Bluetooth Audio / HandsFree

[psichel_adm]

Hi Yuri,

Per my Email response, Phone Amego itself simply connects your phones Bluetooth audio directly to the selected audio input and output devices. It does not do any audio processing at this time. There's a fairly long chain of audio components that handle the audio to and from your phone, and it is beyond the scope of Phone Amego to identify and fix the one that isn't working very well.

In general, Bluetooth audio can be affected by other Bluetooth traffic or radio interference such as an AirPort base station in close proximity.
Since you are using a headset, echo should not be a problem.

Mac OS X 10.7 added eSCO (enhanced Bluetooth SCO audio) which can also improve the voice quality. Some users report very good audio, while others report problems similar to yours.

Kind Regards,

- Peter

[Mauricio]

Hi, thank you for your great Software! If I can get it to work properly I will buy it immediately! I have a iPhone 4 with the latest Firmware. On my mac I use a Logitech wireless headset (not a blutooth one) the problem is that the phone when i make a call, has the option to switch to the mac, but it does not do anything when i press it. Also switching to iPhone speaker does not do anything. And on the iPhone you also don't hear anything. In the phone amego settings I have put in to use the logitech headset. The only time it works once is sometimes when I start the mac new. Then 1 call gets forwarder correctly to the headset. From then on only to iPhone. I can also not switch to Speakerphone on the active call window. I tried previous versions but nothing seems to work.

best regards
Mauricio

[psichel_adm]

Hi Mauricio,

First, check out the instructions here to be sure you understand how to enable the speakerphone feature:
http://www.sustworks.com/pa_guide/handsfree.html

Next, Phone Amego has a Debug Log you can use to see the exchange between Phone Amego and your iPhone. If you Email this to me, I may be able to see what is happening.

You might also check the "system.log" for any error messages from the Bluetooth stack. In my experience, Bluetooth audio doesn't work on some Macs. See: http://www.sustworks.com/pa_guide/btExtreme.html

Kind Regards,

- Peter

[Frenchy]

Good Evening Peter,

I also have the same problem mention above. I have a Mac Book Pro and and iPhone 4S and when someone call me I can not use the speakerphone. Here is what the logs says.

<-- AT+BRSF=4<cr>
[SM 1 (Frenchy Phone)] [iPhone]
--> <cr><lf>+BRSF:495<cr><lf>
[SM 2 (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 2 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- AT+BRSF=4<cr>
[SM 1 (Frenchy Phone)] [iPhone]
--> <cr><lf>+BRSF:495<cr><lf>
[SM 2 (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 2 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- +++AT<cr>
[SM 1 (Frenchy Phone)] [iPhone]
[SM 2 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
--> <cr><lf>+CIEV: 3,1<cr><lf>
[setSCOState: -1]
[Call Start: 2012-02-27 14:24:25 +0000 (Frenchy Phone)]
[CS Alerting (Frenchy Phone)]
2012-02-28 00:24:25 [Call script incoming_call (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- AT+CLCC<cr>
[SM 501 (Frenchy Phone)]
--> <cr><lf>+CLCC: 1,1,4,0,0,"0754537980",129,"DEVOS INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD"<cr><lf>
Input: "0754537980" format: (###) ###-#### result: (075) 453-7980
Input: "0754537980" format: (###) ###-#### result: (075) 453-7980
2012-02-28 00:24:26 [Call script call_from ("DEVOS INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD": (075) 453-7980)]
[Growl: Incoming Call (Frenchy Phone)]
--> <cr><lf>OK<cr><lf>
Load Card Dictionary processed: 0 read 0
[SM 502 (Frenchy Phone)]
2012-02-28 00:24:26 Load Card Dictionary completed.
<-- ATA<cr>
[CS Active In (Frenchy Phone)]
2012-02-28 00:24:32 [Call script off_hook (Frenchy Phone)]
2012-02-28 00:24:32 [Call script call_answer (Frenchy Phone)]
[Growl: Status Update (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 801 (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 802 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- ATA<cr>
[SM 801 (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 802 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- ATA<cr>
[SM 801 (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 802 timeout (Frenchy Phone)]
<-- AT+CHUP<cr>
2012-02-28 00:24:59 [Call script on_hook (Frenchy Phone)]
2012-02-28 00:24:59 [Call script call_end (Frenchy Phone)]
[CS Released (Frenchy Phone)]
[Growl: Idle (Frenchy Phone)]
[SM 301 (Frenchy Phone)]

Looking forwards in hearing from you.

Yours

[psichel_adm]

I see you included the Phone Amego debug log and it shows your iPhone never tried to establish an audio link to your Mac. You can use Apple's Console.app to check for any errors in the "system.log" and also check your settings to make sure Bluetooth audio is enabled on the Mac.

