Music on Bluetooth GPS units

[smartr]

There are a number of GPS units on the market now with Bluetooth connectivity. I have a SE W800i Walkman phone and I listen to music and take calls via the ear bud headphones supplied with the phone. Does anyone know if it is possible to link the phone via bluetooth to a GPS unit and not only use the the phone functions i.e. take calls and listen to music but also get the voice prompts from the GPS unit into the phone earbud headphones via the bluetooth link??

Hope the question makes sense.... hope I will understand the answer!!

 

[araspitfire]

Garmin have a page that describes what each bluetooth phone can do when connected to a 2820.

http://www.garmin.com/bluetooth/phones.jsp

I've not seen that any of them will play their music through the bluetooth link on the Garmin...

Course, the Garmin 2820 will play it's own MP3's while the phone thing is doing the phone thing...

Al...

 

[Big Lad]

I've just bought a bluetooth dongle thingy for the ipod so I can connect the bluetooth to the tomtom bluetooth via the autocom.... fcuk, I'm confused now.

 

[Dale]

smartr,

My experience is based on a W800i and a 2820. I dont know about other Garmin units, but would guess that they all work in a similar fashion.

The short answer is NO.

Long answer is like this. You cannot "push" the voice instructions back to a phone - the GPS will only relay the voice instructions through a bluetooth link to any gadget it recognises as a headset or through the audio out jack. also, the phone does not have the ability to "recieve" the voice prompts from an external device.

You also cannot play the music from the W800i through the GPS - again, the GPS is designed to only look for regular phone functions (contacts, call lists, etc) and will not access the MP3's on the phone.

BTW: linking the 2820 to the W800 is easy as pie ... IF you have the latest version of bluetooth on the phone. go to SE website and do the latest firmware upgrade to the phone - its a bit cumbersome but works fine.

HTH,
Dale

 

[smartr]

Thanks Dale,

You seem to have understood my question better than me!! and I think I just about understand your answer.

I suspected that was the case. I am waiting for the new Garmin Zumo bike specific GPS to come out in November and will look at bluetooth headphone options then

Thanks for your reply

 

[Dale]

One other thing I forgot to mention ....

If you use the W800 and the SE earphones for music while on the bike, you will probably be dissapointed with the sound quality you get from a bluetooth headset. Bluetooth is great in that there are no wires involved and when you get it all working it is totally seamless but ito quality it just can't match a wired system just yet.

Of course with all the noise you get from the wind / traffic / etc this may not be an issue at all.

Dale

 

[mrTickle]

yes i made the mistake of thinking that because the 2820 had bluetooth, i would have a nice wire free solution. Unfortunately it isn't at all so don't get suckered into a 2820 because it has bluetooth and an MP3 player. Both features are near useless on a 2820 in my book - my phone auto answers incoming calls and it also holds twice as many MP3's compared to the 2820. My phone (also a Sony K800i ) also sounds far better on MP3 playback and if using a 2820 with an autocom, you'll get an awful loud hum coming through your headphones making it unuseable

 

[araspitfire]

I don't get a hum through my Autocom from my 2820... perhaps you should look at moving stuff around a bit to find a quieter installation?

I've not installed my microphone on my Autocom yet, but my new BT phone still works great with the settup...

When I approach my bike, I enable Bluetooth on the phone.... it links with the 2820.

When I get an incoming call, I get notification by sound through my Autocom and the screen of my GPS. I pull over and dissable BT and phone the person back. (unfortunately an incoming text does not indicate through the 2820)

I have some music loaded on my 2820, but only for when the batteries die on my HD music player... I'm using the mono line into the autocom so the quality isn't the greatest.. not that it matters with the Autobahn wind blast killing any chance of quality music experience anyways...

Al...

 

[skellum]

yes i made the mistake of thinking that because the 2820 had bluetooth, i would have a nice wire free solution. Unfortunately it isn't at all so don't get suckered into a 2820 because it has bluetooth and an MP3 player. Both features are near useless on a 2820 in my book - my phone auto answers incoming calls and it also holds twice as many MP3's compared to the 2820. My phone (also a Sony K800i ) also sounds far better on MP3 playback and if using a 2820 with an autocom, you'll get an awful loud hum coming through your headphones making it unuseable

I have a 2820 and an Autocom system and can only say it works very well - as I approach my bike my phone (Motorola V3...) automatically connects, I can see all of my contacts telephone numbers on screen (over 500) and can use most of the menu (call history, last numbers dialled etc) from on screen - I use a separate Nano connected to my Autocom for MP3 stuff but if the battery runs out on the Nano I have loaded a few tracks as a make do - I get no hum at all from the 2820... I guess the only thing it lacks is portability and the Zumo would seem to resolve that issue.

 

[Dale]

yes i made the mistake of thinking that because the 2820 had bluetooth, i would have a nice wire free solution. Unfortunately it isn't at all so don't get suckered into a 2820 because it has bluetooth and an MP3 player. Both features are near useless on a 2820 in my book - my phone auto answers incoming calls and it also holds twice as many MP3's compared to the 2820. My phone (also a Sony K800i ) also sounds far better on MP3 playback and if using a 2820 with an autocom, you'll get an awful loud hum coming through your headphones making it unuseable

I dont want to get into a whole long debate about this, but I think you are missing something here. I would agree that if you just want musuc and phone while on the bike, then a simple headset wired straight to a phone is a better solution than the 2820. Most of the Sony phones have wonderfull MP3 players and will do the auto/voice answer tricks that the 2820 will do.

However, if you also want voice guidance then the 2820 does a pretty good job of providing a solution. It is very nice being able to control the phone, music and voice guidance all from a single touch screen. I dont like fiddling with gadgets while I ride, so I simply choose a destination, pop the MP3 player on and off I go ... if the phone rings I can see who it is, decide to chat or not, and when the call is finished the music comes back on ... all of this while I get voice guidance. So yes, I think it is a nine wire-free solution .... not perfect, but nice.

I dont know how many tracks your 2820 will hold once the European maps are loaded but mine has US maps, some South Africa stuff and a bunch of topo maps and still holds about 12 CD of music ... that's 10 hours of music ... more than enough for me.

The hum through the 3,5mm plug has been a personal irritation for me (see thread on "2820 and earphone hum" in the GPS forum), but Garmin have acknowledged the problem and advised that they are currently seeking a solution - I'd like it to be fixed yesterday but can understand that it may take a while (maybe give them a call ... the more folk who grumble about it the quicker we will see a solution ). Having said that, the guys who use the audio through an Autocom don't seem to have the problem, so perhaps your unit is faulty?

lastly, everyone seems to awaiting the Zumo as the perfect solution for all bikers. Looking at the advertised prices (zumo is at least 60GBP cheaper), I cant help but wonder wheather or not the lads at Garmin have not removed some of the functionality from the 2820 in order to get to a cheaper price. A cheaper unit with more features sounds too good to be true

Cheers
Dale