installing WIDCOMM & Bt for newbies: risks and benefits

[rjnagle]

Hi, I'm looking at the widcomm bluetooth stack for rom 12 for x51v. I'm looking for the ability to use a skype headset and possibly better performance on my BT keyboard. When I used a stereo headset with the regular bluetooth stack, I heard only intermittent sound.


but the 74 page thread is overwhelming, to say the least. http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=122247

Here are some basic questions:

What exactly do I need to install? Only BroadcomBluetoothStackX51V05?
Do I need to install BTSpeedSwitcher? FlowControl Hack?

With version .5, is the uninstall thing working ok?

What sort of HW/SW configurations wouldn't be compatible with this hack?

Will potential hw problems be immediately apparent? Or have some errors started to crop up after a period of time?

How do you know that something is not working? Bluetooth failures? What about other software or Wifi? When you have an error, what happens? Just an annoying message? a reset?

Thanks.

[rjnagle]

Is this a specific x51v hack? a specific axim hack? Or just a general hack for the bluetooth hardware?

rj

[Deigo]

I would like to know too.

[Mokubai]

What exactly do I need to install? Only BroadcomBluetoothStackX51V05?
Do I need to install BTSpeedSwitcher? FlowControl Hack?

I believe you need the BroadcomBluetoothStackX51V05 and FlowControl hack. The speed switcher was for stability which I think was fixed by the flowcontrol fix. The Flowcontrol fix gives greater bandwidth which makes the connection to A2DP devices more stable.

With version .5, is the uninstall thing working ok?

It worked for me, and none of your old MS bluetooth settings are erased so you'll simply be back to how it was before the installation.

What sort of HW/SW configurations wouldn't be compatible with this hack?

It would work for any device that uses the same Bluetooth chip as the X51, this includes the X50 and I've seen positive results from *some* HTC devices. The only way to find out would be to install it and if you get a "Low driver memory" error or something similar after a soft reset then it will not work.

In terms of connecting to bluetooth hardware and software then any software that worked with the MS stack should work with the Widcomm and vice versa. The only caveat I have seen is that with TomTom 6 you have to install TomTom before the Widcomm stack as it seems to overwrite something important to the Widcomm stack.

Will potential hw problems be immediately apparent? Or have some errors started to crop up after a period of time?

As above, I do not think that any other problems crop up, it either works or it doesn't.

How do you know that something is not working? Bluetooth failures? What about other software or Wifi? When you have an error, what happens? Just an annoying message? a reset?

Here is the thing, it depends what you are connecting your X51 to... the Widcomm stack is the most compatible out there and so should work with almost everything. I have only found the Widcomm stack to not work with my SE phone in one specific way, it will not show the phone as a BT Keyboard (which the MS Stack can).

It should not corrupt the Wifi.

Is this a specific x51v hack? a specific axim hack? Or just a general hack for the bluetooth hardware?

It is made specifically for the Axim, but *may* work with other devices. You have to try it and see, accepting that we have no control as to what it might do to your device. Enough have tested it to see i work on the X51 and WM5 upgraded X50 but no other devices are certain to work.

[rjnagle]

oh, crap, I followed the instructions, and then noticed something.

How do you install the registry hack? I can't find a how to anywhere?

Please tell me I don't need to install a special program to do this?

http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm
okay, total commander seems to be the preferred tool. but how do you insert/import the registry hack?

[rjnagle]

This is really frustrating.

Apparently, you're supposed to make a tweak in the registry setting. You're supposed to use a registry editor. So I installed the beta version of total commander. However, apparently you are supposed to install a registry editor plugin for total commander? and this registry editor plugin is nowhere to be found? and there are instructions nowhere about where to find it (except for here http://ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=10437 ).


And even if I do figure out how to install this editor plugin, I don't know how to use it and there will probably be no information anywhere about how to use it.

(I have done very light tweaks on the Windows registry, on my PC but I have no idea how to do it with a tool like Total Commander).

I installed widcomm successfully. But I am stuck at the flow control hack. Can anyone provide advice?

[rjnagle]

here's the hack as text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WIDCOMM\BTConfig\Seria lTransport]
"FlowControl"=dword:00000000

so I went to \\\registry\hklm\Software\WIDCOMM\BTConfig\SerialT ransport

what do I do now?
Click "add value"

then I am presented with a dialog with the following values:

name: () default
(field for name)
type: (string, dword, binary, multistring, expandable string)

then press OK:
(is there another dialog after that where you are actually editing the value?

I'm assuming that I need to enter 2 things.

1. (name + type) in the first dialog
2. cut and paste "FlowControl"=dword:00000000" in the second dialog.

Help, I'm almost there!

[ReneG77]

Until I read your post, I didn't realise there was this hack -.-' I installed the Widcomm stack and have the speed switcher. Everything worked so I didn't read the thread carefully :P Cmon, 74 pages? :P

Ok, make sure that you don't already have the registry value! I made that mistake and almost added it in. "SerialTransport" is kinda like a directory and FlowControl is kinda like a file within it. In my x51v, it already exists though the value is 1, not 0.

FlowControl is a DWORD value, so name = FlowControl and DWORD data = 0.

Save, power off and soft reset.

I haven't experienced any problems :)

[swissphoenix]

i used PHM Registry Editor for eding the registry

[rjnagle]

so all I have to do is edit Flow Control and change the Value from 1 (what it had before) to 0. ?

Could it be this simple?

[swissphoenix]

yes it is that simple :)

[ReneG77]

apparently so :)

I haven't had a chance to use my BT headphones thus far, not sure how this FlowControl affects it......

[BiGGieStuFF]

Wow this thread was a godsend. Couldn't get tomtom installed for the life of me with widcomm. Uninstalled widcomm and then reinstall tomtom and then reinstall widcomm and it works perfectly now. I love the fact i can listen to my music through my car stereo and i can still hear the directions through the spakers as well. This axim keeps impressing me the longer I have it.

music for home, car, working out, movies, internet, pda functionality, and now GPS. Talk about your do-it-all device.