Bluetooth speakerphone and range issue

[rjack22]

I have the Maxx. I just bought a Bluetooth speakerphone for my car. It is a Supertooth Crystal speakerphone. The whole idea was to leave the speakerphone turned on in the car and have Bluetooth always turned on on my Maxx so that when I get into my car it automatically connects and I don't have to remember to turn either one on or off.

Now for the problem. The two stay connected even when I am in my house! The distance is approximately 20-25 feet apart and through two walls. This would be okay except when I get or make a phone call I can hear NOTHING on my phone. No audio at all. As soon as I turn off the Bluetooth on my phone I get voice. Is there any solution for me other than turning one or the other off? I guess if there isn't another solution I will have to train myself to turn on and off the speakerphone in the car but that kind of defeats the purpose of buying it.

 

[YAYTech]

Don't you just hate it when your reception is too good? lol

I would say there are a few solutions. Ideas that come to mind right now:

a) Put a bluetooth toggle widget on your desktop, turn the bluetooth off when you get out of the car, on when you get in. Free, a little hassle, but functional.

b) Get an NFC tag to put somewhere as you come into your house, and program it to turn off the bluetooth when you wave your phone at it. A little cost, less hassle.

c) Use a program (Tasker?) to automatically turn off bluetooth when you get to your house (according to GPS, or connecting to home wifi). Cheap or free app, automatic, but might turn off your bluetooth mid-call as you pull in.

d) Upgrade your car stereo to a unit with bluetooth built-in. Turning off the car turns off the bluetooth speaker. Higher cost, but totally automatic, and you might have a nicer stereo & other features (like streaming music from your phone through your stereo) to boot.

I bet some other folks have some ingenious solutions to add.

 

[rjack22]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I think I am going to try the toggle widget first. One thing I have noticed. When I get my phone inside the house to the room where I usually keep it the Bluetooth icon is blue meaning I am connected still to the car speakerphone from its location inside the house. But...if I turn Bluetooth off and then right back on the icon is now grey and the connection has been broken. It stays grey too, it apparently doesn't try to reestablish a connection to the car speakerphone from that distance. I don't want to totally disable the Bluetooth while in the house because I sometimes use other Bluetooth devices such as my Bluetooth speaker on my desk to listen to music or my Bluetooth ear piece. With the widget it is just a one touch thing which is easy, but I still have to remember to do it (smile).

 

[YAYTech]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I think I am going to try the toggle widget first. One thing I have noticed. When I get my phone inside the house to the room where I usually keep it the Bluetooth icon is blue meaning I am connected still to the car speakerphone from its location inside the house. But...if I turn Bluetooth off and then right back on the icon is now grey and the connection has been broken. It stays grey too, it apparently doesn't try to reestablish a connection to the car speakerphone from that distance. I don't want to totally disable the Bluetooth while in the house because I sometimes use other Bluetooth devices such as my Bluetooth speaker on my desk to listen to music or my Bluetooth ear piece. With the widget it is just a one touch thing which is easy, but I still have to remember to do it (smile).

Yeah, it's not totally ideal, since you have to pull out the phone, unlock the screen, and hit the widget, but it's probably a good place to start to understand how it's going to behave. Then if you want a more streamlined solution, it buys you time to consider which option is best & not waste money on something that isn't going to meet your want/need very well.