[jetta_gt]

Howdy,

I am big fan of Bluetooth (I have an iBook g4 with built-in BT), I use it to do all kinds of fun stuff with my Nokia 3650, sync via iSync, connect to the web, dial from address book, save directly from iMovie to .3gp on the phone, transfer pics from the phone, etc...

So, i am convinced that BT is really cool and useful (no wires is amazing when traveling a lot), but now i am looking at getting a BT mouse and a BT headset, but am really confused as to how pairing devices works.

This would be my dream set up: The mouse is always paired, it just works, no messing no fussing, nothing else has to be "off", regardless of what is happening in the bluetooth world of my computer, the mouse just works. The phone is always paired, but it doesn't need to be "connected" all the time, unless I am using Romeo and Veta Universal (which lets me control my mac from the phone...) In addition the headset will be used with iChat AV and the phone of course, i want an easy way for the headset to know which one it should be interacting with at any time....

How much of that is possible... I am afraid that there will be tons of pairing and unpairing and resetting just to do something simple, in addition, ideally i would be able to use all three devices at once...

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[jetta_gt]

anybody?

[bluedog]

Sorry, but it looks like you are doing stuff with bluetooth not many people here are familiar with doing.

I haven't set up any bluetooth yet, but what you are describing sounds pretty cool. If I get myself that new G5 laptop I'll be looking back to see if anyone answered this request!

Good luck and post back if you find an answer.

[Diggory Laycock]

OK - you're confusing Pairing with connecting.

The act of Pairing is like an introduction - you exchange passkeys between the devices and they remember each other from then on.

Connecting and re-connecting can happen freely after pairing (if you choose to allow the device to connect without confirmation (in the BT system prefs)).

e.g. I have a headset - It is paired with both my phone and my powerbook. It can only be connected to one at a time though.

When I get a phone call the phone connects to the headset, when I get an iChat the powerbook connects to it. And they disconnect after they have finished.

I believe that your powerbook can have more than one (but not many) concurrent active connections to different devices - so you should be able to use a BT mouse and sync/use the headset/etc... all at the same time.

[Fozz_uk]

I think that my PC's Belkin BT dongle advertised that it could connect to 7 different devices at once. I think this is standard for pretty much anything bluetooth.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by Fozz_uk:
I think that my PC's Belkin BT dongle advertised that it could connect to 7 different devices at once. I think this is standard for pretty much anything bluetooth.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

As far as I remember (I could be completely wrong - I only really speed-read the BT spec - it's quite extensive) - that's not quite how it works (in fact the packaging is almost misleading) - 8 devices can be on the same pico-net (one master - 7 slaves) - but that's at the radio link level. (like the bluetooth radio network)

The number of concurrent higher level links is less than that.

here's some info taken from: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bluetooth5.htm

The devices in a piconet share a common communication data channel. The channel has a total capacity of 1 megabit per second (Mbps). Headers and handshaking information consume about 20 percent of this capacity.

In the United States and Europe, the frequency range is 2,400 to 2,483.5 MHz, with 79 1-MHz radio frequency (RF) channels. In practice, the range is 2,402 MHz to 2,480 MHz. In Japan, the frequency range is 2,472 to 2,497 MHz with 23 1-MHz RF channels.

A data channel hops randomly 1,600 times per second between the 79 (or 23) RF channels.

Each channel is divided into time slots 625 microseconds long.

A piconet has a master and up to seven slaves. The master transmits in even time slots, slaves in odd time slots.

Packets can be up to five time slots wide.

Data in a packet can be up to 2,745 bits in length.

There are currently two types of data transfer between devices: SCO (synchronous connection oriented) and ACL (asynchronous connectionless).

In a piconet, there can be up to three SCO links of 64,000 bits per second each. To avoid timing and collision problems, the SCO links use reserved slots set up by the master.

Masters can support up to three SCO links with one, two or three slaves.

Slots not reserved for SCO links can be used for ACL links.

One master and slave can have a single ACL link.

ACL is either point-to-point (master to one slave) or broadcast to all the slaves.

ACL slaves can only transmit when requested by the master.

[Cadaver]

The a BT mouse and keyboard, once paired, will reconnect when turned on and brought in range. If, say, you switch off your BT mouse and drop it in your PowerBook bag and turn it back on when you reach your destination, you won't need to mess around with any control panels at all to get it to reconnect. It'll just work.