400h Bluetooth Oddity

[NR4P]

Enjoying my new 400h but the Bluetooth operation when making a call is a bit odd.

When calling another party from the 400h, there's no audible "ringing" to know if the call is actually going through.

While that's muted, the muting doesn't turn off immediately when the other party answers. It takes a few seconds, sometimes 3 or 4 secs.

In other words, they might say Hello, hello , hello a few times and in some cases have hung up before I (as the driver calling) know they answered.

Is this a normal operation? Hopefully not and it can be corrected.

This is a system with Nav and ML.

(Phone is a GSM Razr and it works beautifully with Motorola Pro Install aftermarket Bluetooth car kits).

[JasonATL]

I don't have this problem with my Sprint PCS Treo 650 and 400h. I hear the ringing and there seems to be no significant delay in the callee hearing me.

[RolandB]

Enjoying my new 400h but the Bluetooth operation when making a call is a bit odd.

When calling another party from the 400h, there's no audible "ringing" to know if the call is actually going through.

While that's muted, the muting doesn't turn off immediately when the other party answers. It takes a few seconds, sometimes 3 or 4 secs.

In other words, they might say Hello, hello , hello a few times and in some cases have hung up before I (as the driver calling) know they answered.

Is this a normal operation? Hopefully not and it can be corrected.

This is a system with Nav and ML.

(Phone is a GSM Razr and it works beautifully with Motorola Pro Install aftermarket Bluetooth car kits).

This problem occurs when I place the call 'from the phone' itself. After the party answers, it takes a while to 'enter into a conversation' and it is just as you say... "hello, hello, hello" and sometimes the called party will hang up. I have a Motorola V551. If I place the call from the car's nav screen, I hear the ringing and the party answer... no problem!

[katzjamr]

yes i have the delay with my treo 650 and cingular service. the only remedy i have is i start talking before the call connects, so i start to say hello as it is dialing out. it must be a delay between the bluetooth of the phone and the in car system. i agree it is not there when placing calls directy from the nav screen. as far as i know it is 'normal'. my lexus dealer does have an 'electronics specialist' whose sole job is to answer and try to remedy some of these problems so perhaps your dealer has one too. this person does monitor this site so im sending a shout out to him.

[NR4P]

yes i have the delay with my treo 650 and cingular service. the only remedy i have is i start talking before the call connects, so i start to say hello as it is dialing out. it must be a delay between the bluetooth of the phone and the in car system. i agree it is not there when placing calls directy from the nav screen. as far as i know it is 'normal'. my lexus dealer does have an 'electronics specialist' whose sole job is to answer and try to remedy some of these problems so perhaps your dealer has one too. this person does monitor this site so im sending a shout out to him.

Thanks for the responses.

I confirmed that too. Specifically, dial from the phone or it's memory and there's a mute on ringing and delay on person at other end's audio coming through. So the person being called may say hello a few times before being heard.

Call from the on board Bluetooth memory or dial with 400h stopped it works fine.

That's definitely a "bug" in design. The vehicle supports the Bluetooth "Hands Free Profile" and this muting operation is not described in the profile. In fact, it makes one think the call isn't going through forcing you to take your eyes off the road. They probably tested this from dialing from the screen when stopped but never from the phones. In a recent former life, I was responsible for Motorola GSM phones with and without Bluetooth so this is not how the Bluetooth profile should work. Hope Lexus comes up with a s/w fix.

[resmer]

I experience another strange Bluetooth anomaly with my RX400h and Motorola RAZR phone - when you get a second call while on the phone through Bluetooth, answering the second call causes the first one to be lost. If you don't answer the second call, the first one works fine until the second caller hangs up (i.e. call waiting beeps stop) and then the first call hangs up.

I used to use a Motorola v510 and don't remember this ever happening - is this a Lexus problem, or something weird in the RAZR?

[katzjamr]

the second caller hangup issue used to also happen with the treo 650/cingular service. cingular came up with an update downloaded thru their online web site. since then the second call can be put on hold and the first call is not lost, so its my feeling it is a software problem on the phone end. Check the motorola web site or call their customer service and find someone with bluetooth knowledge to help you.

[NR4P]

the second caller hangup issue used to also happen with the treo 650/cingular service. cingular came up with an update downloaded thru their online web site. since then the second call can be put on hold and the first call is not lost, so its my feeling it is a software problem on the phone end. Check the motorola web site or call their customer service and find someone with bluetooth knowledge to help you.

