I know it's pie-in-the-sky, but I was sat in my friend's car today on the way to work and he received a call on his mobile.

His £75 budget Wharfedale stereo paused the CD, displayed the caller ID and played his Nokia ringing through the speaker system. A quick tap on a button on the fascia answered the call and the remote mic let him carry on a reasonably normal conversation.

All the time I was sat there thinking "Damn, I wish my Empeg could do that!"

It's got a wire for cell phone mute.

Caller ID on the stereo's screen, that's a taller order. :-)

Yeah it can do that minus the Caller ID display part. I have a basic Nokia CK-7W Bluetooth Handsfree kit in the car (one little button controls it). The speaker output is plugged into the Empeg AUX and the 'Phone Mute' line is connected up. Phone rings, Empeg+Hijack switches to Aux, ringtone through the speakers, caller name announcement through the speakers (Nokia S60). Press the button, have conversation, end of call it switches back to what it was doing before.

Even works when the Empeg is in standby. I should really YouTube it for you guys who haven't seen it at an Empeg meet.

Heh.. add a bluetooth serial dongle to the empeg, and it might just be possible to also get Caller ID from it..

I wondered whether that kind of functionality could be built in without the need for a dedicated car kit. The Empeg has a mic input on the harness, if a serial BT dongle could display caller ID, isn't that half the battle? Or is serial not quick enough to stream audio? Are there no other BT options that could be hacked into the Empeg?

Sorry guys, I'm no programmer or hacker, just a dreamer. It would be a kick-ass feature though

The empeg aux-in is normally used for audio FROM the handset to the speakers. In the other direction, I suppose the empeg MIC could be used, sampled, and fed over the serial link.

Wireline telephone uses 56kbits/sec (or 64 kbits/sec, depending on the system) for speech, so the serial link does have enough bandwidth at 115kbits/sec normal speed.

This would be fun to do -- maybe somebody with sufficient interest will have time in the upcoming recession to hack away at it!

Cheers

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/linux/125997-hfp-linux-bluetooth-hands-free.html

A good start ?

For ref also:
http://empegbbs.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/44021/#Post44021

Wow, that's an old thread. Didn't realise people were talking about it way back then!