Author Topic: Best bluetooth card? (Read 9522 times)

Anonymous · « **on:** January 20, 2004, 02:31:07 am »

I keep seeing lots of posts about people having trouble with the bluetooth cards. I\'m going to upgrade to a bluetooth phone soon and I\'d like advice about which cards function well with the Z. Bonus points if I can use it in my laptop as well, with a PCMCIA adapter.

zbones · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2004, 08:27:43 pm »

I have just gone through this myself, see here.

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...viewtopic&t=999

A lot of bluetooth cards do not work with the zaurus, but these are gradualy being ticked of the list thanks to people like tumnus.

Your best bet is to get a known working card, and hope they haven\'t changed the chipset recently.

If possible get the card from somewhere that would exchange it in case of problems.
The card I went for (bluemonkey) is now working flawlessly for dialup gprs/gsm conections, and I have managed to connect to my mates pc using PAN tonight as well.

Blue tooth is not as mature as wifi on the zaurus, be prepared to install software yourself and read the howtos,faqs on this site, and search the forums for bluetooth.

Peter.

n8a · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2004, 09:35:27 pm »

There are two decent options that I know of in the states that would result in you having a card that other ppl on this board have working. To me, that\'s a good card to have

The first option is the Socket Bluetooth card. Although the Socket Rev. G has caused problems historically (there are threads that testify to it on the zaurus dev board), it seems that tumnus may have them worked out...? See this thread:

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...iewtopic&t=1053

The second option is the OLD AmbiCom BT2000 CF card, BT2000E. It is the AmbiCom card that is black, has a rounded top, and no LED. The card with the see-through purple top is the new card with a new, seemingly troublesome chipset.

The card is seemingly still sold in the US at some places like CompUSA (See rjmx\'s comments in the following thread):

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...viewtopic&t=981

However, as rjmx indicated, you\'ll have to play around with the card to have it operating optimally.

Good luck, and let us know when you find a decent option that works well!

raybert · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2004, 09:58:56 pm »

Does anyone know if the Belkin card works? There are good prices on it and I\'ve been thinking about buying one to use with my Sony/Ericsson T616.

e.g. ~$36 + shipping from here: http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4le...NaiAG&mv_pc=141

~ray

[edit: sorry for the humungous url the first time; posted from my Z using clipboard and didn\'t realize how long it was]

n8a · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2004, 10:12:13 pm »

Raybert,

I\'d hesitate if I were you until someone confirms that it\'s compatible (or make sure you can return it). Look at the Affix and Bluez compatibility lists referenced in the first post of this attached thread:

http://www.zaurususergroup.com/index.php?n...patibility+list

Unfortunately, I don\'t see any Belkin cards on either list, and would therefore stay away for now. If anything, finding out the chipset and doing a little research may tell you more about it\'s potential compatibility.

Good luck and let us know if you get it working-

N8

raybert · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2004, 11:29:02 pm »

hmm... well, I took a chance with it. Actually, I kinda screwed up. :| I searched the holtmann list and found a Belkin card, but didn\'t realize that the search had paged past the CF section (doh). Error #2 was when I misread the model number and thought it was the same card (double doh). So I went ahead and bought it, and THEN realized my mistakes. Oh well. Can only return it for store credit too. The final cost, including shipping, was only $42 though. So, if I can\'t get it to work, it won\'t be the end of the world, I guess. Wish me luck........

~ray

doublec · « **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2004, 11:55:20 pm »

I\'d be interested in knowing if it works. They have belkin cards for sale at the local shop where I am.

n8a · « **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2004, 11:57:48 pm »

those dang impulse buys i keep making them for some reason...

well, i would start by looking in the manual for the chipset - ericsson, csr or other. that will help determine which drivers to try. Also, start looking at some of the recent posts in the accessories forum on this site (i\'ve been pretty involved, albeit unsuccessfully). They should at least lead you to some decent testing.

fyi, i checked the /etc/pcmcia/bluetooth.conf bluez config file and i did not see any entries for Belkin cards, but it may be that it is similar enough to an existing card that you can get it to work. Definitely, best of luck and it would be great to hear if you get it working.

raybert · « **Reply #8 on:** January 21, 2004, 11:25:41 am »

Thanks, I\'ll be sure to post something. I found the manual on the Belkin site but there wasn\'t any info on the chipset. I also did a web search: nada. So, we\'ll see. I guess I\'ll have to wait to get it and query the card ident, etc.

