Turning the BCK-08 into a remote audio receiver

Last year I was one of the many who thought that using Bluetooth is a symbol of consumer success. I am not sure if there is such a thing, but getting a wireless link with my phone was a “thrill”, ok just a waste of time.

Nevertheless, there is a way that the stereo Bluetooth receiver can be used with Windows 7 as an inexpensive wireless speaker system. A dongle goes for about a dollar, and the BCK-08 Bluetooth Stereo headset costs about 10$. I had the other parts lying around, so it felt good to get them out the way!

Here is the data sheet. http://wenku.baidu.com/view/f49978afdd3383c4bb4cd2f8.html
Unfortunately, my technical Chinese is quite limited. I don't think I ever spoke about electronics other than LEDs when living in Taiwan. English one here (a little more recent).
You may want to investigate a little further about the ISSC iS1621N Stereo bluetooth IC. I wonder how the engineers and others who develop these technologies feel. Making a very inexpensive product is not bad, but it sure must not feel like you are designing a Maserati or Porsche!




Here are some instructions to make use of your bluetooth headset :


Parts
a) Bluetooth dongle
b) Bluetooth headset
c) 5V DC power supply (100mA is more than enough, but any adapter will do) – a cell phone charger will be fine.
d) 1 or 2 diodes or NPN or PNP transistors ( I could not find diodes) (average .7V drop per diode)
e) 100µF capacitor 6V

Instructions
1. Using a multi-tester, determine the polarity of the power supply. You will also find out what the voltage. Mine was 5.2V so I needed 2 diodes to bring it close to 3.7 as possible.

2. Put the diodes in series to and solder to one end of the power supply lead.
3. Plug in the power supply. Measure the voltage. It should be between 3.7V and 4.3V. If it is too low, you will get low power warning from the BCK-08. If it is too high, you may damage it. I assume however that there is some tolerance up to 5.1V as it uses a USB as a charge source and a voltage regulator on board. You can then put the capacitor across the leads to ensure that the device will have avoid having dips in power or any noise.
4. Unplug the Power supply. It will look better if you put the diode and capacitor in the power supply/AC adapter if there is room. Appearance is a very important part of the functionality of a device.
5. Use shrink tubing on the diode and power supply leads.
6. Open the BCK-08 by removing the white stickers.

7. Remove the battery, and connect the power supply leads to the terminals of the battery.
8. Plug in power supply and verify that the BCK-08 turns on.
9. Test the BCK-08 with your computer, phone, MP3 Player or whatever uses Bluetooth.

10. Setup speakers with BCK-08 up to 10 meters away.


I found that the Intel Bluetooth in my Thinkpad worked much better than a dongle. A full length straight antenna is probably the reason which explains better performance.