Blue Tooth Transmitter - Two Problems

[DWD1961]

I want to broadcast music from my old desktop to a Blue Tooth enabled amplifier.

I just got this combo transmitter/receiver BT dongle from Amazon today . It has no drivers or software, and connections are automatic. The way it works is that there are no settings, no drivers, nothing. The second you plug it in, it connects to the first device available. Since I only have one device enabled, which is the BT amp, the USB BT transmitter dongle immediately connects to it.

I have no idea what I would have to do if I had several receivers on at the same time. I guess I'd have to shut them all off and only turn on the one I wanted the transmitter dongle to connect to?

PROBLEM 01: How can I get more control over how I connect to a device than just plugging it in a it automatically connecting to the first device it sees? By more control, I mean like as in Windows you can see the devices you want to connect to or disconnect with. Is there any option to add Bluetooth transmission to a desktop with that kind of control when it isn't built into the MB itself (like it is with laptops)?

I'm assuming I could buy a card and then Windows would pick that up as a device and I'd have full control over connections with the driver supplied?

Problem 02: Using the dongle to transmit to my amp, the volume is REALLY loud. I have my amp set to 50% power. Using my laptop and built in Bluetooth, I have full control over the volume with good range. Using the Dongle, and the amp at the same volume,.I can only turn up the laptop volume or the dongle volume to 1 or 2 before it is far too loud. Why this discrepancy in volume between built in BT and the dongle? The problem is, you don't wantto drive volume like that through an amp. You want the amp volume where it is most efficient with S&N ratios and THD. So, I don;t want to turn the amp down to 10% just to accommodate the dongle volume loudness. It's like the added a preampto teh dongle and turned it up to 10, 000.

 

[DWD1961]

re problem no 1 : this is probably related to the particular dongle you have - that said when bluetooth is enabled in windows there are lots of controls under control panel (try right clicking the icon in the system tray)

Re problem no 2: this is probably in the audio settings - there'll be a bluetooth audio device which has a volume control

I'll check again, but I was seeing nothing, not even in devices. For instance, when I chose "Show Bluetoooth Devices" from the sys tray, that dongle was invisible.

I'll have a closer look tomorrow.

 

[DWD1961]

re problem no 1 : this is probably related to the particular dongle you have - that said when bluetooth is enabled in windows there are lots of controls under control panel (try right clicking the icon in the system tray)

Re problem no 2: this is probably in the audio settings - there'll be a bluetooth audio device which has a volume control

Sure, there is a setting and it shows the name of the Bluetooth Dongle. But it's set at 2+ and is already too loud. My only option is to turn down the amp. It's strange. I can tell my audio program to use the dongle, then in the volume mixer I can see my player listed and turn it down the music player volume. I still have to turn it down to +2 in the sound mixer panel of Windows, though. But then I have a lot more latitude to fine tune the volume in the player itself using the player volume


SEE IMAGE
The left volume is from the music player itself. In the mixer panel, the left volume is the Dongle, and third from the right is the music player volume control. The main volume in the mixer panel is set to 22, the Music Player volume on the far right is set to +2. If the amp power is set to 50%, then I cannot increase the music player mixer volume control over +2 or I don't get enough fine volume control in the player to turn it down enough.

PLAYER VOLUME IS HERE-----------------+16 lvl |--------------------Dongle Volume is "Speakers" lvl +22-----------------------Music playeris the Bee set at lvl +2

The only thing I can do to get more granular volume control is set the speaker/dongle volume to about +12, leave the Bee volume at +2, and then the volume control inside the music player has enough latitude to adjust the volume.That's a lot of volume controlling just to get the volume down enough or to have some control over it. I'm just wondering why it is so loud in the first place? Is it just device variance of some sort?

 

[DWD1961]

Do you have this problem with other devices connecting to the bluetooth speaker?

I haven't tried any others.

Now that you bring that up, LOL, yes, my phone broadcast VERY loud and I have to turn it down to +1, AND turn down the amp. What causes those discrepancies in volume between devices?

One main problem is that this BT dongle is a dumb dongle as far as I can;t tell it when to connect or with what device. There is no control over its connections. If there is a device, like my Bluetooth amp, that just broadcasts BT, then this dongle just connects, period, no pairing or anything. I suppose people living next to me (duplex) could have a BT receiver broadcasting, like speakers, and my dongle would auto connect to it if they didn't have anything connected to it first.

How would I go about getting any BT dongle to actually show up in devices in Windows 10 and ask permission to connect with a device through software? Or s this normal for BT transmitters?

I guess my question is how do I get control over a BT device that isn't embedded in the MB? I was actually expecting Windows 10 to pick it up and ask if I want to use the onboaard chip or the 3rd party dongle, like if you plug in a USB wifi adapter and then windows lets you choose which one you want to connect with.

 

[DWD1961]

Heh who would have thought google and Microsoft would help with this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/4028396/windows-10-how-to-find-bluetooth-settings

No, man. This device works when Windows 10 BT is set to OFF. That's the problem. Windows doesn't recognize it as anything. You just plug it in and it connects to your device, and then that's it. No settings, no device in device manager, nothing. When you usually plug anything into your Win10 computer, it loads a driver, and then it knows something is connected. This thing doesn't notify Windows that it is being plugged in.

 

[DWD1961]

ok - in that case, buy another dongle, tplink have some inexpensive ones that just work..

I also noticed last night when testing it that the lip sync was off. Using my old 2013 laptop's built in BT, the sync is perfect. I'm sending this back today.