TomTom GO 720 and in-car bluetooth kits

[beej]

Just wanted to share some info wabout the new TomTom 720. Great device, but not many reviews have tried to pair it with in-car bluetooth kits.

My SE HCB-30 is an in-car kit wired up to my factory fit Boost stereo. It's been very reliable, working with all my Nokia and SE phones over the last 3.5 years.

But the TomTom 720 won't pair with it. In fact, it doesn't seem to pair with very much in the way of car kits at the moment... so for now you need to use the internal speaker on the gps, or the 3.5" audio jack which I presume will work just fine.

A video of trying to pair the 720 up is here:

YouTube - Attempting to pair TomTom Go 720 with...

Fingers crossed for some sort of software upgrade for the 720 soon!

[LeakyTurnip]

Although I have not tried to pair it with a car kit, I paired mine with my SE K700i in a matter of seconds. I'm heading to Italy next Monday and driving from Rome to Milan so to save on arguements I decided sat nav was the best option.

The 720 is a fantastic piece of kit!

[rec]

ok, i have no idea about TomTom stuff, but i'd have thought it was the hands free kit, like our kit is, rather than allowing you to put the SIM card into the GPS unit and use that as the phone.

in that case, you're trying to pair a hands free kit to a hands free kit... maybe try pairing your phone with the TomTom instead ? ;]

[mikeythemini]

Just what I was thinking

[Snowie]

That makes 3 of us

[beej]

Erm, good effort guys but the TomTom is not a headset.

Strap in, let's do science!

The TomTom Go is Linux running ARM, so it actually has its own bluetooth stack. It's a computer not a headset device. It pairs with, for instance, your phone so you can type your SMS on your TomTom, sending it I guess by OBEX (or maybe over a virtual serial connection? I'm not sure) to the phone. Just like when you're at home, computer paired to phone, backing up your texts and photos.

Obviously yes indeed, the TomTom pairs with my phone and that's all dandy. Before you ask, as I understand the tech, you can't do tomtom->phone->headset, because phones support a headset connection profile as OUT not IN (implying, the phone can't be piggy in the middle and relay FROM the TomTom TO the car headset).


Back to my own question, I think I've figured out the reason - the HCB-30 only supports handsfree and headset services (HFP and HSP). But I suspect the TomTom, being new, is probably trying to initiate an A2DP connection. That's the funky "wireless speakers" protocol. A bit like headsets but supporting higher quality stereo audio.

And there's no way the HCB-30 in MINI supports A2DP.

So to anyone who comes across this thread on a search - TomTom 520/720 will pair to your MINI if your in-car kit supports A2DP*


(*) I think

[rec]

so maybe if you made yourself clear in the first post, you wouldn't have had the responses you got...

[beej]

Quote: Originally Posted by rec (original)

ok, i have no idea about TomTom stuff

What I found out as an early adopter is undocumented; its not in the manual, nor online. That's why it is posted.

The 720 pairs with mobiles just like previous incarnations, but not being able to pair with most in-car kits is new information not available elsewhere, and that's hopefully useful to other readers.