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Connecting Oticon Real to Bluetooth Dongle

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Hello. I was using Oticon Opns and have recently switched to Oticon Real. With my Opns I connected my computer directly to my aids through connect clip paired to the recommended bluetooth dongle. It worked fine with the Reals for the first week, and then subsequent to a remote tweak to the hearing aid by my audiologist, the connection to dongle is inconsistent or non-existent. When I do get a connection it goes in and out every few seconds. My audiologist maintains she did nothing that should have affected the dongle/connectclip/hearing aid connection, but it’s a very strange coincidence that it started to happen right after the remote tweak. Does anyone have any experience with this that could help me?

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What kind of troubleshooting have you done? Do you still have the Opns? Do they still work with the Connect Clip and computer?

Have you tried to connect your ConnectClip directly to your computer’s Bluetooth connection and bypassing the dongle altogether instead of through the BT dongle first? I own the OPN 1 and I never need to use a BT dongle with my ConnectClip to my laptop. In theory the BT dongle is supposed to give you a more stable connection on certain computer, or if your computer doesn’t support BT, but the BT dongle is not an absolute requirement for the ConnectClip in any case.

Another thing to check with your is whether she disconnects the ConnectClip pairing to your OPN via the Genie 2 software to start out with a clean slate yet or not? Perhaps if this is not done, it can make things messy because a reset/clear out of the ConnectClip pairing to your OPN has not been done. Many people who have intermittent issues with using their ConnectClip seems to be able to solve it by resetting the pairing with the ConnectClip in Genie 2 first. I suggest you ask you audi to do the same thing for you. Reset the ConnectClip pairing with both the OPN and the Real first via Genie 2, then pair it back with the Real only, to see if that helps. Below is the screenshot of the Genie 2 page where it shows that the ConnectClip is paired to my OPN. If my OPN had been connected to Genie 2 in this example (which it is not), it’ll probably give an option to unpair the ConnectClip as well.

image

In reply to @MDB

I have tried repairing the connect clip to the dongle - and that sometimes works, but only for a few minutes and then I get the intermittent connection. I wondered if the intermittent connection was due to another device trying to ‘pull’ my hearing aids, so I have tried turning off bluetooth on my iphone in case it is doing that. Also tried turning my phone off. Neither action made any difference. I have tried repairing my connect clip to my hearing aids, but I think to do that I have to unpair them first, and I cannot seem to remove the pairing from the connect clip (one is supposed to hold all three buttons down at the same time, but that is not working).

In reply to @Volusiano

thanks for that suggestion Volusiano. I’ve followed your responses to many other questions and I always learn a lot from you. I’ll suggest your idea to my Audiologist when she returns to work next week. Incidentally, I use the dongle because I use a desktop which does not have built in bluetooth.

Edited

Some forum members have had issues with the ConnectClip and Oticon More aids with the 1.4.X version firmware - typically the More aids and ConnectClip worked OK with older More firmware. As the Real (according to the on-line User Guide) has the same FCC ID for the radio as the More, I wonder if the Real may also have similar issues with the ConnectClip like the More with recent firmware. You might ask your Audiologist to check with Oticon Tech Support - I found that useful with my OPN / OPN S 1 aids when having issue with the ConnectClip and other things. Tech Support talked my provider through a firmware upgrade of the ConnectClip and also suggested that I use the BTD 800 dongle with my provided with my ConnectClip when connecting to my desktop (Apple iMac Pro). Those two “fixes” helped.

I am using the BTD 800 dongle. My connect clip is old (but still current) so perhaps a firmware update is in order. I will follow that up with my Audi. I appreciate the suggestion.

I currently have Opn S, More and Real (trial). I have three ConnectClips.

I have zero problems with the Opn S working with the ConnectClip. I never have to re-pair them and the sound is reliable without any cut-outs.

Since I got the More hearing aids, I’ve had nothing but problems with the ConnectClip. When I originally got them, they had 1.3.0 firmware and they worked fine. Not long after I got them, the firmware was updated and they were no longer reliable with the ConnectClip. I tried all of the subsequent firmware releases and none of them fixed this problem. Oticon has confirmed there is a problem, but they don’t know what is causing it, so they don’t have a fix. I eventually gave up and had them downgraded to 1.3.0 firmware. They had to be sent back to the factory for this to be done. They worked for a couple of weeks, before the same problem returned. I tried them with a different ConnectClip and it made no difference.

I now have a set of Real hearing aids and another ConnectClip. Similarly to the More hearing aids, they worked for a while, then the same problem of audio cut-outs appeared.

Just today, I did a remote session with the audiologist to clear the ConnectClip pairings for both the More and the Real hearing aids. They are both working fine, with no audio cut-outs. I don’t expect this to continue.

Based on the above, I doubt the problem you are experiencing is because of the Bluetooth dongle.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It does not sound encouraging for a possible resolution. I shall definitely ask my Audi to contact Oticon and explore how common this problem is. If I cannot resolve it, the
Reals won’t be workable for me, as it’s imperative that I be able to connect my hearing aids directly to my desktop.

