Originating Author: G Berton Latamore
Virtually every handheld sold in the last five years has Bluetooth wireless technology built in. Bluetooth is a low-power wireless technology used to interconnect mobile computers including laptops and smartphones with peripherals over short distances, creating a “personal area network” (PAN). The most familiar Bluetooth application is the wireless headset for cell phones. Other common Bluetooth peripherals include wireless stereo headsets, keyboards, computer mice, and modems for connecting a handheld to a dial-up network. You also can use Bluetooth to communicate with another handheld, smartphone, or laptop. Note that Bluetooth normally can only support one connection at a time, so you cannot create a conference among several devices using it.
Wireless connectivity can be very convenient. However, before you can use a wireless peripheral with your PDA, in this case a Palm Tungsten T3, you need to mate the two devices. This is not hard but does require several steps. The method varies from device to device, but if you understand how it is done with one device you can usually figure out how to do it with another. The basic procedure (based on my Palm T3) is:
- Turn on both devices to be linked.
- Go to your PDA's home page: On a Palm handheld tap the home icon in the bottom left corner of your display. This takes you to display of icons for each application on your device.
- Move to the “System” page: On a Palm handheld at the top right corner of the display you will see the name of the page with a down arrowhead next to it. Tap this to open a pull-down menu with the names of the pages of icons. Tap “System”.
- Open the “Prefs” menu: You now should see a page with several icons with names like “HotSync” and “Prefs”. Tape the “Prefs” icon.
- Open the “Bluetooth” page: You now should be looking at a page labeled “Preferences”. On the Tungstens this shows a two-column bulleted list of choices such s “Date & Time”, “Digitizer”, and “Network” under headers such as “General” and “Communications”. In some earlier model Palm PDAs each of these headers is a separate page, and to access them you tap the page name displayed on the top right corner to open a pull-down menu. Go to the “Communication” subhead or page and tap “Bluetooth”
- Turn on Bluetooth: You should now be looking at the main Bluetooth control page. At the top you will see the bolded word Bluetooth: followed by a button choice of “On” or “Off”. If necessary, tap “On” to highlight it.
- Name your device: Under that is “Device Name”. If no name is displayed, or if you wish to change the name, tap the shaded box after “Device Name:” and write in the name you wish to use. I use “BertL” for my handheld.
- Turn “discoverable” on: Under the name is the word “Discoverable”. If that says “No”, tap the arrowhead to change it to “Yes”. That will allow the peripheral to find your handheld.
- Move to “Setup Devices”: At the bottom center of the page, tap the “Setup Devices” button.
- Open “Trusted Devices”: At the bottom of the next page, tap the “Trusted Devices” button. You now should be looking at a page labeled “Trusted Devices” with a gold key in the upper left, above a large shaded box. If you have any Bluetooth peripherals already mated to your handheld, their names will appear in that box.
- Set up your peripheral: At this point you need to turn the Bluetooth radio on in your peripheral and start it searching for your handheld. Since the method for doing this varies with the peripheral, you need to consult its documentation.
- Add device: Once you have started that, tape the “Add Device” button on the lower right corner of the “Trusted Devices” page on your PDA. This will open a page labeled “Discovery Results” and start the PDA searching for a device to mate to. When it finds a device, it will show that device's name in the box in the center of the page. Do not be surprised if it finds more than one device. That just means that you have other Bluetooth devices in range.
- Select the device you want: When the device you want appears on the list, tap its name to highlight it. If the device does not appear, make sure both devices are in “discoverable” mode and repeat the search.
- Enter a security code: You are usually asked to enter a security code. This allows the PDA to prevent devices from interfering with each other. If you are linking to a device that allows you to enter numbers, such as another PDA or a wireless keyboard, you can use any set of digits. I usually use “1111”. If you are linking to a device that does not allow you to enter a number, such as a Bluetooth headset, you need to consult its documentation for the specific code it needs.
- Complete the linkage: Once the security code is accepted, the display on your PDA should switch back to the “Trusted Devices” page, which should now list the keyboard as a trusted device. If it is there tap “Done” in the bottom left corner of the page and then tape the house icon to return to the home page or open an application.
- Set “Discoverable” to No: Finally, reset “discoverable” to “no” so that your device will not accidentally connect to other Bluetooth devices.
This method will work with most Bluetooth devices. Some, however, come with their own software to connect them to a PDA, which usually streamlines the process considerably. Be sure to read the device's documentation concerning precisely how to link it to your PDA.