Controlling Winamp via Bluetooth

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

I've been considering purchasing a small bluetooth receiver so I could listen to the MP3's from my computer in the bedroom. I purchased a small program that allows you to control Winamp via bluetooth from your phone:

http://mtvoid.com/screenshots.html

I have a nokia 6630 and from the limited information I can find on the net, it seems that both the phone and software are compatible with each other. The programs shows that it is connected yet I'm not receiving any information on the phone. From what I can work out, it seems that I might need to enable the serial port for it to work properly.
The only thing is I have no idea how to do that. Can anyone give me some advice on this?

Anti

check your bios. usually by tappig the " del " key when you turn the pc on.

Have a look through the various menus there. They are there in mine, butmight not be in yours..

Can you give us some system information. like motherboard make and model, what operating system, ect ect.

Kintarō Hattori

Sure thing, specs are as follows:

Abit AN8 32X
AMD X2-3800
Windows XP SP2

Anti

your board does not come with a serial port..

So i have absolutly no idea how to help you from here. sorry

Just checking again now. Your board has no buiild in bluetooth either. So are you using a bluetooth dongel ?

Or did you just assume your board has bluetooth as standard ?

Kintarō Hattori

anti wrote:

Or did you just assume your board has bluetooth as standard ?

Heh, I'm not that bad. I have a USB dongle. It uses Toshiba software as far as I'm aware.
Hmnnn what else might you need me to tell you?

Anti

Can your phone pick up other bluetooth devices ? such as other phones. Or Tv's that support bluetooth remote controls ?

Also try updating your bluetooth drivers from the manufactures website.

When you go to start > control panel > system > hardware > device manager.
Do you see any yellow exclimation marks next to anything that says something like bluetooth controller?

If you can find it in there anywhere ( the bluetooth dongel ) right click it, go to properties and make sure it says it is enabled.

If that all still fails try a different usb port, and a different pc/laptop. Or possibly another phone.

Kintarō Hattori

Will give all of this a go tomorrow and let you know how I get on. Thanks for the help so far, it's appreciated.

Sam Vimes

with mine i have to open both the remote control software and the software that came with the dongle or it won't work. (dongle software first). do you have both open?

this is the one i use:
http://www.bluetoothshareware.com/bluetooth_remote_control.asp

Tom Dunne

anti wrote:

your board does not come with a serial port..

So i have absolutly no idea how to help you from here. sorry

I think what in fact eo980 might be referring to is the serial port profile in bluetooth. It's not a physical serial port, it's a virtual serial port and in my experience, it is how most modern PC's communicate with mobile phones.

I used to synch my SE P800 over a virtual serial port using bluetooth.

So, what I would do is forget about the remote control software for now and set up a partnership between the phone and the computer. Then try the software.

Kintarō Hattori

Hi Tom,

Well the computer and the phone do see each other, it is possible to send files between them, so what else would I need to do?
Your correct alright in saying it's the serial port profile I'm referring too. Looking at the very tiny trouble shooting element of the readme it says with the error I'm getting, I should make sure the serial port is enabled, so how do I do this?

Tom Dunne

Hmmmm, I'm doing this from memory, so it may not be fully accurate.

Try using the dongle software to set the phone up as a modem. This should force it to use the serial port profile, therefore enabling it.

From the PC, query the modem (in modem properties). This will prove they are talking via serial.

Then try your software.

Kintarō Hattori

Hmnn I did what you said and it set a new com port. When I started the plugin for Winamp with this my phone wanted to connect to it, which it didn't do before, but when I run the piece of software on the phone it just says that the number of connections was maxed out.

Tom Dunne

Hmmmm, there's a lot of Hmmmm'ing on this thread.

Sounds like there are still connections open - so, reboot the PC to make sure everything is clear, switch off bluetooth on the phone (might help to reset the phone also - take out the battery and put it back in). Start up the bluetooth connection again and re-try the software.

In my experience, if you don't do things in a very strict sequence, bluetooth can be very temperamental.

Zapho

Hey e0980, I actually use that same program control freak, and it works fine for me. Can you post a screenshot of the controlfreak config from the winamp preferences so I can see what settings you have? (I've it working on a 6630)

mr_angry

I used this before with an older Nokia, but I never got it working with the 6630. The "max connections" error refers to your phone, generally. Try to make sure that you don't have any other Bluetooth connections open, and don't have your PC and phone sync'd - that opens numerous connections.

Right enough, the "serial port" stuff refers to software stuff on your PC's bluetooth stack. It should be configurable in Bluetooth settings. After that, you need to specify which serial port you've opened in the CtrlFreak plugin settings in Winamp. After that, it should theoretically work, but like I said, I never got it to work with the 6630 myself.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks guys for all your help, it really is appreciated. I'll give it a go when I get home from work.

Kintarō Hattori

Zapho wrote:

Hey e0980, I actually use that same program control freak, and it works fine for me. Can you post a screenshot of the controlfreak config from the winamp preferences so I can see what settings you have? (I've it working on a 6630)

Hey Zapho, screenshot attached. Still can't figure this damn thing out! I wonder if it's my bluetooth dongle/software?

Zapho

Ok.....

Under the bluetooth adaptor check to see if the "microsoft" is there, I had better luck using that, but also got it working using the "installed other".

Once a free serial port is listed in that menu, it should work fine, the program
won't list it unless it works. (it should be listed in your devices list as a
"bluetooth communications port".)
Have you tried to update your dongle software?

Be sure you've paired your phone with your PC too manually (don't rely on
controlfreak to do it!). Once you can do that, it should work fine.



Here's my config. Its an older version than the one you're using.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks man, if I go with the Microsoft option it won't let me pick a com port at all, so my only option is 'other'. I've tried every com port it lets me choose and it doesn't work with any of them.

When I tried to connect the phone with the PC it wouldn't work and gave me the following error. I don't understand why. I can send and receive files, so why won't it let me establish the connection?

Zapho

The microsoft option doesn't use comm ports, as far as I can remember. That error is strange alright, seems more likely to be a problem with your bluetooth dongle than controlfreak. Can you borrow a different one of someone you know?