Problems setting up/using Bluetooth device in Parallels

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by Apple-Z, Jul 20, 2007.

  1. Apple-Z

    Apple-Z Junior Member

    Messages:
    11
    I just bought a Bluetooth OBD II automotive trouble code scanner to work on my truck. There is precious little in the way of decent Mac software for these OBD scanners - the only one I found was pyOBD which runs on Python. I haven't tried installing it yet because the setup is too "computer geeky" for my liking and the interface is pretty unfriendly ;)

    First thing I did was to connect the scanner and set it up in OS X's Bluetooth utilities. I plugged the scanner into my truck and it currently showed up in my Mac System Profiler as:

    Devices (Paired, Favorites, etc):
    CANOBDII:
    Name: CANOBDII
    Address: 00-08-ac-03-71-0f
    Type: Unknown Device
    Services: Bluetooth Serial Port
    Paired: No
    Favorite: Yes
    Connected: No

    and

    Outgoing Serial Ports:
    Serial Port 1:
    Address: 00-08-AC-03-71-0F
    Name: CANOBDII-BluetoothSeria-1
    RFCOMM Channel: 1
    Requires Authentication: No

    Under Bluetooth Preferences in OSX it shows up with a red heart icon (?) and a key icon (e.g.: requires pairing for security). This device has a permanent 4 digit passkey, and I can't remember if I've been prompted to enter it in OS X or not... but I know I had a passkey window come up at some point in XP :confused: At any rate, the scanner is showing up in OS X's Bluetooth window (under System Preferences) with the following info (it's disconnected from the truck as I write this):

    Device Name: CAN OBDII

    Device Address: 00-08-ac-03-71-0f
    Device Type: Miscellaneous
    Device Services: Bluetooth Serial Port

    Paired: No
    Configured: Yes
    Favorite: Yes
    Connected: No
    Serial Port: Yes

    Under "Edit Serial Ports...", the device shows up as "CANOBDII-BluetoothSeria-1"
    Device Service: Bluetooth Serial Port, RS-232, and "Require Pairing" is checked ON.

    Everything looked good on the Mac side...

    So I next installed the Windows based application that came with the scanner (CAN OBD-II), figuring I could pair up to Bluetooth through XP in Parallels and use the Windows software... I had a bit of a problem initially even getting Bluetooth to show up in XP :mad: but got that working, however, I couldn't get the OBD scanner to be recognized. After a little "Googling", I found some discussion in this forum about the "SerialClient" utility (v. 0.10 2006). I downloaded it and set up a serial port (server) for the VM which eventually showed up as "connected" after restarting and fiddling. Then I enabled Apple Wireless in the Parallels toolbar (which has the effect of "disconnecting" the Bluetooth icon in the Mac OS). At first the VM would not connect to the scanner, so I used the XP Bluetooth Wizard to add a device. This gave me the following message: "Windows cannot find any Bluetooth devices. Make sure that your Bluetooth radio is attached to your computer and is turned on, and that your Bluetooth device is turned on. Follow the setup instructions that came with the device, and then click Search Again.".

    Next, within the Bluetooth Devices window in XP's Bluetooth icon in the toolbar, I get no Bluetooth "device" showing up, I only get COM ports showing up in the "Hardware" tab. Yesterday there were 3 ports showing up (4, 5 & 7 I think) with nothing in the way of a description of their purpose. I turned off Bluetooth on my cell phone to try to simplify things in case the phone was being added to the list. Today I only get "COM 4 Incoming" listed under hardware.

    Eventually yesterday (after screwing about with "Add Hardware" in XP's Device Manager) I managed to get a connection between the scanner and the application in XP. Don't ask me what I did that got the connection to work, but the "communication" between the app and the scanner was not happening (e.g.: the application showed a "connected" icon but apparently it could not get data from the scanner).

    The XP Device Manager in the System control panel has several items there that relate to Bluetooth and COM ports. The "Apple Built-in Bluetooth" and "Microsoft Bluetooth Enumerator" show up as working properly, but now I notice that the "Apple Bluetooth Driver" is listed as "Device cannot start (Code 10)", but it was working yesterday...

    There are also 3 COM ports listed in the Device Manager: COM 1 (Communications Port), COM 4 (Standard serial over Bluetooth link) and COM 5 (Communications Port) - I assume that COM 4 is the serial port being used for my scanner... Also, COM 5 shows: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12) If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. I have no idea what this means or if it's something I should worry about :confused:

    Anyway, the whole COM port and Bluetooth thing is a &#$%ing pain to figure out in XP. As I said earlier, the "Bluetooth Wizard" isn't picking up the Bluetooth OBD scanner and I don't know if this is normal because I'm using a COM port for Bluetooth...

    Today I can't even get SerialClient to connect at all... I just get a message: "Failed to open serial connection Opening serial port. (16) Resource busy" Again, no idea why it's not hooking up when it seemed to work fine yesterday.

    I have thought about installing XP under BootCamp since this would create fewer potential Bluetooth interface problems between the VM and OS X... If it's unavoidable I will go that route, but hopefully someone here can give me some layman's advice on the procedure to remove (purge all) and then set up a Bluetooth device from scratch within XP (and anything I need to do within OS X) so I can get this scanner connected and see if it actually works. I bought it on eBay so I want to check it out ASAP to see if I should send it back...

    My system:

    3 GHz Mac Pro, 2 GB RAM, 250 + 500 GB HD
    Bluetooth, AirPort
    OS X 10.4.10
    Parallels v. 3.0 Build 4128.0
     
  2. smokeonit1@mac.com

    smokeonit1@mac.com Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
  3. bigmouth

    bigmouth Junior Member

    Messages:
    18
    I've got mine working just fine in Parallels 5540 - the only question I have - can you automatically get "Apple - Wireless" to connect every time you start your VM ? Would just make like one step easier for me !
     
  4. smokeonit1@mac.com

    smokeonit1@mac.com Bit poster

    Messages:
    5
    mattiouz.com deleted the webpage and the dl link is now password protected...


    i hope that parallels included the bluetooth driver themselves???

    could someone from parallels comment please???
     

Share This Page