Impulse buys? Tell me about it! I\'ve been a sucker for them lately!! :| I think it started when I finally convinced myself to plop down $750 on a C860 (still waiting for it). Yesterday I dropped $40 on a Hawking 56k modem that I found in the return bin at microcenter (a good buy but I\'ll probably never use it!). The day before it was $30 on a camera card (again, a good buy and I\'ll probably even get some use out of that one). Last week it was $35 on a Hawking 10/100 LAN card (another good deal and one that I will definitely use). Hey, at least I\'m getting good buys!

~ray

n8a · « **Reply #9 on:** January 21, 2004, 12:31:50 pm »

Quote

Impulse buys? Tell me about it! I\'ve been a sucker for them lately!! I think it started when I finally convinced myself to plop down $750 on a C860 (still waiting for it). Yesterday I dropped $40 on a Hawking 56k modem that I found in the return bin at microcenter (a good buy but I\'ll probably never use it!). The day before it was $30 on a camera card (again, a good buy and I\'ll probably even get some use out of that one). Last week it was $35 on a Hawking 10/100 LAN card (another good deal and one that I will definitely use). Hey, at least I\'m getting good buys!

Yep - I can\'t sympathize! I spent $155 on a CF GPS receiver, $22 on a serial cable for the zaurus, $15 on an extra cradle, $30 on the camera card, and $18 on a zaurus car power adapter... in the past week and a half!!

What an expensive and time-consuming hobby this is... PIM my arse!! But the deals are just so good it seems compared to the past 1-2 years. I guess we make up that % of the population that keeps the peddlers of *seemingly* nonessential gadgets pumping out these gadgets! And you know, I wouldn\'t have it any other way...

zmiq2 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2004, 03:57:11 am »

Half a year ago I \"borrowed for-live\" a Belkin BT Card, (the one that gets out of my sl-c750 about 1cm, rounded, with a kinf of big led, model f8t020.

No way. I didn\'t work; I spent about 48hours reading documentation, kernel recompiling, config files tweking, and couldn\'t make it work. Sometimes I thoguht I was very close using some csr chipset tricks, but reaility is it never worked.

I ordered a Socket CF BT, which arrived with the \'dangerous\' G at the back; but with my previous Belkin experience, I got it working in two hours, looks nicer, at fits perfectly into my zaurus, with not a single mm. getting out of the CF slot. It works great.

In case you have a socket rev. G, there\'s documentation in many posts about how to set it up; tumnus has included support for this card in his bluez stack software; and I\'m sure tumnus and I are here to help, so it should be a pretty secure buy.

BTW:
1) i don\'t work for socket, even I own a socket BT, socket wifi and socket modem (uhm...)
2) Belkin BT looks very similar to DELL-branded BT card; I assume they are the same, just with different brand sticker

Hope that helps.

raybert · « **Reply #11 on:** January 22, 2004, 01:50:50 pm »

hmm.... yup, that\'s the one I bought. Which ROM were you running when you tried to get it to work? Maybe there\'s new stuff out that will let it work now? Oh well.... Thanks for the Dell tip; might come in handy...

~ray

Anonymous · « **Reply #12 on:** January 23, 2004, 04:19:48 am »

I was using a c750 with stock sharp kernel, bluez 2.3-2.4.18b

zmiq2 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 23, 2004, 04:21:52 am »

las post was me; just that I unadvertently got logged out (its not the first time this happens to me; what is the timeout time, 30seconds or what?)

n8a · « **Reply #14 on:** January 24, 2004, 04:44:09 am »

I\'d have to suggest the Socket BT Rev. G card. I just received it today from Amazon ($82), and I had it working on my 5500 in about 10 minutes with the help of Tumnus\' drivers and posts. After all the trouble with the AmbiCom BT2000C, this was like a dream! I did have some error messages here and there during the install process, but I plowed ahead anyways and it is working flawlessly with my Sony Ericsson t610, and at a decent connection speed.

On top of that, the card is the same size as CF memory, so it doesn\'t stick out or advertise that it is on (I prefer no blinking).

Seriously, at ~ $82, I\'d have to say it\'s hard to beat. Just my .02...

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Author Topic: Best bluetooth card? (Read 9522 times)

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