Friday, March 29, 2002
Anycom Bluetooth CompactFlash Card Review
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 02:21 PM
Anycom Bluetooth CompactFlash Card Review
Bluetooth frustrations are not mitigated by nice packaging
I received one of these cards yesterday, so I'm going to do a new type of review - a "stream of consciousness" review where I type this post as I'm setting up the card and using it. This might be a colossal failure, or it may usher in a whole new world of online reviews. ;-)
Device Requirements
It will work in any Pocket PC that accepts Type 1 CompactFlash cards.
In Brief
Either I'm doing something wrong, or Bluetooth is a very immature technology that is difficult to understand and implement. The Anycom Bluetooth card showed much promise in the beginning, but it quickly became my arch nemesis.
Where to Buy
The card can be purchased online from Anycom for $159 US.
Getting Started
Packaging was nice, although there's no mention of XP on the box. The manuals are entitled "Windows 98 User Guide" and "Windows 2000 User Guide". What does Joe user who has XP do? He gets confused and calls tech support for help, which costs Anycom money. Solution: put a card in the box that says "Hey XP users, you can use the Windows 2000 User Guide without any problems". Problem solved!
Next up, we plug the card into the PC card adaptor they provide (nice touch Anycom!) and plug into my XP Pro laptop. Driver disk goes in, and I’m prompted to select from a list of four drivers – all four are nearly identical, and none are digitally signed for XP. Another phone call to tech support from Joe User. After the driver install, Windows XP tells me that the device is ready to use. Here we go!
Wherefor Art Thou Bluetooth?
I’ve sent my iPAQ 3870 searching for Bluetooth device in the area…none found. Not a good sign! Back to the instruction book – ah yes, I have to install the Bluetooth software. Unlike 802.11b, XP doesn’t have built-in support for Bluetooth so the card can’t chatter to the OS until I install it. The software tells me that I now have COM4 through COM7 as “virtual serial ports” – cool, but why emulate such retro technology? Next it asks me if I want to install “RedMon redirection port monitor”. I can’t find any mention of this software in the instruction book, and the software install doesn’t give me any explanation as to what this software does. Being the over-eager computer user that I am, I’ll install it.
The Readme file is next, and curiously the default radio button is set to know. I read it anyway, and discover that ActiveSync doesn’t work via Bluetooth on Windows 9x, the client sometimes fails to discover the server, some legacy applications can’t see the virtual COM ports, and only one process at a time may use the Bluetooth stack. Ah, the joys of using 1st generation technology. Pet peeve: applications that ask me to restart my PC. More often than not, it’s not necessary under 2000/XP, but the app assumes I’m running 9x and reboots anyway.
The Lumps of Learning
Bluetooth is a technology I have basically no experience with, so this is quite interesting for me – I have no basis of knowledge as to how this is supposed to work. On the laptop with the Anycom card, I started up the wizard and selected “Pairing”. Seems like a logical choice to connect to my iPAQ. It goes into a mode where it’s waiting for “incoming pairing requests”. On the iPAQ, I’ve found the Anycom card, and I’m requesting a list of services from the Anycom card. Now back on the laptop it asks me to enter the PIN code to connect to the iPAQ – I’ve never set a PIN code on the iPAQ. Then the iPAQ asks for the PIN code of the Anycom card – ditto, I haven’t created one. I enter a number for both, and while the iPAQ says it failed to create a connection, the laptop reports a successful bonding with the iPAQ. But what does that mean exactly?
Let’s try something different – I want to have my iPAQ connect to my laptop via Bluetooth and get a ‘net connection over the 802.11b card my laptop has. My first attempt at using the LAN Access wizard didn’t work very well – the iPAQ is reporting there are no devices in the area to connect with. I’ve double-checked that the Bluetooth card is in discoverable mode, so it should work. Playing a hunch, I eject the 802.11b card and try searching again from the iPAQ – no dice, they still can’t see each other. The Anycom card has a light on the top, but it never seems to come on at all – that’s a bit disconcerting.
After some more fiddling, I can get the Anycom card to see the iPAQ, and even make a bond with it. I’m trying to get the LAN associated on COM5 with the iPAQ – I can discover it (twice, with a different service – “OBEX File Transfer” and “Serial Port”). Curiously, I can select the device, but NEXT is greyed out – I can’t proceed. Ah yes, this function must be to connect the Anycom card to a Bluetooth LAN Access Point. Why doesn’t this wizard have an explanation of what each function is?
Ok, here we are three hours later, and after much fiddling and manual reading, and I can’t seem to get anything to work properly. The Anycom card can see the iPAQ, but the iPAQ can no longer see the Anycom card. I don't think the Anycom card is at fault, but I can't be sure. I'll try using the Anycom card in my Jornada to see if I can get the two Pocket PCs to talk to each other and perhaps do a second part to this article.
Conclusion
The bottom line for me here is that if Bluetooth wants to be taken seriously, it needs to make more sense. There should be a more involved setup wizard, something that asks the user what they want to do. The Bluetooth wizard should communicate what is possible, not just give a few icons. And above all, Bluetooth should work - that seems to be it's biggest hurdle at the moment.
