Bluetooth 4.

0 Micro USB Dongle CSR8510

Bluetooth is a short-range personal area network technology which is used for
transferring files, contact information, connecting hands free sets and stereo headsets to
mobile phones, tablets and PCs wirelessly.
While generally touted as easy to set up and get working, for a variety of reasons often
related to the quality of the software Bluetooth stack provided with many USB Bluetooth
devices, users have often found frustration in getting things beyond just basic file
transfer working. This can be because of outdated software without profile support for
newer devices, or a lack of software altogether, leaving the user to rely on the operating
systems default (and often somewhat limited) Bluetooth stack.
Over the years, it has made the evolution through numerous revisions each with new
benefits. The initial Bluetooth 1.0 was superseded by 1.1 which offered more robustness
against interference through adaptive frequency hopping, and higher transfer rates in
practice. Bluetooth 2.0 bought newer modulation modes which allow for higher speed
data transfer and practical battery life savings for portable devices. New pairing modes
were introduced which simplified and secured pairing. Bluetooth 3.0 bought the ability
to use Bluetooth as a signalling channel to use Wi-Fi as a higher-speed transfer medium
(although this functionality is often problematic). Finally, we come to Bluetooth 4.0
(also known as Smart and/or Low Energy) which introduces a new physical layer system
altogether which enables super-low-powered devices that run for years off a single
battery.

Unboxing

The Avantree Bluetooth 4.0 Micro USB Dongle came packed in a transparent plastic
clamshell which was held together with clear tape seals. The dongle is clearly visible
from the front and measures about 23mm from tip to tip, with the black section
measuring about 8mm. Thats pretty small!
It claims to have support for Bluetooth 4.0, as a dual mode (i.e. classic and low-energy)
device. It also supports file transfer, audio and is a Class 1 device with a 50m claimed
range. Typically most Class 1 devices advertise a 100m range (whereas Class 2 devices
with lower output power typically advertise a 10m range), however, it seems that the
50m claim may be related to the efficiency of its antenna (due to small size) and possibly
to be more in-line with real-world expectations.
The rear of the box extols its various features and specifications. It appears to support
the majority of the Bluetooth profiles available today, through the use of the CSR
Harmony Bluetooth stack. The default Windows Bluetooth stack is not this capable!
Included in the package is an 8cm mini-CD with the drivers, the USB dongle itself and a
Quick Install Guide. Please heed the instructions in the install guide! Also, you will
need to use the CD, so if you dont have a drive in your laptop, please copy
the files off onto a USB flash drive using another computer. You will not derive
the full benefit of the dongle simply just by plugging it in (but it will work for basic uses,
but please dont do this youll find out why later).
It is supplied with CSR Harmony version 2.1.63.0. The software is for Windows only
users of Linux will have to rely on their OSs included bluez stack.

Unusually, the dongle itself has its flashing LED indicator on the bottom of the device
where its not in plain view. Its not particularly bright, and will not distract you too
much. The dongle protrudes about 1cm from the body of the USB port, and the antenna
(a printed circuit board antenna) is on the extreme end of the dongle.
The dongle feels quite solidly built I didnt feel confident enough to try taking it apart
for fear of damaging it, so there wont be any photos of the internals unfortunately.

The dongle itself has a Vendor ID of 0A12, Product ID of 0001 and a Firmware Revision
of 8891. Its HCI and LMP version is 6.8891. Its MAC address starts with 00:1A:7D,
corresponding to Cyber-Blue (HK) Ltd. It identifies itself as a CSR8510 A10.
Installing
Getting this dongle installed is no drama (in most cases) if you follow the instructions
carefully. Start by NOT plugging in the dongle into a USB port, however tempting that
might be.
The first step is to remove all previous Bluetooth stacks and driver software. This is
important to prevent the previous stacks from controlling your new Bluetooth device,
causing conflicts or limiting its abilities.
You can achieve this by removing it via the Add/Remove Programs applet inside the
Control Panel. If you have IVT Bluesoleil installed, or Broadcom/Widcomm Bluetooth
Software installed, they should be removed along with any other Bluetooth software.
Then, you can execute the set-up from the disc which involves following the prompts
At this point, it is best to restart your computer to ensure that the software
starts up correctly, despite the wizard not requesting it. Dont be lazy do
it!
Then, you can now plug in the USB dongle, which should be detected and result in the
installation of a few devices and the appearance of a new Bluetooth icon in your task
tray. It should also, after the installation, pop a balloon that tells you that your Bluetooth
Device is Available.
If you have Skype installed and running, it will also install a Skype plugin which allows
the CSR Bluetooth software to integrate with Skype just one of the perks of a proper
Bluetooth stack, as compared to the Windows default stack.

