ideas?

I don't know, actually. Just tried it on my Droid X, and same thing. I can turn on the Bluetooth, but when I click Make me discoverable, it gives me a 120 second countdown. Never noticed that before, I rarely even use BT. Maybe someone else will chime in with an app or something.

 

[nycdave]

I don't know, actually. Just tried it on my Droid X, and same thing. I can turn on the Bluetooth, but when I click Make me discoverable, it gives me a 120 second countdown. Never noticed that before, I rarely even use BT. Maybe someone else will chime in with an app or something.

yes an app would be great!! anyone?

 

[takeshi]

Yup, "discoverable" != "on". You don't want your device constantly discoverable. It's a security risk.

 

[nycdave]

The 120 seconds is just to enable pairing it with other BT devices. BT on your phone is always 'on', in receiving mode, i.e. barely measurable battery consumption (in a lab situation), polling for (previously) paired devices to announce their 30 feet vicinity (a leisurely distance I've yet to experience IRL, BTW).
And it

 

[Usta]

I'm thinking the issue is with your head unit.
Any time I step in the car, my phone gets connected within a few seconds, while it remains in my pocket. If I had the BT off wile driving, then the only thing I have to do is to pick up the phone and switch the BT ON (from the pull-down menu in the notification bar, Android v2.3).
Using a Parrot bluetooth carkit with HTC Desire.

 

[nycdave]

I'm thinking the issue is with your head unit.
Any time I step in the car, my phone gets connected within a few seconds, while it remains in my pocket. If I had the BT off wile driving, then the only thing I have to do is to pick up the phone and switch the BT ON (from the pull-down menu in the notification bar, Android v2.3).
Using a Parrot bluetooth carkit with HTC Desire.

my head unit is the pioneer 9800bt. prior to the htc i was a nokia junkie. this bluetooth thing was never an issue ans it would be an always visible connection. now i have to go through several clicks to get the head unit to connect to the phone.

 

[Usta]

my head unit is the pioneer 9800bt. prior to the htc i was a nokia junkie. this bluetooth thing was never an issue ans it would be an always visible connection. now i have to go through several clicks to get the head unit to connect to the phone.

The fact that it worked previousely with Nokia phones, still doesn't mean that it should automatically support HTC Android phones.

I also had a Nokia phone previously and it worked with my BT carkit. Then I tried my HTC Desire and it didn't work properly.
Only after going to carkit manufacturer website, I saw that later versions of carkit software were released by its manufacturer (Parrot). I downloaded the latest software release to my laptop, took it to my car, connected the laptop to carkit via Bluetooth and loaded that software to the carkit.
HTC Desire got connected and since then never had any issues.

 

[ONJFan]

I have a Droid Incredible, I always leave my phone turned on for bluetooth, it uses very little battery and I don't have to worry about turning it on when I jump in my car.

So there is a security risk for always keeping bluetooth on? What risk? This is the first I've heard of this, I've had my phone for over a yr and always have bluetooth on, I've never had a problem on verizon network.

 

[Monomatapa]

I believe that there is a difference between "BT on" and "BT visibility".
I use BT for my Headset and consequently I have BT on, but I'm not visible to other devices than my headset.
If you connect your BT device to your phone, you have to switch the "Visibility" on (and BT off course). This gives you a 120 sec window to setup the connection after which it shuts itself down. It won't shut down BT though because you need the permanent connection.

Just two cents which I thought where missing in this thread.

 

[ONJFan]

I believe that there is a difference between "BT on" and "BT visibility".

Thanks for posting, like I mentioned I always leave bluetooth on, I just went into my setting>wireless & networks>Bluetooth is checked>then below that is Bluetooth Settings (Manage connections) when I click that>it shows my Bluetooth settings>Bluetooth is checked>below that is my device name>below that is Discoverable and it is NOT checked.

So like you mentioned above, my bluetooth always connects to my car each time I get in because it was made discoverable when I first set it up. My phone is now showing it's not discoverable. So your saying that I am safe to keep bluetooth on and keep it as discoverable off. So this is correct and safe way to go right?

 

[Monomatapa]

So like you mentioned above, my bluetooth always connects to my car each time I get in because it was made discoverable when I first set it up. My phone is now showing it's not discoverable. So your saying that I am safe to keep bluetooth on and keep it as discoverable off. So this is correct and safe way to go right?

As far as I understand it: yes

It might safe some battery-time to shut it down if you're not using it though... I made a shortcut for that purpose on my opening-screen.