I'm very much open to hearing from other Anycom Bluetooth CF users who have gotten it to work and can give me some suggestions and things to try. I'm used to succeeding with technology on the first try, so perhaps I'm spoiled! :-)
Bluetooth frustrations are not mitigated by nice packaging
I received one of these cards yesterday, so I'm going to do a new type of review - a "stream of consciousness" review where I type this post as I'm setting up the card and using it. This might be a colossal failure, or it may usher in a whole new world of online reviews. ;-)
Device Requirements
It will work in any Pocket PC that accepts Type 1 CompactFlash cards.
In Brief
Either I'm doing something wrong, or Bluetooth is a very immature technology that is difficult to understand and implement. The Anycom Bluetooth card showed much promise in the beginning, but it quickly became my arch nemesis.
Where to Buy
The card can be purchased online from Anycom for $159 US.
Getting Started
Packaging was nice, although there's no mention of XP on the box. The manuals are entitled "Windows 98 User Guide" and "Windows 2000 User Guide". What does Joe user who has XP do? He gets confused and calls tech support for help, which costs Anycom money. Solution: put a card in the box that says "Hey XP users, you can use the Windows 2000 User Guide without any problems". Problem solved!
Next up, we plug the card into the PC card adaptor they provide (nice touch Anycom!) and plug into my XP Pro laptop. Driver disk goes in, and I’m prompted to select from a list of four drivers – all four are nearly identical, and none are digitally signed for XP. Another phone call to tech support from Joe User. After the driver install, Windows XP tells me that the device is ready to use. Here we go!
Wherefor Art Thou Bluetooth?
I’ve sent my iPAQ 3870 searching for Bluetooth device in the area…none found. Not a good sign! Back to the instruction book – ah yes, I have to install the Bluetooth software. Unlike 802.11b, XP doesn’t have built-in support for Bluetooth so the card can’t chatter to the OS until I install it. The software tells me that I now have COM4 through COM7 as “virtual serial ports” – cool, but why emulate such retro technology? Next it asks me if I want to install “RedMon redirection port monitor”. I can’t find any mention of this software in the instruction book, and the software install doesn’t give me any explanation as to what this software does. Being the over-eager computer user that I am, I’ll install it.
The Readme file is next, and curiously the default radio button is set to know. I read it anyway, and discover that ActiveSync doesn’t work via Bluetooth on Windows 9x, the client sometimes fails to discover the server, some legacy applications can’t see the virtual COM ports, and only one process at a time may use the Bluetooth stack. Ah, the joys of using 1st generation technology. Pet peeve: applications that ask me to restart my PC. More often than not, it’s not necessary under 2000/XP, but the app assumes I’m running 9x and reboots anyway.
The Lumps of Learning
Bluetooth is a technology I have basically no experience with, so this is quite interesting for me – I have no basis of knowledge as to how this is supposed to work. On the laptop with the Anycom card, I started up the wizard and selected “Pairing”. Seems like a logical choice to connect to my iPAQ. It goes into a mode where it’s waiting for “incoming pairing requests”. On the iPAQ, I’ve found the Anycom card, and I’m requesting a list of services from the Anycom card. Now back on the laptop it asks me to enter the PIN code to connect to the iPAQ – I’ve never set a PIN code on the iPAQ. Then the iPAQ asks for the PIN code of the Anycom card – ditto, I haven’t created one. I enter a number for both, and while the iPAQ says it failed to create a connection, the laptop reports a successful bonding with the iPAQ. But what does that mean exactly?
Let’s try something different – I want to have my iPAQ connect to my laptop via Bluetooth and get a ‘net connection over the 802.11b card my laptop has. My first attempt at using the LAN Access wizard didn’t work very well – the iPAQ is reporting there are no devices in the area to connect with. I’ve double-checked that the Bluetooth card is in discoverable mode, so it should work. Playing a hunch, I eject the 802.11b card and try searching again from the iPAQ – no dice, they still can’t see each other. The Anycom card has a light on the top, but it never seems to come on at all – that’s a bit disconcerting.
After some more fiddling, I can get the Anycom card to see the iPAQ, and even make a bond with it. I’m trying to get the LAN associated on COM5 with the iPAQ – I can discover it (twice, with a different service – “OBEX File Transfer” and “Serial Port”). Curiously, I can select the device, but NEXT is greyed out – I can’t proceed. Ah yes, this function must be to connect the Anycom card to a Bluetooth LAN Access Point. Why doesn’t this wizard have an explanation of what each function is?
Ok, here we are three hours later, and after much fiddling and manual reading, and I can’t seem to get anything to work properly. The Anycom card can see the iPAQ, but the iPAQ can no longer see the Anycom card. I don't think the Anycom card is at fault, but I can't be sure. I'll try using the Anycom card in my Jornada to see if I can get the two Pocket PCs to talk to each other and perhaps do a second part to this article.
Conclusion
The bottom line for me here is that if Bluetooth wants to be taken seriously, it needs to make more sense. There should be a more involved setup wizard, something that asks the user what they want to do. The Bluetooth wizard should communicate what is possible, not just give a few icons. And above all, Bluetooth should work - that seems to be it's biggest hurdle at the moment.
I'm very much open to hearing from other Anycom Bluetooth CF users who have gotten it to work and can give me some suggestions and things to try. I'm used to succeeding with technology on the first try, so perhaps I'm spoiled! :-)
