Two simultaneous Bluetooth Devices?

I have a 13 with the stock HU. I'm thinking about getting an ipad mini to dedicate to music streaming and Nav via bt audio. But I'd also still like to be able to use my iPhone (stashed in my pocket or bag) for phone calls.

I was wondering if I paired the phone as "phone only" and the ipad as "audio" if the two could be paired simultaneously, if a phone call will mute or duck the Nav audio, etc? I don't have the mini yet so I can't test it myself. Anyone else tried this?

 

I have a '13 Tacoma with stock head unit. I paired my iphone and ipad to the head unit via bluetooth. You can pair two devices, but making or receiving a call mutes the ipad music source, even if you press play again on the ipad while making a call. So there's no real benefit to using the ipad as a music source when your iphone can do the same thing, unless your iphone doesn't have enough memory capacity to hold all the music you want. I don't know if ipad bluetooth-paired navigation would be interrupted by a phone call, it probably would, but you would get it back as soon as you end the call. I use a Dual XGPS-150 bluetooth GPS receiver paired to the ipad when I really need navigation, it works great and is totally separate from the stereo head unit bluetooth.

 

Thanks!

BTW, Almighty says your radio check is 5x5.

 

I have a 1st gen with aftermarket headunit, but have been researching this same thing.

PBR: To answer your question about why you'd want to do this. The reason I'm wanting to do this is to use the ipad mini for navi, internet, video, music, and generally anything media. It serves as a better screen and media consumption device than any other HU I've seen.

It also saves me from having to re-learn a new operating system to do the things I already know how to do with Apple iOS. That said, I want the HU to mute when I get a call. and that's the big unknown with most aftermarket HUs for me so far.

Would be interested in seeing how this goes for you, atebit.

 

This^

Just got back from extended vacation, will probably try this week.

 

I have an 08 with the USA-SPEC BT35 Bluetooth module connected to it, I am not able to pair two devices but have been considering getting an iPad mount for my iPad 4 to use in the truck, as the BT35 uses any Bluetooth audio so I could play rhapsody on it, and use navigation, it will just mute the rhapsody app when Siri talks for maps. I didn't get the 3G version, but I can just tether it to my iPhone so I will have Internet in my truck. Now.... To find a good dash mount...

 

OK, so I tried it for about an hour today in my driveway with my current 3d generation WiFi only iPad running 6.1.3 and my iPhone 5 also running 6.1.3. I'm not sure if there will be any difference when/if I go to the iPad Mini (and whatever iOS version it's running). BT features and behavior in particular appear to vary a lot between releases but hopefully it will continue to work the way I'm describing going forward.

So to preface this discussion, I had already had my iPhone 5 paired with my HU for both phone & audio before I started. I then paired the iPad as the second audio device. When I did it that way, it didn't seem to work the way I wanted it to...I had to keep manually connecting devices as went between listening to the iPad, making a call, turning the ignition on/off, etc.

So I decided to unpair everything & start over again. This time, I paired the iPad first. It took some time to complete the pairing, because the HU kept waiting for the iPad to pair both as a phone & as an audio device. It quickly completed the audio device portion, but it eventually timed out on the phone pairing (which is just as well since I'm not going to use that profile on the iPad). So at this point I had one audio device registered.

Just to minimize the "why don't you just use your iPhone" posts, the goal here is to semi-permanently mount an ipad mini in the cab to use for nav and Internet radio via Tunein, Pandora, what have you. When I drive, I don't feel like having to fish the phone out of my pocket and start up all these apps, put it in a cradle & hook it up to power so the battery doesn't die, etc. I'd rather keep the phone in my pocket & handle calls through the HU/steering wheel, and make the few (if any) music-playing/nav tweaks on the ipad touch screen & handle the rest through the steering wheel. That's another nice thing about the audio profile on the HU...steering whel track up/down works for BT sources on the ipad/iPhone too!

Next I paired my iPhone, and both profiles paired up quickly. After doing the pairing in this order, I found that if both devices were present in the cab, and I turned off/on the ignition, the iPad would pair first for audio, and the iPhone would pair for phone, which is what I wanted. I could make a call, and it would mute/pause the iPad until the call was over, then it would start playing out from the iPad again. I tried this across several ignition off/on cycles to make sure it was behaving consistently.

Next I turned the iPad off & cycled the ignition. This time, the iPhone paired up for phone right away, but the display said "audio device not found" for a little while, then it paired with the iPhone's audio profile, which again to me is what I would expect. Next, I turned off the ignition, re-booted the iPad and after it was up turned the ignition back on. This time, it found the iPad audio profile first and prioritzed that over the iPhone audio profile. The iphone continued to pair up for phone profile.

So far, it ~seems~ to be behaving the way I want it to, but as I said, I've had squirrelly issues with BT in the past, so long-term testing will be required, and I probably won't be driving the Tacoma much the rest of the year until it starts to get cold.

I was really hoping that the HU and/or the devices would give the the option of choosing what profiles to pair on each device to minimize any potential confusion, but it seems like the pairing order ~may~ have something to do with device precedence.

The only thing for sure is that YMMV, so anyone else who's tried this with a late model factory HU feel free to share your experience. Now all I need to do is get off the pot & buy a Mini with cellular service to test it for real...