 

[nycdave]

yes everyone.... i am looking for a way to keep the BT connection on as ALWAYS DISCOVERABLE. I keep BT on all the time but the frustration for me is with the always on connection. if you know of a workaround that will allow this connection to remain on alll the time then please post !! thanks a million

 

[nycdave]

ttt

 

[droblyer]

IMO the problem is your headunit. Back when I was shopping for a bluetooth headunit I purchased the same one you have off ebay. Had the exact same problem. Your device does not need to constantly be discoverable for this concept to work. With bluetooth one two devices are paired, they should connect when within range. The problem is some devices (phones) won't do this with certain headunits. I suggest you do as I did and take your phone to a retail store and test it with different headunits to find a combination that works together. I ended up selling the 9800bt and purchased a JVC which works great. I also tested some kenwood and sony units that worked well.

 

[llinde]

IMO the problem is your headunit.

Maybe the problem is with the headunit, I have a Pioneer BT unit integrated with my car radio and have the same problem.
But, my Nokia phone gives me the possibility to decide if I want to be visible, visible for 2 minutes or visible alway.
I think the risk of being visible is not big and I like to have the same on my Android phone, so if anybody has a solution please tell!!

Luit

 

[alostpacket]

Discovery is for helping devices find each other and pair.

Once they are paired, they "know" about each other and no longer need to discover each other.

Like an old married couple. They are paired, but may have trouble connecting anyways. But they dont usually need to discover each other again.

Though very rarely a re-discovery trip to the Caribbean can sometimes relight that connection fire.

 

[llinde]

Discovery is for helping devices find each other and pair.

Once they are paired, they "know" about each other and no longer need to discover each other.

I know it should work this way, but in my car i have an old Pioneer Avic D3 with bluetooth kit and that does not automatic connect when bluetooth is not visible. Just using the button "connect" in the setup menu is enough to connect which proves visibility is not necessary to connect.
But the Pioneer obviously has not the intelligence to look every now and then if one of its paired devices might be in reach....
This also means that if for some reason a connected Android phone looses the connection for a moment it is not trying to connect again.

So you can say Pioneer is "guilty", but when I am able to change my Android phone to be always visible, that would also solve my problems.
From Pioneer I cannot expect a solution I'm afraid...

Buying a new good car stereo is also a solution, but more expensive, so I hope somebody can help.

Luit

 

[alostpacket]

do you know how to side load apps?

 

[alostpacket]

also how long do you want it discoverable for? (imagine instead putting a discoverable widget on your homscreen, just tap it when u get in the car)


I have the appp all made, it took all of 60 seconds to program heh.

 

[alostpacket]

OK I just found out that 300 seconds is the Android OS limit for discoverability but anyways I made a widget really quickly that will enable discoverability for 300 secods.

Instructions
Just drag the app icon to wherever you want it and launch the app and it will ask if you want to enable discoverability for 300 seconds, then the app will close itself. Pretty simple really. Even tossed a nice little icon in there heh. Unfortunately it has to prompt you as there is no other way to enable discoverability sans rooting.

Bluetooth Discoverble

Requires: Android 2.0+

Here's the APK:
http://alostpacket.com/demo_apps/BluetoothDiscoveryButton.apk

And here's a zip with the source code and APK:
http://alostpacket.com/demo_apps/BluetoothButton.zip


let me know if you have any issues.

 

[Searcher2]

Thanks for the app. I have been searching for the answer to the problem of connecting my ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco to my Pioneer head unit and came across this thread which indicates my options are to buy a new head unit or remember to fiddle with my phone to use the (kindly provided) app.

The app would be good if you rarely got into your vehicle and could remember to switch it on but in my case I am often popping in and out of the car and it's not really what I had in mind when buying the head unit.

I am not bothered about any of the data on my phone - my Nokia has been operating fine with a 'discoverable' bluetooth always on.

I did find a thread claiming to identify how you could make 'discoverable' permanent but there were no replies and I guess if it could be done it would have been by now.

This was the code from the thread which means nothing to me :

kendon@nx:~$ adb shell cat /system/etc/bluez/main.conf
...
# How long to stay in discoverable mode before going back to non-discoverable
# The value is in seconds. Default is 180, i.e. 3 minutes.
# 0 = disable timer, i.e. stay discoverable forever
DiscoverableTimeout = 120

If anyone can produce an App which sets the timer to 0 to see if it works I (and the environment) would be more than happy!

 

[alostpacket]

if that command works, no need for an app just run the command, then hit the discoverable button and see what happens.

You would need to be rooted to run a command like that though