[rahsan]

After recently upgrading to Belle, I installed Nokia Car Mode because it is what I had been looking forward to the most. However it simply disconnects the Bluetooth connection to my car's audio system a few seconds (maybe 5 seconds) after I enter the Music module.

Steps to recreate:

1. Start car (1999 BMW M3 running DICE Mediabridge 1500 connected to CD43 head-unit). Car's Bluetooth mode is on and car is discoverable.
2. Launch Nokia Car Mode on Nokia N8
3. Pair phone with car using the Bluetooth pairing button on the launch screen. Pairing is successful so continue by pressing the Start Car Mode button.
4. Press on the Music button to enter the Music module. Music attempts to start playing automatically. The display on the head-unit says "PLAYING", but no sound from the speakers and then the BT connection ends in about 5 seconds.

Thinking that perhaps my old BT pairing info might be saved/corrupted and not usable with the new Belle firmware, I performed a complete reset and re-installed Belle using a tool whose named I should not mention, but no luck even with a pristine build.

If I uninstall Car Mode from my phone, I can connect to my car and play music just fine. If you have navigation running simultaneously, the navigation prompts get routed through the car audio by virtue of the music player's streaming. However as soon as I re-install Car Mode, the same problem begins and remains until I uninstall it again. (If you don't uninstall Car Mode from your phone, it will launch itself automatically when it detects a BT connection with a car using the relevant BT profile.)

Here's another observation: During the 5 seconds that the phone has not yet disconnected, the Music Player's progress bar moves at a rate of about 1 second forward for every 5 seconds elapsed. So it is as if Car Mode introduces a performance issue to the playback.

So now I am living with the way things were in the Anna days: I can play music and navigation audio through my car just fine, but I really wish I had the extreme convenience that Nokia Car Mode provides (when it works as designed).

[quackking]

I just installed Car Mode on my Belle-equipped N8. I have two serious complaints (not sure if this is the best place to post, but here goes

a) (Really inconvenient!) My speed dials DONT WORK! If I press and hold "2" in regular mode, I speed-dial home. In Car Mode, I just see the "2" appear, and it keeps beeping the longer I hold it! There does not appear to be a way to use speed-dial in Car Mode, which is a #FAIL (in my opinion.) You ought to be able to somehow configure this.

b) I love Internet Radio. When you select Music, you go right into the music player and can never select Internet Radio. You ought to be able to add other audio applications to the Music button.

Thanks for listening!

[rahsan]

Update: This happens in the Music module, but not the Phone Call module. If I dial a call, no disconnection occurs (I stayed on the line for a long time to make sure)

[aspergerguy]

@rahsan

When you walk away from your vehicle does CarMode shut down or remain open in the background until you terminate the application upon your N8?

[rahsan]

It remains open.

I am beginning to think this is a problem with the Dice Mediabridge product, since it seems like I truly am the only one with this issue. Every other user of the Car Mode app on the N8 is overjoyed with it.

[rahsan]

Update: It is not a Dice Mediabridge issue in the sense that the similar "Car Home" app on a Samsung (Google) Nexus S (runs Android) was able to connect and work just fine via Bluetooth.
Perhaps Nokia's Car Mode app has a quirk in the BT profile it uses.
If I seem obsessed with this problem, I am :-)

[rahsan · Accepted solution]

Seems like this behaviour was fixed in the latest version of Nokia Car Mode.