Thread: Bluetooth Hands Free Calling

Originally Posted by EL CAMINO

this is a really nice find, lets hope is not a really expensive solution. and comes pre'assambled, like guino said, not all CarPC users will have the time or skills to build them.

Yup hope it can be made cheap, unfortunately producing in low quantity and low cost doesnt come together. The creator would want to recover the dev cost as well as make some money on top which can be very hard to do.

Seeing you have experienced the SW solution how does it compare HW? and what are the advantages of the HW version?

Does the callcenter support echo/noise cancel?

Originally Posted by PhilG

I would still love to see someone with the knowledge be able to port the screen data and control buttons of a Parrot device to windows & a FE. They work so darn good with every phone but it would just be nice to bury it in the dash and control it from the pc.

Edit: I did find this: http://www.parrot.com/documents/en/s...ocedureeng.pdf

So the PC can communicate with the Parrot BT device for upgrade purposes so could a plugin communicate with it as well?? The cool thing is one of the models has a 3" LCD screen that shows picture caller ID, as well as name number. If that came up in RR, the cool factor would be off the charts!!

All those are possible by using a good BT module.

Hacking the parrot can be time consuming/difficult, and a project that require a parrot only to be used for its BT module is not very cost effective. Also a change in the parrot firmware/HW revision/availability could break the hack and all that effort goes to waste.

Your probably right regarding difficulty configuring & coding, I don't know a lot about whats involved to connect it to the PC.

As far as cost effective, I don't think the cost would be unreasonable depending on the cost of the interface device if one was created. You can buy the 3100 Parrot for about $140 bucks on Amazon, lets say the interface box was $50-60 thats about 200 bucks. That sounds like a lot but look at what people are paying for the Phoenix noise canceler and expensive microphones like the Andrea, trying multiple BT dongles just trying to get decent phone support. The Parrot handles all of that perfectly with no guess work or trying different BT dongles. It includes BT, Microphone, speaker output and it works with every phone I have every tried with it way pack to an old Motorola Startac....wow....

If the interface was USB, the BT in the PC would still be available for OBD, music streaming etc. and the system resource demand on the PC for the phone would be extremely low, the Parrot would eb taking the hit on that.

Even if we had to retain the buttons of the Parrot, just to get this screen data




and the mute signal to mute music into RR, that would be a major bonus. You could mount the Parrot behind a bezel with just the buttons exposed. You would also have the option of routing the audio not through the PC if you wished.

Maybe it's not easy to do, I'm just saying that if it was, and after seeing the nose bleed everyone has been going through for years trying to get consistent BT phone support, this would put an end to it with one Parrot kit and one interface device. The concept would be like Mitch's Sirius Radio interface but for Parrot. Mitch didn't try to reinvent the Sirius radio he just made it talk to the PC and it works perfect!

Well chaps some news which may be of interest.
As I said earlier in this post I am using an EGO FLASH car kit (so one could use a Parrot kit) to take the
audio and thus have clear/crisp communication and now CallCenter to take the data from the phone, i.e.
search the phonebook list, see missed cals, make calls, etc although it is presently a bit cumbersome and
not as handy as PhoneControl but I hope El Camino's plugin will make things easier. In this respect all
one needs is a cheap BT dongle with BroadComm or microsoft (?) drivers.

I have been in contact with the developer who was kind enough to send me a pre-release version of
CallCenter which now allows me to embed it in RoadRunner and has the ability to receive, read and compose
SMSs. See snapshots below. Needless to say the application works oK both via WiFi & Bluetooth.









I understand the new version should be released pretty soon.
ElCamino I have sent you the latest pre-release version so that you can see whether you can incorporate any
of its new features in your RR plugin. Then once you release it we can test it further.

Good work so far!

Originally Posted by Rennos

Well chaps some news which may be of interest.
As I said earlier in this post I am using an EGO FLASH car kit (so one could use a Parrot kit) to take the
audio and thus have clear/crisp communication and now CallCenter to take the data from the phone, i.e.
search the phonebook list, see missed cals, make calls, etc although it is presently a bit cumbersome and
not as handy as PhoneControl but I hope El Camino's plugin will make things easier. In this respect all
one needs is a cheap BT dongle with BroadComm or microsoft (?) drivers.

I have been in contact with the developer who was kind enough to send me a pre-release version of
CallCenter which now allows me to embed it in RoadRunner and has the ability to receive, read and compose
SMSs. See snapshots below. Needless to say the application works oK both via WiFi & Bluetooth.


I understand the new version should be released pretty soon.
ElCamino I have sent you the latest pre-release version so that you can see whether you can incorporate any
of its new features in your RR plugin. Then once you release it we can test it further.

the pi is ready, im also getting the pre-released apk from thomas, i even started a skin test for the pi, just need to add a few more things. and yes all the features that callcenter gui offers are on the pi as well, here are some screencaps.

Excellent! Looking forward to the pi.

Originally Posted by Rennos

Excellent! Looking forward to the pi.

if you have the latest, can you help out with the testing?, im sending you a link by PM.

Rennos and El Camino,

Can you please detail what all hardware and software is required to make this all work?

I recently purchased a Parrot 3200 LS Color. My android phone talks to it. I'm imagining that the parrot handles the incoming and outgoing audio. Are you saying that if I get this app (is the app needed? Or just Callcenter?) and use a secondary BT connection between my phone and the PC, that by using the PI that El Camino is writing, that the PC will control the phone as far as dialing and answering calls? Obviously I'll need a BT dongle for the PC.

So correct me if I'm wrong.

Hardware:
Cell Phone (Does it have to be Android?)
Parrot or EZ Go or similar.
CarPC
Bluetooth Dongle

Software:
RR
App for phone
Callcenter
New PI
BroadComm or microsoft drivers

Please clarify the requirements for this to work.