# [SOLVED] Two bluetooth receivers for two devices - possible?

## shlape

I have a Vostro 1710 laptop and found the inbuilt bluetooth module just didn't work so well with my Sony bluetooth headphones.

I also use a Dell bluetooth mouse which seemed to occasionally cause the headphones to cut out when I'd move the mouse.

Having bought a (supposedly) long range bluetooth dongle, I found I can wander away from the PC and still listen to music without too many dramas,

but the mouse problem still exists. I've had to pair the headset and mouse to the new dongle because I don't know how (or if it's possible) to

pair the headset to the dongle and the mouse to the inbuilt bluetooth module within the laptop.

If this is possible can you steer me in the right direction regarding how to set this up?Last edited by shlape on Mon Feb 08, 2010 7:00 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Voltago

This is possible, and quite easy using the command line (don't know about how GUI apps are set up to handle this). First, make sure that net-wireless/bluez is built with the test-program USE flag. Now plug in both adapters. Calling

```
hciconfig
```

should bring up hci0 and hci1. Now, set one of your bluetooth devices to 'pairing mode', and run

```
hcitool scan hci0
```

Your device should be listed. Now, taking care that the device is still in pairing mode, run

```
simple-agent hciX 00:02:78:DC:CD:9B
```

to couple the device to hciX (where X from {0,1}).

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## shlape

 *Voltago wrote:*   

> This is possible, and quite easy using the command line (don't know about how GUI apps are set up to handle this). First, make sure that net-wireless/bluez is built with the test-program USE flag. Now plug in both adapters. Calling
> 
> ```
> hciconfig
> ```
> ...

 

Sorry but this just doesn't seem to work for me. To try this I had to upgrade to bluez-4 which I've been reluctant to do

The following happened when trying what Voltago suggested.

 *Quote:*   

> Scanning ...
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
> 
>   File "/usr/bin/simple-agent", line 84, in <module>
> ...

 

Having reinstalled bluez-utils & blues-libs again, I did find a work around to the problem. Although somewhat fiddly, it does work.

I made 2 start up python scripts based on python code here, for my BT mouse and here, for the BT headset.

On my laptop I have an inbuilt BT adapter activated by switch, the other is a BT dongle. I have managed to pair the BT mouse in such a way that, even when turned off and turned back on, it will pair automatically. The headset doesn't work that way. The python script to pair the mouse only needs to be run once whereas the python script for the headset needs to be run each time I want to use it.

These are the fiddly steps I take:

1) switch off the laptop BT adapter (which is used just for the BT mouse)

2) plug in the BT dongle (which I use just for the headset)

3) put BT headset into pairing mode

4) run headset python script

pairing then successfully completes.

Getting the mouse to pair up again is just a matter of flicking on the laptop's BT switch.

This is the best work-around I could think of after trial and error. Bluez-4 just doesn't want to play nicely so I'll stick with v3 for a bit longer.

Thanks Voltago for your suggestion.

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