Can't pair my laptop with my car. What's wrong??

Question

Can't pair my laptop with my car. What's wrong??

Hi, people.

I want to send phonebook info from my PowerBook G4 to my 2005 Prius.* For some reason, however, when using the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, after entering my passkey, pairing always fails.

I'm wondering if, perhaps, my car is expecting to pair with a phone but the computer is sending it other identifying information, causing pairing to fail. Anyway, I'm stumped, and everything I've found on the web so far is out of date or was written for Windows PCs. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

*Verizon disabled OBEX in my RAZR V3c phone, so I can't use it to do so.

PowerBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Posted on Mar 18, 2007 9:34 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 19, 2007 7:33 AM in response to Guido Schauer

Hello guido:

Welcome to Apple discussions.

I think a better place for you to seek an answer is from Toyota - your Prius manufacturer. I may be wrong, but I doubt if anyone here has attempted what you describe.

Barry

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Answer 2

Mar 19, 2007 9:19 AM in response to Barry Hemphill

Hi, Barry.

My rationale for seeking an answer here is simple. Both my car-phone and computer-phone pairing work just fine. So, since my car-computer pairing fails, there must be something going wrong in the sending or receiving of messages between them. Since the Mac is a far more flexible computing device than the Prius, the solution to this problem most likely lies with adjusting it in some way.

If I knew of a Toyota source at which anyone had one-tenth of the understanding of Bluetooth that someone is likely to have here, I'd have gone there already. Moreover, since this is a Bluetooth discussions site, and the nature of the problem probably lies in Bluetooth communication protocols not unique to my car, I'm hoping someone here might know enough about those protocols to have an insight or two.

Perhaps someone might suggest, "Here's how to make your car think it's talking to a phone. . . ." I'm still hopeful.

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Answer 3

Mar 19, 2007 10:24 AM in response to Guido Schauer

So you know, you can enable all the features Verizon crippled. I have a Verizon e815 that I've restored to full functionality. It was a bit dodgy, but a fun project overall. If you are interested you can start here;

http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38

Good luck.

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Answer 4

Mar 19, 2007 2:04 PM in response to onethousandone

Onethousandone thanks, but--

the www.howardsforum.com site is a navigational nightmare. I went from link to link and couldn't find anything useful. Besides, I really don't have time for dodgy, fun phone hacking projects. I would love to restore my phone to full OBEX functionality, but only if it were un-dodgy, fairly straightforward, and not too time consuming. I need to save my brain power and time for other things.

At this point, I would rather get my computer to pair with my car. As soon as my contract with Verizon runs out, I'll be switching carriers, anyway.

Does anyone speak Bluetooth?

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Answer 5

Mar 20, 2007 5:12 AM in response to Guido Schauer

I vaguely remember reading a query from someone else trying to do this some time back. Unfortunately I can't recall nor find the link now.

I'm pretty sure that the car does expect to be paired with a phone only - and as far as I am aware you can't make the Mac pretend its a phone.

Each type of Bluetooth device is quite explicit about what it is. A phone is a phone, a headset is a headset, a computer is a computer.

I'm fairly certain you can't fool one device into pretending its another. Certainly without some severe hacking or re-writing of the Bluetooth system software in either the Mac OS or car.

It probably would be much easier just to flash your phone with the generic, un-modified original firmware to re-instate all the features disabled by your network.

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Answer 6

TimDF

Level 1

0 points

Mar 20, 2007 1:09 PM in response to Guido Schauer

Guido,

Bluetooth devices have 'profiles' that determine how they behave, what protocols/features they have, and what other devices they can connect to. The Bluetooth device in your car is a 'Hands Free' device and is looking to connect to an 'Audio Gateway', or mobile phone.

So, unfortunately, you're going to need a phone to make the transfer.

Good Luck,
Tim

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Answer 7

Mar 20, 2007 6:35 PM in response to TimDF

Thank you, Julian and Tim. I appreciate the explanations.

• I found a work around solution, though. I adapted some instructions I found on the Web that were written for a Windows PC to Prius connection. It's a little weird, but it works.
• Since my phone is with me, as soon as I power up my car, it pairs with my phone.
• Now, I attempt to pair my laptop with the car, entering the PassKey when asked for it. The pairing fails because the car doesn't recognize the Bluetooth device type, but now the computer has the pairing info it needs.
• After the failed attempt, my phone's Bluetooth pairing is automatically reestablished.
• Then, I try sending the VCard data from my laptop. Apparently, my car can't tell that the info is getting pushed from another device--so long as the phone is still paired and the computer sends the correct PassKey.

In a sense, the computer gets "half-paired" to the car. This works well enough for me, until I get away from Verizon.

I would suggest, though, that Apple rewrite their Bluetooth connection software to allow for it to pair with "dumb" devices, as would have been helpful in this case. I think the benefits would outweigh the risks.

Thanks, everyone. I know more than I did before.

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