starkey halo

Thanks JJ. Well just as I thought the issue with music streaming to the HA's is a bluetooth problem involving the HA's. I stream just fine to my regular computer speakers from iTunes.

Here is the quick answer from Starkey about connectivity:

Thank you for your email. Yes, we have seen on a few instances where TruLink is unable to recognize the presence of the hearing aids and the native iOS controls can. A restart of the iPhone corrects this problem. Starkey has been investigating this and we have shared this issue with Apple who is aware and is investigating as well.

The iOS handles the connection to hearing aids and TruLink can only connect to control the devices if iOS tells it there are hearing aids connected to the iPhone. We are seeing in these instances, that the APP is not always accurately being reported this message.

What bothers me most is the comment "...a few instances..." .

frank

Frank,

As you probably have read I too am having connectivity issues.

Here us what I did prior to seeing my audiologist just now. I turned off Bluetooth and wifi and data on my iPhone. I then turned it off. I took my new iPad mini and took it to the other side of the house (about 60 feet away) and tried to connect my Starkey Halo's every way I have been told by Starkey tech support, Starkey litecture, the forum and everything I could find on the internet. No connectivity. I did the same with my wife's iPhone and iPod Touch. So when I met my audiologist just now and he called Starkey tech support he was able to say hey he tested multiple Apple devices it is on you Starkey.

Halo's being shipped back with new ones being overnighted.

We will see.

JJMeyer

The real workd calls that covering their A S S E S. LOL

We will see

"Your mileage may vary." Except for the initial pairing problem (found out you should have the aids 14" from iPhone to initially pair) I haven't had connectivity problems. After pairing with iPhone and iPad, I can switch back and forth by simply stopping Bluetooth on one device and starting it on the other. The aids will lose connection and seek out their next connection, which will be on the other device.

When iOS 8 comes out (probably October) there will be more hearing aid support. Apple just says, "Multi-device support," whatever that means.

I'm using Halo i90 H/A's which I got on 4 August.

Jim

We will see. I am not holding my breath. 14" rule is bs. But I tried that even measuring the distance and still no connection. Hali's were sent back to Starkey new set being shipped back. Again I am not holding my breath.

I just got my Halo 90's today. I have worn hearing aids since I was 5, about 47 years now. I have used blue tooth for a long time, which I first tried because I kept cutting headphone cords while doing yard work. My ADHD causes me to hyper focus, and this combined with about 48 years of hearing impairment causes me to miss phone calls, not hear my pretty loud ring, and even not feel the vibration.

The blue tooth was challenging to connect. I was My reps first set of Starkey Halo's and she is slightly technophobic.We called Starkey and got the correct order of operations for connecting hearing aids to iphone, then to Truink etc. I had problems with the right aid only disconnecting. When that happened in TruLink it meant that the left volume control no longer worked.During one reboot I heard a buzzing in the right aid which got progressively louder followed by a very loud pop, which sounded like an electrical spark. Since then the right aid stays connected for about 90 seconds, then buzzes off. A few times when I touched the receiver or the wire the crackling disconnect stopped.

There have been some questions about how things get from one place or another etc. I know a little bit about signals, and I am an apple developer (working on an unrelated app) and might be able to find more information about the iphone's blue tooth set up. Here is my extremely simple wanna be techie explanation of what is happening, how your music and data are moving about: Your itunes music (data) resides either on your devices storage drive, or in the cloud. Your iohone will connect to the cloud every time for a song that has not been downloaded via a network using either a WiFi or a cellular data network. Both cellular and wifi are radio transmissions (yes we owe all this cool stuff to those Ham Radio operators that started transmitting data packets). Blue tooth is another radio signal that has a proprietary technology to connect one device to another. This is seen as a secure system for connecting. Unfortunately the truly secure and very high quality blue tooth technology is reserved for use by US military, police and para military organizations. There is a great variety in blue tooth device capabilities. Most of my head phones dropped off at about 90 feet, while other devices seem to drop off at 20, ten, or even just a few feet. Obviously the further something is designed to transmit the more energy it uses. So when your hearing aids connect to your phone, the music is transmitted over a very specific radio signal as digital audio data.