Treo's being updated by a web site is one thing, Motorola is not possible. They are not upgradeable like a Treo. What was done to the Treo is probably a workaround for Treo's in general.

Like I stated earlier, I was responsible for Bluetooth phones, and know an awful alot about the Bluetooth operation and "profiles" that dictates how Bluetooth is an interoperable format.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lexus, I own two. But with the 400h Bluetooth operation, theres some problems. These things are unique to Lexus and not any other product by Motorola, Nokia, SonyEricsson, or even the Acura's with built in Bluetooth.

They don't have GSM or CDMA in Japan at the design center so they can't test all these variables. Hope they fix it soon. I will formally document the Bluetooth profile incompatibility as I have copies of the profile.

[katzjamr]

i just wanted to comment that the hanging up problem is in your motorola software.

[HyBruce]

I've got a 400h and a Razr, and have the same call waiting and "lag when dialing from handset" problems... plus one more!!

If I terminate a call with my cell phone instead of the Lexus buttons, then every call I make from that point on in my drive gets dropped after a few seconds and the Lexus says the call was dropped by the network. The only remedy? I have to turn off my car at a stoplight and restart it, then the phone works fine.

Glitchy, Glitchy!!

[stiksandstones]

I've got a 400h and a Razr, and have the same call waiting and "lag when dialing from handset" problems... plus one more!!

If I terminate a call with my cell phone instead of the Lexus buttons, then every call I make from that point on in my drive gets dropped after a few seconds and the Lexus says the call was dropped by the network. The only remedy? I have to turn off my car at a stoplight and restart it, then the phone works fine.

Glitchy, Glitchy!!

rx400h and sprint samsung a900 phone here, just sucks.

We had a sprint LG crappy bluetooth phone, as it was only BT option at time, worked great, but was a horrible phone, when the 10million dollar samsung phone came out, we got one-it does not work well with our car.

My main issue is, if the BT is connected and I answer a call from the phone-like, if I want to talk in private NOT on cars bluetooth, car overrides it and you can hear conversation on cars speakers-this is not good with clients in car, listening to conversation...so I just dont use BT anymore.....plus the battery life is awful on this phone with BT.

[skyfish400h]

My main issue is, if the BT is connected and I answer a call from the phone-like, if I want to talk in private NOT on cars bluetooth, car overrides it and you can hear conversation on cars speakers-this is not good with clients in car, listening to conversation...so I just dont use BT anymore.....plus the battery life is awful on this phone with BT.

Yeah, this can be a problem if you want to talk in private. It's just the way BT was set up and flows from the notion that this would normally be a earbud picking up the phone call, not a speaker phone.

One way around this and to have more control over the BT operation is to make a shortcut on you main menu that goes to turning the BT on/off. Maybe even dedicating one of your hardware buttons to the task (this assumes you phone can be customized this way, all 3 of my Motorola phones have had this abilty).

That way you can easily turn BT on if you want to use the car's hands free feature, and otherwise leave it off for privacy and batt life.

Hope this helps.

[stiksandstones]

My main issue is, if the BT is connected and I answer a call from the phone-like, if I want to talk in private NOT on cars bluetooth, car overrides it and you can hear conversation on cars speakers-this is not good with clients in car, listening to conversation...so I just dont use BT anymore.....plus the battery life is awful on this phone with BT.

Yeah, this can be a problem if you want to talk in private. It's just the way BT was set up and flows from the notion that this would normally be a earbud picking up the phone call, not a speaker phone.

One way around this and to have more control over the BT operation is to make a shortcut on you main menu that goes to turning the BT on/off. Maybe even dedicating one of your hardware buttons to the task (this assumes you phone can be customized this way, all 3 of my Motorola phones have had this abilty).

That way you can easily turn BT on if you want to use the car's hands free feature, and otherwise leave it off for privacy and batt life.

Hope this helps.

Ya, but I do not think its a BT feature, my crappy LG sprint BT phone would go to phone only operation when I answered a call from phone, when I do this on the samsung, it does not matter-as long as BT is enabled it will always come through car speakers.

[jerryray]

Take your phone to Verizon, or whatever carrier you use, Motorola has had recent firmware fixes for bluetooth problems.

I've got a 400h and a Razr, and have the same call waiting and "lag when dialing from handset" problems... plus one more!!

If I terminate a call with my cell phone instead of the Lexus buttons, then every call I make from that point on in my drive gets dropped after a few seconds and the Lexus says the call was dropped by the network. The only remedy? I have to turn off my car at a stoplight and restart it, then the phone works fine.

Glitchy, Glitchy!!