Beosound "remote wheel" connection/pairing to other "diy" equipments (RPI/Arduino etc...)

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lykkedk Posted: Sun, Feb 18 2018 6:11 PM

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Hello all here...

I am trying to grab information about if it's possible to pair the bluetooth unit of the "wheel" remote to an 3.part hardware of some kind (could be an RaspberryPi or Arduino etc.) - If this is the case all kind of stuff could be controlled this way (mainly music in my case, but a hole world of IoT is possible too)

I do not own such remote wheeel, but as i know B&O i know the touch and feel aka' quality is superb here, and i gladly pay the ~200Eur. it cost.

I did a lot of googling around to find information, but cannot find anything about this bluetooth connection, but it sure would be nice if someone out there could tell if pairing with e.g. an PC or an Raspberry is possible at all (I cant imagine that the bluetooth part of the remote is scrambled or encrypted so pairing is impossible, but ofcause i don't know it!)

https://www.bang-olufsen.com/~/mediaV3/home/collection/collection-sound-systems/BeoSound-Essence/beosound-essence-closerlook1.jpg

I am new here, so maybe a little background information is good :

I am 48years old, an since i was rather "small" i did do electronics stuff of all kind... Along the years it has benn a dosen of differents diy poweramps, preamps, dac's, riaa's, switchboxes, and lately some home automation etc... I am a long time Linux "hacker" and i really enjoy connection stuff together both the hardware and software part.

Rgds; Jesper.

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trackbeo replied on Sun, Feb 18 2018 9:25 PM

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I'd like to know this, too!  Just in case the answer is "no", the closest non-B&O device I've found is the Griffin Technology "PowerMate".  Their Bluetooth version is a tiny bit "wiggly" on the wheel, and of course there are transmission range issues and sleep delay, but it's OK.  Their USB version is great, but you have to build something to hide the cable to your computer.

griffintechnology.com/us/products/stylus-keyboards/powermate

griffintechnology.com/us/products/stylus-keyboards/powermate-bluetooth

The software they give you is Mac-only, so you arrive at the same question,... but there are likely more people working on that problem than on the B&O.  (Here in the States it's "Presidents' Day" (writingexplained.org/how-to-spell-presidents-day) so take 20% off USD45 and USD60.)

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lykkedk replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 4:56 AM

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Hi.

It is good news, that pairing was done without problems on your' mac!.

What about mapping key's to functions, was this working straight away? Or did you do some keymapping for making the wheel behave as you liked it too?

I am talking about this remote in case anybody would ask again :

https://www.bang-olufsen.com/~/mediaV3/home/collection/collection-sound-systems/BeoSound-Essence/beosound-essence-closerlook1.jpg

Rgds; Jesper.

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laseralex replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 8:06 AM

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Jon:

If you’re talking about the Essence Remote, you can indeed pair it with non-B&O stuff. I paired mine with my Mac and it worked fine for pausing, playing, muting, changing volume, and skipping tracks.

I'm glad to hear that B&O kept with the Bluetooth standards in this regards.

To be honest, the early experience with my two essences was so dismal that I was tempted to find an alternate device which would work with the Essence remote.  Now that B&O has finally brought firmware development in-house, the Essence is approaching the expected performance and I'm happy to keep buying from Struer.

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lykkedk replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 10:13 AM

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So you are mention the firmware is getting better now, but this has nothing to do with the "raw" wheel-remote, right ? - I am not into this stuff, but isen't the firmware not only on the amplifier/reciever part of this essence setup?

Rgds; Jesper.

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TWG replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 11:53 AM

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The wheel remote firmware must have had an upgrade, too, as newer variants do have more modes that can be set up, compared to the first generations.
There was a thread on this forum about it - which I currently didn't find.

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Millemissen replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 12:00 PM

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This thread (I suppose):

https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/17876/156611.aspx#156611

MM

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TWG replied on Mon, Feb 19 2018 12:13 PM

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Millemissen:

This thread (I suppose):

https://archivedforum2.beoworld.org/forums/p/17876/156611.aspx#156611

MM