CBG516-1H GE Bluetooth compatibility Is this a compatibility issue

Eleison23
Eleison23 Member Posts: 31 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
edited October 2023 in Chromebooks

Model Number: CBG516-1H

Part Number: NX.KCWAA.001

Greetings, I'll ask this question in the Google ChromeOS forums too, but I doubt the answer will be what I want to hear.

I'm a bit of an electronics hoarder and traditionalist, and I've been using an ancient "Belkin F8Z492" Bluetooth audio sink dongle. It's AC-mains powered by a wall wart, and it converts BT output into 3.5mm wired audio, for speakers, headphones, whatever.

Since it's so very old, I suspect that newer Bluetooth implementations are incompatible, or refuse to pair with this device. My phone won't seem to recognize it, although Windows 10 on a 2018 Lenovo still works.

Literally, the symptom is that the Belkin does not appear on any scan. I can't see it, so I couldn't pair or connect if I tried. Even if I ask for it by name or address. Yes, the dongle is always "BT visible" to other devices. Yes, I've eliminated the question of interference or signal strength, of course; the difference in visibility is very noticeable between the two types of devices. In fact, a neighbor was able to pair their phone quite easily to it through walls, 'cause there's no security feature on this device. I've got clear line-of-sight and limited RFI, although this is a busy community with a lot of WiFi and BT signals in the air.

Is this a compatibility issue, or is there something else I can do to get this working?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title and add issue detail]

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,645 Trailblazer

    Yeah, your Belkin is Bluetooth 2.1 and specs for your system say:

    image.png

    Which is weird, it should support much earlier than 5.2, though 2.1 support I could see it missing.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Eleison23
    Eleison23 Member Posts: 31 Enthusiast WiFi Icon

    Weird indeed! I've been informed of the crosh tools and found out that my employer-managed account has no trouble at all playing music on it, whether by GUI or CLI!

    Must've been a transient failure, RFI, or idiosyncrasies of my personal unmanaged account. Further investigation findings shall be reported.

  • jyasumotor
    jyasumotor Member Posts: 4 New User

    did you ever resolve this? see my other post for similar problem

  • Eleison23
    Eleison23 Member Posts: 31 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    edited September 10

    I resolved this by recycling my Belkin dongle, and my Logitech wireless headset, and purchasing a JBL Flip 6 wireless speaker. It works alright, though there are some bugs with ChromeOS saving the device to the correct Google account; the proprietary JBL mobile app doesn't do anything important. I use wired earbuds and haven't replaced the BT headset.

    But for playing sounds over BT, and simple play/pause/volume controls, the FLIP 6 is working solidly, a good brand, good solid sound, light, portable and waterproof. Compatible with my Windows 11, and Android 14 as well as ChromeOS.

    Thank you for the spec info.

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