Any way to improve bluetooth reception?
 

I've searched the forums, but I thought I would ask. Is there a way to improve the reception of bluetooth on the N900? I found a thread at http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35831 from December, 2009, where the OP was having problems with a number of Jawbone headsets on the N900. Others posted problems with a variety of other bluetooth sets. I am having similar problems. I had a Motorola S9 headset/headphones. I upgraded to the S9-HD. The sound quality is far better both on calls and playing media, however, the N900 ramdomly connects and disconnects. If I sit very still with the phone on my hip or on my desk in front of me, it's fine, but any head or body movements (e.g. looking around or walking) and it will drop out, many times dropping back to the internal speakers.

One post said "wait until the next update," however, by my estimation, that was two or three releases ago. I got mine last summer, and it had PR1.1 on it. I upgraded to PR1.2 and PR1.3 in the meantime.

Is this something Nokia or anyone is looking at? I mean, it's not a new feature I'm looking for as much as basic functionality...being able to be mobile with my mobile phone.

Does anyone have any insight on this? Is there something I should be doing that I'm not?

Thanks,
--vr

Re: Any way to improve bluetooth reception?
 

That sounds pretty bad. I've bought these no-name ones and I don't have any problem while in the same room as the N900, they work pretty good in adjacent rooms as well, if anyone is looking for a cheap pair I'd recommend them since their sound quality is also decent. I've also bought some other cheap ones which haven't been so good reception wise, including some S9 knock-offs from ebay which I wasn't expecting to be particularly good but they are actually so bad as to be unusable. Recently I've also bought the Sony Ericsson MW600 headset/headphones and the reception with them has been excellent, much better than the previous mentioned headphones, I can practically go all over my house with very few dropouts, they do give the occasional issue with pairing though.

A while ago (around new years) I upgraded from kernel-power v45 to the power kernel v46 with the injection drivers and then started having problems with bluetooth audio, initially thinking it was the modified driver causing a problem switched to titan's kernel-power v46 and the problem still persisted, but I didn't do much testing to confirm it because my USB port broke shortly after that, and since getting a new (second hand) N900 and my old one back I still haven't got round to re-installing kernel-power. So if you are using kernel-power v46, try downgrading (or switching to stock).

As a disclaimer from what I previously said, I still get occasional wifi interference even with the MW600s, but mostly only when it is scanning for wifi networks.

Re: Any way to improve bluetooth reception?
 

I saw those, but since they are also used as a bluetooth headset, I figured that I really didn't want to get hassled by the cops for "wearing headphones while driving" (and I know several states in the US have this law on the books...

I neglected to mention that I am using the stock kernel. I had considered upgrading to the power kernel, but if the reception is worse, I will consider longer.

Yes. I can agree with this. Scanning and autoconnect seem to be when reception is at its worst. For instance, in my case, when I get to work, I listen to the rest of the podcast I was listening to in the car. By the time I get to my office and start making coffee (movement plus the initial connect to the wireless), it will start breaking up, disconnecting and reconnecting, and finally timing out and going to speaker.

Two other things I have noticed, that I failed to mention. I have actually, in several cases, had the phone silently reboot on me. The most recent case was on Sunday. I was talking to my wife who was on the landline, she hung up, and I hit the disconnect button on my headset. I noticed later because I had mediabox loaded and was in mid-track when she called. When I went to restart the audio track, mediabox was closed. I checked my uptime and it was < 5 minutes.

The second thing is the headset won't connect and it taking a reboot of the n900 to get it to do so.

--vr

Re: Any way to improve bluetooth reception?
 

I use Nokia BH-503 headphones, and couldn't be happier.