Comments on: Proximity Detection Perfection: Bluetooth + Asterisk + iPhone

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:39:45 +0000

Maybe it is just me, but I don’t know how useful Bluetooth is with its very limited range. Wouldn’t Wifi work much better. This will obviously mean using a Wifi Adapter, but this will solve the range issues as Wifi has a much larger area, and can be expanded with extenders. This is just my thought.

[WM: The whole idea is to detect when you arrive at and depart from your desk. So the short range is actually part of the design.]

By: Vincent Emma

Vincent Emma — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:24:19 +0000

I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays..

By: rob

rob — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:50:03 +0000

Is this still current for a PIAF-Purple download ?

[WM: Have you tried it?]

By: derek

derek — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:06:04 +0000

mike, i’ve had no problem, been using a similar setup for 1+ years. i use it for controlling motion detection cameras in a home, disabling when i am in range.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:41:54 +0000

Has anyone had an issue with the iPhone bluetooth signal going to sleep when the iPhone does??

By: Riz

Riz — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:32:39 +0000

Using this, would it be possible to direct calls coming to the Iphone to an extension on my PiaF system, conversely use the IPhone as a trunk to make outgoing calls from extensions?.

By: ralph

ralph — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:22:59 +0000

I have 2 nokia phones and I setup both of them . My problem is that the phones ring but both of them rings when the caller chooses the second extension.

By: Yoav Aner

Yoav Aner — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:06:45 +0000

I’m using a slightly different set-up. The bluetooth dongle is on my desktop and Asterisk is being updated remotely via ssh. I’ve been using BlueProximity tool to essentially switch off my voip phone and redirect to voicemail when my mobile is switched off / or bluetooth disabled.

See http://blog.gingerlime.com/guilty-pleasures

By: Rajj

Rajj — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:43:27 +0000

can i use asterisk on my Iphone now ? mean SIP calling on IPHONE. wow.. Thx….

By: Carey

Carey — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:27:20 +0000

I’m wondering if someone can tell me why this doesn’t work properly with more than one BlueTooth phone.

If you have two BT phones set up using separate proximity files in root, with completely different user name, mac address, extension and forward numbers, and you have the proximity files listed separately in the crontab file, they will both be forwarded at the same time and they will both contain the same BlueTooth device name in the user.now files.

* * * * * root /root/proximity_user1 > /dev/null
* * * * * root /root/proximity_user2 > /dev/null

If you enter the proximity files like the following in crontab it will work correctly, with each user.now file having it’s correct BT device name and each user being forwarded individually:

* * * * * root /root/proximity_user1 && /root/proximity_user2 > /dev/null

Has anyone else tried this with more than one BT phone? If so did you have the same results?

Can anyone explain to me how and why having a similar script with different user data entered separately in crontab, to run at the same time, can seemly get the same output?

I’m a Windows guy still learning a lot about Linux, so I’m obviously missing something.

Thanks for the feedback.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:59:18 +0000

I decided a slightly different approach would make sense. Once a minute, the job checks the status file to see if the text has changed. If it has and the phone is OOA, it telnets to my asterisk server management port and marks my phone DND. Since the DND process is used in follow-me, the phone automatically does the right thing. Note that this convention could be used for LOTS of different applications (when I go to another office, by cell phone tells a local server (anything with Bluetooth) that I am there, and then contacts the Manager API to set the forward on and to forward my calls to the phone in the local network. When I’m gone again, it turns off the forward. If the DND is still set, the phone automagically goes back to my cell until I get back home.

By: Tim P.

Tim P. — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:43:51 +0000

Forgot to mention about the bluetooth on two servers, I used the proximity script to execute a bash script that connects to my home automation box over a passwordless ssh connection and executes a bash script on the home automation box that controls the x10. I guess this is a cheap fast way to get either dual servers or a single server not directly connected 🙂

By: Tim P.

Tim P. — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:52:02 +0000

This works great on the Palm 650. I bought a "Extended Range" $2.99 bluetooth adapter off ebay and I get a good 40 feet, tied this into the home automation X10 so my lights and call forwarding are automatic. Thanks!

By: Jody

Jody — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:31:28 +0000

Has any one had any success in getting bluetooth proximity to work if the bluetooth dongle is not connected directly to the server. My Asterisk server is in an office in a secured server room with multiple SIP extensions. I would prefer to not have my users sitting in the server room 🙂

I can see comment 7 is directed to achieving this, does anyone know of an available guide with a little more information to do this as well as anything similar for a windows desktop?

Also, Ward, your guides are second to none, keep ’em coming.

By: AG

AG — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:31:24 +0000

Very very nice. Now I need to go pick up a BT adapter.

Brainstorming – This would scale somewhat easily, just take a small bit of additional coding, ssh keys between multiple servers, and scp.

Have a remote server with good bluetooth coverage do this pseudocode:
hcitool name $devicemac > /tmp/$deviceuser.remoteserver
if $deviceuser.remoteserver != $deviceuser.remoteserver.last;
then scp $deviceuser.remoteserver asteriskserver:/tmp ; fi

Then have the asterisk server compare $deviceuser.remote* with $deviceuser.last

By: Chris Cantey

Chris Cantey — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:41:13 +0000

Will this only work with the D-Link Adaptor? Our could I use one of the Class I (100M) adaptors such as the TRENDnet or Billionton one?

[WM: Try it and let us know.]

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 01:11:45 +0000

I got this working with a blackberry 8703e. Thanks for the great articles. On to the next app!!!

By: KatmaiAD

KatmaiAD — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:20:43 +0000

Actually,won't going to Settings > General > About and scrolling down give you the Bluetooth MAC address a little more easily? [WM: Good tip. Thanks.]

By: Charlie Pearce

Charlie Pearce — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:59:54 +0000

Thanks for your continuing useful articles and software. I’m new to Asterisk -and everything I read here gives more exciting ideas to try.

However I have a couple of questions – first, I presume this system will work with other bluetooth phones – or is it just the iPhone? It’ll be a while before I can afford to get one here in the UK!

Also, why use Webmin to start bluetooth services at bootime? As TrixBox is based on CentOS then wouldn’t the command "chkconfig bluetooth on" set bluetooth to start in the current runlevel? Though I guess this would only work for RedHat based distros such as TrixBox.

Though unfortunately this will all be no good to me as I run TrixBox on an old Compaq Proliant server -the howl it makes forces me to keep it running in the out-house, which is too far away for Bluetooth. Shame, but maybe I can rig a serial-line connected, weighted switch to my key holder….. but that’d probably be going too far! Thanks again.

[WM: Any Bluetooth phone that keeps Bluetooth activated all the time should work fine. Thanks for the RedHat activation tip. We use WebMin for almost everything out of stupidity more than anything else. Good to learn something new.]

By: Kamache

Kamache — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:13:43 +0000

Sorry guys but seems not working…

Looks like the .last file was not created.

Best regards;

Kamache

[WM: Try again. Sorry. Downloads before 4 pm on July 19 probably won’t work. But all is well now. Rule #1: Never publish new software on your way out of town for a long weekend.]

By: Rafael Cortes

Rafael Cortes — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:50:49 +0000

Here we go, another great use for the magnificent iPhone, and the very best and most flexible PBX in history, AND I CANNOT USE IT! I hate Puerto Rico’s ATT infrastructure that cannot support the iPhone’s data requirements! If only I could… Does anyone knows if you can get free roaming in Puerto Rico with an iPhone plan???

Oops, I got carried away, sorry!

Keep up the great articles Ward!