Originally Posted by rcompart
This is a PM I got yesterday. This is by no means threadjacking so anyone and everyone, bring your ideas to the table.
That being said, I've done bluetooth remote start/unlock and they realyl aren't all they are cracked up to be. Toshiba did a kit for all of about a month for this. A demo unit it made it to my shop, was buggy as can be and had a laptop connected to it about every day to update something that the last update messed with or to fix missing functionality. Bluetooth on a good day has a range of about 30-40 feet line of sight. The problem with using it is the protocal you'd use to make it work. The toshiba unit made the phone think it was a headset and you "dialed" your car to start or unlock. Problem with this is some phones don't send the DTMF tones through the headset until after you initiate a call so no go there. Needless to say, it's been 5 years since Iv'e worked with it and I've never seen another company make one so you know it's probably not gonna be back anytime soon.
Actually, where I was going with that... was yes, they have to be paired... but the car would show up as a computer, NOT a headset... basically, the presence of the phone nearby would "log you in" and the java app would allow you to activate functions in the car... since many of the phones that have bluetooth are able to use Java, AND connect, sync etc with computers... this should be a lot easier than 5 years ago... the package for debian is blueproximity this will work for all POSIX based operating systems... here is a link for the project
http://sourceforge.net/projects/blueproximity/ also, the idea for doing this actually came from this package and after seeing the LinuxMCE and Mythbuntu... both of which can use a bluetooth enabled phone as a remote control for a home PC based media center (kinda like windows media center edition on steroids)
EDIT : just wanted to bring up one other point about bluetooth... the class normally seen in phones and standard phone headsets is Class 1 this has a range of up to 10 meters yes, this can be an issue if you are wanting to be a distance away...class 2 is good for 100 meters, and will make a class 1 device work better at it's fringe distances, perhaps even making it a bit over it's normal range. I have recently ordered a few class 2 micro bluetooth dongles for my systems here, and my laptop. talking on a headset I get a bit further on them than I can my phone line of sight... Oh, and class three... range is up to a kilometer 1000 Meters...
did a search for bluetooth class 2 dongle on ebay, and saw one for like 3 bucks... I paid 7.31 shipped for mine and am happy with them...