You can now explore the settings within the Harmony stack and commence adding
devices to your system. The settings within the Harmony stack allude to many more
possibilities than offered by the default operating system Bluetooth stack, or indeed,
some aftermarket ones as well including support for Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy security
tokens. This may come in extremely useful in the future as low-energy devices become
more popular.
Unfortunately, there doesnt seem to be any supported way to update the software, aside
possibly by visiting the Vendors web site in the future. As a result, when devices using
newer profiles not supported by the software need to be used, you may need to upgrade
or purchase a new software stack (or dongle and software stack together).

Performance
Pairing devices compared to using older Version 1.0/1.1 dongles is relatively simple
thanks to the Secure Simple Pairing. Many newer devices display a code for you to check
and accept the pairing, or pair without needing to enter any codes, making it much more
painless.

To initiate pairing, one must put their Bluetooth device into pairing mode before
initiating a device scan (either by category or all). The time-out on the scan is relatively
quick, so be sure to initiate pairing mode on your Bluetooth device before starting a
scan.

For example, to pair a headset, you would choose audio/video device, and your device
should show up in the scan shortly.
Select the device, and click next, and secure simple pairing takes care of the rest.
Drivers for your specific device should install automatically without trouble. If not,
please see the next section.
Once that succeeds, you should see a bubble indicating the connection has been
established. If you have paired a headset, the Skype integration will change the audio
devices for you automatically.

Im glad to report no audio problems at all with this stack and the Native Union Pop
Retro Bluetooth Handset. Great stuff!
Integration with Skype also allowed for double-tapping the button to initiate a call, and
single tap to hang up.

I also had no trouble pairing my Jabra BT-135, Samsung Galaxy SIII and my Bluetooth
Keyboard to it, although A2DP Media Audio streaming from the SGSIII to the computer
curiously refused to function (even with SCMS-T turned on during installation). This
may be a compatibility issue.

File transfers to the S3 are easily accomplished by right clicking on a file and navigating
to Send To, followed by Bluetooth Device. Other than that, buttons are added into
Microsoft Office as well so that you can send a file directly from the ribbons interface.
Sending with the Bluetooth 4.0 dongle (at v2.1 EDR rates) is about three times faster
than sending with my old Bluetooth v1.1 dongle.
To test its Low-Energy radio abilities, I was able to scan for and pair with my Adonit Jot
Touch and Jot Script, although as there is no profile support, the connections are
not usable.

I later tried a serial Bluetooth GPS unit with no dramas, however, unfortunately as I
dont have an A2DP Bluetooth Stereo set, I cant comment on how that would perform.
However, the manual states there is apt-X support, and I would hence expect the best
Bluetooth Stereo quality you can expect.

So you ran into trouble try this!

While pairing a device, like the handset, you may have experienced a problem in
installing the device which looks like this:
As a result, the device does not work, and Harmony will not connect nor disconnect
from your device

