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HCB-30 Bluetooth Car Kit

8 replies · 8,735 views · Started 02 April 2003

Hi all,

I've just installed the HCB-30 bluetooth car kit in my car, but I'm having a little trouble getting it running smoothly with my P800. If anyone's got some experience of using these two together, I'd very much appreciate your help...

When I'm not in a call, but the car kit is within range of the phone, the manual says that the LED on the kit's small control panel should be lit either green (if the network coverage is OK), or red (if it isn't). However, my LED doesn't light when I'm not in a call, and nor does the phone display an active bluetooth connection until I make or receive a call.

Incoming calls seem to work OK, but outgoing calls are a pain - I have to press the 'off hook' button once, which then makes the led flash red for a few seconds (while the car kit connects to the phone), and then go green (indicating an OK bluetooth connection). If I then press and hold the button again, I can then usually get the voice prompt and make a call. If I don't press the button a second time, the LED goes out after about 10 seconds, and the bluetooth connection to the phone is dropped.

Is this what's supposed to happen, or is the car kit supposed to maintain a connection to the phone whenever it's in range, and hence the LED should stay on to indicate the network status?

Many thanks,

Chris.

Had mine fitted yesterday and stuck how to make it even 'pair' with my P800 so any help would be appreciated. I have got the additional 'Advanced Music Mute' installed as well!

This is very much on my shopping list so id be interested on how it works...

Have you got the p8 set to ON for bluetooth, not Auto ?

Hi guys,

Well, I got an answer to my question:

http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4765

plymouthred, you may want to try the following, which works for me:
- Make sure the key's in the ignition, so that the keys light up blue.
- Press and hold both the off hook and on hook buttons together until you hear a beep. The LED should start flashing between red and green.
- Press these two buttons together for a second time, until you hear another tuneful series of beeps. The car-kit has now been reset. Any existing pairings have been erased.
- If the LED isn't already flashing between red and green, press the off hook and on hook buttons together until you get a beep and the LED starts flashing red/green.
- On your P800, go to your bluetooth settings. (Control panel, connections, bluetooth.)
- On the settings tab, make sure operation mode is set to 'on'.
- On the devices tab, if the car kit is already listed (probably as HCB-30), click on it and select remove.
- Click on Add. When the car kit appears in the list (HCB-30), click on it. (If it doesn't appear, check the LED is still flashing on the car kit. If not, press and hold the buttons again!)
- When asked for the security code, enter 0000 (zeros). The phone and car kit should now pair together. The LED on the car kit should stop flashing red/green.

Having done this, incoming calls should ring the phone in the normal way, but the car kit should also ring. (The phone will play your normal ringtone, while the car kit will produce a traditional ringing sound.) You can answer the call by pressing the off hook button on the car kit.

To make an outgoing call, press the off hook button until you hear a single beep, then release it. You should then hear two further beeps, after which you can speak a name for the phone to recognise using voice dialling. (You'll need to have set up voice dialling before this works.)

Let me know how you get on with the above... Hopefully it'll work for you!

Also, note that in contradiction to the manual, when used with a P800 the red/green LED doesn't light unless you're in a call.

Andy_P, it works very well! The above should give you an idea of how to make and receive calls. You can also control the volume of the audio during a call, and the ringer volume. You can't control the microphone sensitivity, but it seems to get it right anyway!

I find the kit works well when I'm driving at relatively low speeds. Unfortunately, my car is quite noisy when travelling over 50mph, and this noise does get picked up by the microphone, making it fairly hard for the person at the other end to tell what I'm saying. To be fair though, I have similar problems when using a normal handsfree, although possibly not quite to the same extent. I discovered that the problem does get much better if the microphone isn't stuck to the car chassis, but instead is left dangling in mid air from its lead. I guess the mic is sensitive to vibration.

As for the contents of the basic kit, it has a mic, speaker, mini control panel with 5 buttons (answer, hang-up, vol+, vol- and mute), and a black box. It connects to power. ground and the car's 'accessories' line, so it powers up when you put the key in the ignition. It stays powered up for an hour after you remove the key, so you can continue your conversation after parking if you want. (You can also switch it off manually when you remove the key if you prefer.) The P800 also allows you to transfer audio between the phone and car kit during a call.

The basic kit has a wire that can be connected to your car radio to mute the radio (if it supports it) when a call is made or received. However, the basic kit uses the supplied speaker for the call audio - it does NOT come through the car's existing speakers. To do this, you need to also purchase the 'Advanced Music Mute', which is rather poorly named, as it doesn't change the way the mute works, but instead it connects between the car radio and your car's speakers to allow the phone audio to come through the car's speakers, so the speaker included with the basic kit doesn't need to be installed. (This is how I've done it.) The radio can either be on or off - it doesn't matter.

You can register up to 5 phones with the kit at once (although obviously you can only use it with one phone at any one time). I've not tried this, but I guess it may be useful to someone?!!

Overall, I'm happy with mine. Now I've figured out that to make a call I should only press the button until I hear the first beep, it all works quite nicely. It's not exactly cheap, but it does work well. If you're not put off by the price, I can certainly recommend it.

If you've got any further questions, just ask!

Cheers,

Chris.

Can you possibly post pictures of your setup now?
Particularly these items below:
HCB-30 Kit Content
Electronics box
Microphone
Control panel
Standard music mute
Power cables

Does the kit also come with a P800 holder?

ChrisDeighton

Chris thank you for your detailed explanation on how to get the kit to sync with the P800. Works fine now however I get the same problem as you (ie no green light and have to hold the call button for a long while - 3 bleeps before I can voice call). This minor problem aside the audio quality is superb with the advanced kit fitted.

Muzikfreakah

Electronics box
Microphone
Control panel
Standard music mute
Power cables

I had mine fitted by the company whom I purchased my car off. The only thing you see externally is the microphone which is very tiny and on my car fits just above the mirror. You cannot even see it to be honest.

The control panel is also small and lights up an illuminous blue and to be honest doesn't look out of place at all in the car. Rather nice 😊

No holder is supplied with the kit. One has recently become available to purchase though and that is the HCH-32.

Would recommend you get the Advanced Music Mute as the speaker supplied is an ugly creature 😊

Andy_P

Recommended fully 😊

How to use Magic Word with HCB-30 ?+

I have bonded it an it works all fine, but my phone dosn't switch to handsfree ? ? Please help Me, The manual also says that, I should record my voice dials in the car but I can't do that eiether ? ?

Any suggestions ???

To be honest I don't use the Magic Word at all with my phone when in the car.

All the settings you need are in PHONE > PREFERENCES to set it to work.

Are you pressing the button on the dashboard (above the + sign) to accept incoming and to activate your voice dialing? I know this may seem like 'teaching you to suck eggs' but it took me a while to get used to using the phone in the car...............

As for voice dialing, just record them as normal to your phone and the car microphone will pick them up no problems if you follow the procedure above.

Hope that helps?

Cool, thanks, ill try that, when i get off work. I don't have to use M word then, but i can just say the name