You should not assume your experience will be the same as mine. Give your audiologist a chance to sort out the problem. Maybe the cause of the problem for your situation is different than mine. Maybe Oticon will have a solution soon.

Good luck. Please update this thread.

Not sure the Oticon EduMic would work any better but it is similar to the ConnectClip (can’t use it as a computer headset though) and has a t-coil and headphone jack so in some ways is better.

Edited

@sufhl 's mention of the EduMic reminds me that another option in lieu of the ConnectClip for use with the computer is the TV Adapter. When I got my OPN, it was too new so the ConnectClip wasn’t available yet, but the TV Adapter was already out. So I simply hooked up the L/R audio out (headphone minijack) from my laptop to the TV Adapter. I had to use the laptop’s mic for my conference calls, but that’s no big deal.

Once Oticon support can sort out the ConnectClip issue, the TV Adapter can still be repurposed to its original purpose, to watch TV with, if desired. At least this would remove the ConnectClip from being a deal breaker for the OP’s purchase criteria of the Real.

@sufhl 's suggestion of the EduMic is a great one, too, as long as the intermittent connection issue on the ConnectClip is not between the ConnectClip to the hearing aids, but is between the ConnectClip to the PC. Otherwise, if the earlier, then the EduMic may suffer the same fate as the ConnectClip.

Come to think of it, if the real issue is between the hearing aid and the streaming device, it may be an issue with the TV Adapter as well. But at least the OP has 2 other streaming options (the EduMic or TV Adapter) to try out.

You can read the link below for more details. Basically in 2016 (when the Oticon OPN was released), Costco licensed the RivieraWaves Bluetooth Low Energy technology from CEVA to use in their streaming devices. This technology is implemented as the communication between the intermediary devices (like the ConnectClip, the TV Adpater, the EduMic) and the Oticon hearing aids. Between the ConnectClip to the device it connects to, standard BT is used. Between the TV Adapter and the TV, either optical or audio connection is used. As for the EduMic, it either picks up the teacher’s voice through its built-in mic, or it can be connected to an audio source via the mini jack.

So while Oticon doesn’t specify to the public what communication protocol it uses between the intermediary devices and its hearing aids, it’s easy to infer that they all use the same CEVA RivieraWaves BT Low Energy as this communication protocol. I really doubt that the TV Adapter uses a different form of than the ConnectClip and the EduMic because it wouldn’t make sense for Oticon to do so because that would mean that they would have to license another wireless protocol (or to come up with their own) to make this happen for no apparent reason.

But of course we’re all guessing here because Oticon doesn’t reveal this kind of details to the public anyway.

Oticon Licenses and Deploys CEVA Bluetooth Low Energy Technology in...1

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — CEVA, Inc. (NASDAQ: CEVA), the leading licensor of signal processing for smarter, connected devices, today announced Oticon, the world’s leading innovator of BrainHearing™ technology has...

I’m pretty sure that the issue is between my connect clip and my hearing aids. I’m reluctant to use the TV adaptor as a work around, as it would mean moving the TV adaptor around every day (I need it to watch the news in the evening). Since most of what I use the direct connection to my computer is for zoom/skype meetings, I have figured out a temporary work around … I do a visual connection on my computer and an audio connection on my iPad, which I can stream directly to my ’s. I prefer to use my computer for most zoom meetings so that I can see all participants - usually more than are available on an iPad. My Audi is back next week, and I’m going to review all of everyone’s comments with her as well as asking her to contact Oticon. I’ll update the thread as I have more information. I really appreciate all of the help that is being offered.

In reply to @Volusiano

That makes sense. However, I recall reading that there was something non-standard about the TV adapter, possibly relating to latency and/or transmit power level. I thought I read about this in an FCC test report. When I get time, I will see if I can find a reference.

You have a good point, @darylm , in that the TV Adapter has a constant power supply while both the ConnectClip and the EduMic run on battery. So even if all 3 of them may use the same CEVA RivieraWaves protocol for communication, perhaps the TV Adapter can rely on the constant power supply advantage to transmit a stronger signal to the hearing aids than the other 2 devices that run on battery. Maybe this is the differentiation and results in a more reliable connection with the TV Adapter but less reliable connection with the other 2 devices.

You can plug in the EduMic to a constant power supply while it streams from the computer (and hardwire it to the computer via the headphone jack). It’s very reliable with my Mores.

Edited

Won’t the battery fail sooner in the ConnectClip/EduMic with constant power? Has anyone tested whether these can operate with constant power without the battery being present?

Why isn’t anyone making more generic streaming devices? The pairing protocol is proprietary? I thought I read that Oticon uses an open source protocol? Perhaps now that some Fire TV units are using we’ll see this more. Windows/MacOS/Chrome/etc. pair with other BLE devices.

Edit: There is Voce Bluetooth (https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Transceiver-Transmitter-Monitoring-Smartphone/dp/B09Y8YFFGR3) but the FAQ on Amazon states that Oticon, for example, hasn’t enabled .

Edit2: Oticon support states More/Real do not support LE Audio despite marketing about that.

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