I am very curious to find out if apple is using a single multi channel blue tooth module, as some of my headphones do, or if they have multiple modules, which our hearing aids obviously do. It seems to me that my headphones with the single modules were much more reliable. The head phones I was hoping to retire I hope had nasty connectivity issues and drove me insane. So far, no matter what device I hook up. If there truly is no microphone streaming them I may have to go back to the headset as I often need to work hands free, especially when I am on call. It could be a deal breaker.

Pro's so far: My old hearing aids were squealing constantly, so that is over. Audio quality is great.

Yes, I am one of those Ham Radio Operators who has worked with long-range Wi-Fi for many years. I was able to stream video about 16 kM (line of sight) on Wi-Fi. But that's not part of this discussion, so....

The Bluetooth on my i90's was a bear to initially set up but has been solid since. Sounds like you have one defective HA. I can leave my iPhone on its charger at one end of the house and listen to streamed audio all over the house to the full 10M theoretical range of Bluetooth. Very pleased!

I had a MECHANICAL issue causing cut-off sound from both HA's: they would seat against the ear canal and block the little holes in the rubber cones. Solved last night by carefully cutting the tips on a 45 degree bias, so sound could escape FROM THE SIDE when the tip reached the canal wall. They sound much better now, with NO cutting out! I have been listening to podcasts and iHeartRadio all day on my Starkeys while at work. And I have been taking phone calls that sound GREAT!

Yes, when taking a phone call, it is your iPhone's microphone that is being used, NOT the mics on your HA's. I keep my iPhone in my shirt pocket, with the mic facing UP towards my face, and that works just fine. The other party hears me loud and clear. There may be things to look forward to with iOS 8 and the new iPhone(s) coming out on 9 September. Lets hope!

On wireless headsets, the best I've found are the Sennheiser RS180. I love mine! Works all over the house, really great audio, and fits comfortably right over my HA's. I feed the headphones from a mixer that takes audio from the TV, computer, and radio.

Jim

de K0UNX

Dogsitter- I did a ham cram at the County OES because I am a disaster health care volunteer. I remember reading about Ham stuff when I was a scout, but despite my license I don't really know much at all. I am going to check out the headphones you recommend. I tried something this morning, and wanted to get your thoughts. My receiver is custom, and it does not seem to be able to be blocked. I am assuming you mean the output on the in ear piece. Mine has a wax screen over it, and it is slightly beveled. Here is what I tried this morning (no pun intended). First I got my aids connect, and then opened my TruLink app. Since the right aid has been buzzing, zapping after 30-90 seconds of streaming and then disconnecting and essentially cutting out, I set the streaming to my left ear only, leaving the right ear operating as a hearing aid only. To my surprise, the left ear streaming began to buzz after about 60 seconds. It did not cut out but got intolerable after about 40 more seconds and I am pretty sure it was about to cut out. I was assuming it is a bad right aid, but now it seems that there are a number of possibilities. It cold be a combination of factors, but my iPhone 5S is 2 weeks old running iOS 7.2, I hooked up to my iPad mini and the same thing happened, so it seems unlikely to be the hardware in the Apple side. I was thinking that the buzzing and popping followed by the disconnect was a signal or HA issue. Cold it be my ear if partially covering the receiver, and at some point the HA or the iPhone detect it as out of range or disconnected, and the buzzing is the gaps in the transmission?

I have opened up a number of technical papers, etc on the Apple Developer website. I know nothing about Bluetooth, so I am going to start with the basics. It does seem like there is a lot of code libraries for getting different types of bluetooth devices to communicate with iOS, and a quick scan shows what I wold call "tricks" to get them to connect, what a pro would probably call emulation. It looks like there is a lot of work involved in negotiating the various types and generating signals that certain types of devices need because they are not using the same thing Apple is. Again IDK but am reading now. It seems that it may be difficult to get Starkey's details on the device they are using.

If any one has details so the Starkey Halo technology, specifically the 90 but anything similar, let me know where you found it. And Jim- you sound like the kind of technical whiz I would love to be. I love that you are streaming these sources through a mixer. My daughter, a musician, was teasing my about getting these hearing aids so I could be even more "one with my devices"/ I defended myself by saying I thought it would be more like having an Ableton controller to run my sound through to my hearing aids.

