You can't connect a bluetooth transmitter to your car radio
I was asked to solve the following problem: A car radio is missing a CD player and the owner wants to listen their CD collection. It is also missing an AUX input, so the only option is to use a bluetooth transmitter. Turns out that's simply not possible!
So far I have tried two different bluetooth transmitters [*]. For the second one I even checked if it supports the AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) and HFP (Hands-Free Profile) profiles so it is most similar to a mobile phone. But alas, it still won't work. The car radio sometimes finds the trasmitter, but the devices just won't pair. I guess it's now down to the pairing method used by the car radio [†].
The last option is to try an FM transmitter, which feels like a step back in time.
| [*] | The devices I tried were the Sonru J52 and the Avantree Voyager. If I was looking for a bluetooth transmitter again, I would probably get the Avantree Voyager as it is generally much nicer and very well built. |
| [†] | The Avantree Voyager expects a headphone to be visible and offers to connect to it. The car radio on the other hand expects a mobile phone to be visible and offers to connect to it. Selecting the car radio on the transmitter does nothing and selecting the transmitter on the car radio fails with an error message. |