It turns out, its not only you. Further inspection of the problematic device gives
you the following:
The name is already in use either as a service name or a service display name. A
dreaded error. Maybe youve tried hitting the update driver button many times, and
installed another driver over the top which results in it claiming to be okay but still not
working
 and now any attempt to remove it, or uninstall the Bluetooth stack never
finishes!
The reason why this might occur is if you have used a CSR Bluetooth Dongle in the past
with the Microsoft default Bluetooth Stack, and paired a device (e.g.
Handset/Handsfree) which requires a driver and allowed the installation of drivers from
Windows Update. These drivers come from CSR as a courtesy to CSR dongle
users so that they can have audio with older dongles, but these courtesy
drivers conflict with the proper drivers provided in Harmony as they use
the same service name. Unfortunately, removing and uninstalling the old dongle
through Device Manager or Devices will not solve it.
Quite a few people have this problem online, and there hasnt been a clear way to solve
it. However, by learning a little bit about the driver framework, Ive managed to
devise a method which seems to be able resolve this issue. Please note that
working with the Registry can cause serious damage to your system if you make any
unintended alterations. I take no responsibility for any damage you might cause to your
system but this did work for me.
Please carefully follow these steps:
1. If your problem device is stuck with the The name is already in use either as a
service name or a service display name error, please proceed directly to Step
3.
2. If you have somehow forced the wrong driver to install anyway (e.g. the Bluetooth
Hands-Free Audio device), you will need to go to Device Manager and remove it
first. The computer may seem to be removing the driver but will never finish.
Remove power to the computer and restart it. Check that the Bluetooth Hands-
Free Audio device doesnt show under Sound, video and game controllers. Its
okay if it shows up with an exclamation mark somewhere else. If it still shows up,
try rebooting into Safe Mode (press F8 on booting) and back to regular mode.
3. Remove the CSR Harmony stack using the Add/Remove Programs in
Control Panel. Be a little patient, it should take 5 minutes at most. If you have
the wrong driver installed (Step 2), but failed to remove it, CSR Harmony will not
uninstall and will hang during uninstall.
4. Restart the computer.
5. If the dongle has been removed, plug it back in and go to Devices and Printers.
Findany Bluetooth devices except the dongle and right-click Uninstall and
select to delete drivers.
6. Go to Device Manager and delete the Generic Bluetooth Radio.
7. Get out Registry Editor by pressing Win+R and typing regedit and clicking OK.
You will need to grant administrative privileges for this to work.
8. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services (,
backup the entire tree to a file using the Export command, if you wish) and
delete all the folders named the following under this path (as they are
CSR dongle driver remnants, as determined by reading through the CSR
Harmony stack .INF files):
csravrcp
HFGService
csr_bthav
CsrBtPort
csrduncmdm
csrhfgcc
csrhidmini
csrpan
csrserial
 csrusb
csrusbfilter

9. While you are there, also look for folders starting with bth that have sub-folders.
In the case of Bluetooth Hands-Free Audio, this is the BthAudioHF entry delete that
too.Do not go deleting things randomly you will mangle something serious.
Delete Bth* entries which are named with the problematic device name or
contain a driver file name which is used by the CSR provided drivers in the
case of BthAudioHF, it points to the driver with conflicts with HFGService.
 10. Reboot your computer and reinstall Harmony as before. Re-pair the device. You
should find it functions correctly.

And Linux?
While not officially supported by the manufacturer for use with Linux, I threw it in with
my Linux machine running Lubuntu 13.10, and it detected the dongle immediately and
blueman was able to help me run a few file transfers just fine. Unfortunately, audio
stubbornly refused to work, but this is quite a common issue with blueman and bluez.
A comparison of file transfer speeds between the new and old dongle was made under
Linux:
Lets just say, while not as speedy as Wi-Fi, its a pretty decent speed increase.
Conclusion
The Avantree Bluetooth 4.0 MicroUSB dongle is a solidly built Bluetooth dongle
supporting the latest Bluetooth Smart/Low Energy modes. It is based around a quality
Cambridge Silicon Radio CSR8510 A10 bundled with a fully licensed (some lower
priceddongles have issues here) and fully featured CSR Harmony Bluetooth Stack
offering full support for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows XP through to 8 installations.
The dongle also had no problems functioning under the bluez Bluetooth stack under
Lubuntu 13.10 Linux, although support for profiles beyond just file transfer (OBEX) will
depend on your distribution of Linux and troubleshooting skills (as there are many little
compatibility issues between certain Bluetooth managers (e.g. blueman) which may
cause problems).

Additionally, the software supports the apt-X codec which allows for higher quality
Bluetooth stereo audio (A2DP) with compatible CSR apt-X enabled speakers and
headsets. This is a feature which you wont find anywhere else, although I wasnt able to
test this given the peripherals I currently own.

The software is quite easy to use and installs correctly first time on a fresh machine
which has never seen Bluetooth devices before. It also installs correctly on machines
which have previously used other Bluetooth chipsets, but have had their software
removed cleanly (e.g. IVT Bluesoleil, Broadcom/Widcomm).

Unfortunately, if upgrading from a prior CSR Bluetooth device using the operating
systems Bluetooth stack and also CSR drivers from Windows Update for
Headsets/A2DP, you may encounter driver conflicts as I did. This seems to have
affected a few others, and although I managed to work out a method to resolve this, it
doesnt make for a seamless user experience. This is seems to be a problem with CSR
Harmonys installer/uninstaller.
Given its capabilities, I would recommend this product based on the strength of the
Bluetooth stack software, its compact size and decent range. And as usual, Mobilezap
was quick to deliver, flawlessly as always.