Cirago Bluetooth BTA6210 v.2.1 EDR Class 1 Micro Bluetooth Adaper
by Cirago International (Direct)
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Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Cirago International (Direct)Format: CD
Platform: Windows
Model: BTA-6210
Color: Black Tip
Product features:
- The smallest Bluetooth in the market
- Bluetooth specification 2.1 EDR/v 1.2
- Bluetooth Class 1, range 330 feet
- Transfer files presentations, photos or music wirelessly
- Support for 802.11 Coexistence, Scatternet Support
- AmazonBasics RJ45 Cat5e Ethernet Patch Cable (14 Feet/4.2 Meters)
- AmazonBasics RJ45 Cat5e Ethernet Patch Cable (50 Feet/15.2 Meters)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Cirago Bluetooth BTA6210 v.2.1 EDR Class 1 Micro Bluetooth Adaper
Customer Review: Takes some effort to get it to work.
Summary: 4 Stars
Purchased this primarily so I could stream audio to a set of wireless outdoor speakers-- the built-in Bluetooth cards in two laptops didn't have the range needed so that I could use the speakers outdoors.
First off, I wasn't able to get anywhere near 330 feet. Maybe if you have unimpeded line of site, you'll get that far, but when the adapter was in my PC, I can get about 25 feet going through a single wall, and about 30 feet with line of site through a door. However, when a person broke the line of site, I lost the signal.
Some of this is probably affected by the receiver in addition to the adapter, but I only have the one receiver to test with (the Devotec Solar Sound 2), and frankly, that's what I specifically why I bought the adapter, so for my purposes, that's how I'm measuring performance.
I suspect that if I get a USB extension cable, and move the adapter so that it's higher off the ground, I might get a better signal, but I haven't had a chance to pick one up yet. Moving the adapter to various other USB ports or hubs did wind up with diminished performance, so I have to believe that placement will wind up getting better results.
Next, I had a lot of issues with the included Toshiba Bluetooth stack. Specifically, the Toshiba software saw that the Solar Sound 2 would act as both audio headphones and as a hands-free speakerphone-- they assume that you're going to use a smartphone for the audio source, so the speakerphone stuff is seen as an added benefit.
Unfortunately, this wound up being a negative-- the Toshiba stack always tried to default to sending the music to the speakerphone, rather than the audio headphones, which resulted in the music getting crushed down with additional compression, then converted down to mono.
When I tried to specify the audio headphone connection, 90% of the time, it would connect, then immediately disconnect. I spent a couple hours and tried multiple versions of the Toshiba Bluetooth stacks to fix this, and could never come up with a set of settings that would reliably work.
I tried the BlueSolei stack, and that appeared to correctly work, although it was less intuitive than the Toshiba stack. The BlueSolie software had a very nice feature of showing the signal strength between the adapter and the speaker, which was useful for determining the best position to place the adapter and receiver. However, the product was only a trial, and spending $28 to get a set of drivers for a $25 device irks me.
In the end, I dropped all the way back to the stock Bluetooth stack that came with Windows 7-- there are no frills with this (can't adjust the audio quality like I could with the Toshiba stack, can't see the signal strength like I could with BlueSolei), but it does have the advantage of just working. When I turn the speakers on, they automatically connect to the adapter, it automatically changes the default output device from my desktop speakers to the wireless speakers, and music starts playing. The Microsoft stack does correctly interpret the pause/play/next/back controls on the speakers, so I can control Winamp or Windows Media Player right from the speakers (Didn't work with iTunes, didn't put a lot of effort into making it work).
The biggest issue I have with the Microsoft stack is that if the music gets interrupted by a slow signal, it does buffer up what gets missed, and sends it out when it catches up. In other words, if you move the speakers and lose signal for 5 seconds, when it reconnects, what you hear is actually five seconds behind what is playing. So if you hit "next" on the speakers (or change the music directly on the PC), it takes 5 seconds for the change to catch up. This was rather confusing the first time it happened, and resulted in me hitting a lot of buttons and skipping around at random until I figured out what was happening. Bottom line, be patient when making changes. Or turn your Bluetooth device off and on again to catch up.
Overall, the thing does what it's supposed to do-- I get music from the computer to the back yard with no wires. I'd like to have more range, but I accept that Bluetooth wasn't designed to replace a small broadcast tower.
If you're looking at this for headphones in a small space, I think it would probably work great, as long as you don't get more than a room or so away from the adapter. If you are able to work out line of site, you can get more distance with no appreciable loss of audio quality, but realize that the further you get from it, the more likely you are to have the connection broken when someone walks between you and the adapter. Finally, note that depending on the stack that you use, you could wind up "on delay" if your connection gets interrupted.
If you're already using Windows 7, I'd suggest trying the stock Windows drivers *before* installing the drivers on the disk. Actually, when it comes to that, Toshiba already has newer drivers on their web site, so if the stock Microsoft stack doesn't work, just head to Toshiba directly and skip the included mini-CD.
Description of Cirago Bluetooth BTA6210 v.2.1 EDR Class 1 Micro Bluetooth Adaper
Cirago mini bluetooth adapter USB class 1 WIN MAC LNX EDR 300FTDigital Cameras & Photo Categories
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