I hope this helps. - Peter

[prmdb]

Hi Peter

Used PA 1.3.5 (I think) very happily from December to March to route calls from my iPhone 3GS through to the USB headset connected to my iMac. PA allowed me to connect calls in progress to the headset from the "Audio Source" button on the iPhone or to dial from the iMac - in both cases the iMac - Headset combination worked well.

Allowed me to type whilst talking and kept an iCal log of my calls. Excellent setup, happy user.

After an upgrade to OSX Lion, and subsequent PA upgrade to PA 1.4c5, however, this setup has pretty much stopped working. Bluetooth connection from the iPhone is a little patchy, as ever, but PA can see the iPhone and even dial calls but regardless of which (PA or iPhone) dials the call the Bluetooth Audio simply won't connect. The other end of the call hears silence and the Bluetooth connection itself generally falls over within 30 to 60 seconds of dialling the call.

Console messages are generally one or other of the following:

[SendHCIRequestFormatted] ### ERROR: [0x0407] (Add SCO Connection) -- Send request failed (err = 0x0010 (kBluetoothHCIErrorHostTimeout))
REQUIRE_NO_ERR failure: 0xd - file: /SourceCache/IOBluetoothFamily/IOBluetoothFamily-4030.4.12/Core/Family/Drivers/IOBluetoothSCOAudioDriver/IOBluetoothSCOAudioDevice.cpp:882

or

[SendHCIRequestFormatted] ### ERROR: [0x0407] (Add SCO Connection) -- Send request failed (err = 0x0010 (kBluetoothHCIErrorHostTimeout))
REQUIRE_NO_ERR failure: 0x10 - file: /SourceCache/IOBluetoothFamily/IOBluetoothFamily-4030.4.12/Core/Family/Drivers/IOBluetoothSCOAudioDriver/IOBluetoothSCOAudioDevice.cpp:882

Not sure which upgrade triggered the problems, since I wasn't working from the iMac for a coupe of weeks, but I've reversed back to PA 1.3.7 with no joy, cleared the Bluetooth stack and tried several other ideas. Any other suggestions for what I might try?

Sadly, reverting to Snow Leopard isn't an option - I need iCloud for when I'm out and about.

Thanks

[psichel_adm]

Phone Amego itself just plays audio from the Bluetooth audio driver to the selected devices on your Mac. There's no audio processing involved. To debug issues with audio quality, you'll need to look at the components in the audio chain to see if there is anything you can fix or improve.

Bluetooth itself may impact audio quality, so you may find the troubleshooting tips here helpful:

http://www.sustworks.com/pa_guide/btTro ... oting.html

In particular, are there any other Bluetooth services you can disable, or nearby radio sources you can relocate?

Kind Regards,

- Peter

[prmdb]

Peter

I'm not sure this is a bluetooth audio quality issue so much as no bluetooth audio at all! Went through all the steps on your Bluetooth Troubleshooting page already on both versions (1.3.4 and 1.4c) but no change - still no connection at all to the bluetooth audio. Same sorts of Console errors every time.

It seems to me that you're right: the problem is doubtless further along the audio chain, somewhere in OSX, but I can't find any help on the Apple forums. Is there perhaps a way of rebuilding or updating (or reversing) this IOBluetoothSCOAudioDriver in the OSX system which would get me back to where I was before?

If you can point me to something specific that would be great. Otherwise I'm afraid that my best option is to buy a standalone hands-free headset for the iPhone. Sadly I won't be using Phone Amego anymore if i do that - I don't really need a dialler - but it was very good before the Lion killed it!

Thanks

[psichel_adm]

Do the console errors look like the ones described here:

http://www.sustworks.com/pa_guide/btExtreme.html

In my experience, Bluetooth Audio on Mac OS X does not work reliably on some systems. These are Apple issues beyond the scope of Phone Amego to solve.

- Peter

[prmdb]

Peter

Following the advice on the http://www.sustworks.com/pa_guide/btExtreme.html page, I cleared everything Bluetooth from my iMac with Bluetooth Explorer and then restarted the machine with an old Sitecom BlueTooth dongle (CN-512) in the USB slot.

Hey Presto! The SiteCom stack takes precedence over the internal BlueTooth and - presumably because of different Firmware - Phone Amego now works exactly as it did before I migrated to OSX Lion. The iMac will now serve as a Handsfree for the iPhone allowing me to speak on my USB headset with hands-free (whilst also collecting a useful diary of all my work calls).

Now been working and stable for more than a week. Many thanks for your help.