I've been searching online trying to help a friend who is using the Starkey Halo with his iPhone 5. Terrible screeching from the left HA that he and I can both hear. Anything you have found that improves this situation? I've been searching online for "Troubleshooting Halos" but only find comments about how it doesn't whistle. Not what to do if it DOES screech and whistle. ?? His audiologist is out of town for a week.

Bodolink,

it is possibly a reciever (speaker). My left ear Halo receiver had to be replaced because it died.

Golly, without hearing that, I have no idea at all. I'm sure you know the sound of feedback, and would have SAID feedback if that was what you were hearing, so I'm assuming it is something else entirely. I haven't had anything like that. I hope you are on your "trial" period.

BTW: I went to a "Fab 4 concert" today, and didn't expect to like the results, but had a wonderful experience! The concert sounded really good!

Go to starkeypro.com and look under Quick Tips. Several pdf's are available. One in particular deals with "troubleshooting pairing". If pairing is not done "by the book", troubles result. Unless you audiologist has done "Halo" training, they may be no better than a "novice". Check it out!

I've had the Halos for a while now. If you want a good remote controller, i'd advise you to look elsewhere. I like the sound of the Halos and, when they work with the iPhone, they are great, but the BT connection needs a LOT of correcting. Sometimes rebooting the phone works, sometimes turning on/off airplane mode works, sometimes nothing works. There are times when one hearing aid is recognized and not the other. I believe this is Starkey's problem as the iPhone Hearing Aid Setting seems to recognize the BT. For the kind of money that we have to spend on these devises, it is disappointing that the Halos don't work as advertised.

Well, I've had mine almost three weeks now. Every once in a while I'll need to reboot to get the Bluetooth to work correctly, but overall everything has been working quite well. As I type this, I'm listening to a podcast, streaming to the aids. I've been listening to podcasts all morning.

One thing I've found is that Bluetooth itself is really weak, and my body absorbs a lot of the signal. I carry the iPhone in my shirt pocket, so it isn't far from the aids, but if I move my arm over the phone or press my hand so that the iPhone is both against my chest, and covered by my hand, the signal is almost completely absorbed by my body, and the audio breaks up. So you might want to visit the placement of your phone. It works best when it is in "free space" and not against anything that will absorb the Bluetooth signal.

While sitting here, the iPhone is lying on my desk, and plugged into the charger. I've been able to get up, walk around the room, and into the next room, with a solid signal, but if I put it in my pocket, against my chest, a lot of the signal is absorbed.

Sitting here with my HA's and being ****** off about the connectivity problems, I sent this to the Starkey tech who told me that there is nothing wrong with the app but that it is an Apple & bluetooth problem. Here is what I sent:

Good morning. After reading the Apple discussions re:Halo connection issues I realize that your comment needs testing.

So I went to my local Apple store and paired as many bluetooth items that I could find with my iPhone 5C. I moved out of the store and in some cases event went home and then came back. The iPhone paired within 4 seconds of being in range to the devise I was using.

So my conclusion is that the issue is with the HA/app and not the iPhone. I’m on day 30 of trials and I’m still having issues.

For example, a very typical day in the life of…, the iPhone has been in my pocket for over an hour, it was paired and the TruLink was up and showing full batteries and the mute and un-mute worked just fine.

When I took it out of my pocket the left HA, it usually is the left / both, was not linked to the app.

I went through the routine of shutting off the bluetooth, closing all apps, and starting over. Now when I start the app both HA's are not connected. No matter what I do they are not seen by the iPhone app.

However the iPhone's 3 quick home key clicks show that I am connected! I now assume it is the app that is the issue.

Then, and this is the only way to remedy the app not connecting, is to SHUT THE IPHONE DOWN, START IT BACK UP, MAKE SURE THE BLUETOOTH SEES THE HA’S AND THEN AND ONLY THEN BRING UP THE APP. This works 100% of the time.

We need this explained clearly and in layman’s terms ASAP.

I and others are suffering through this with no support from either Starkey / Apple. My next stop is a review of what is going on in the media.

Very frustrated, frank

Feel free to send your own comments/copy mine to: LeeAnn_Esse@starkey.com