Don,
You’re absolutely right. I haven’t used a phone in so long I have a lot to learn. I do have to be sure the phone clip is connected as a headset but then pressing the phone clip is all I have to do. I don’t even have to lift the handset out of its cradle. Amazing :D.
Thanks!
Hello all,
I have new Siemens Carat 5BX aids and an easyTek pendant. The system uses bluetooth to connect to landline base phone and cell phones (the easyTek acts as a mike and a remote for volume, etc - pictures here if of interest https://global.hearing.siemens.com/news/press/new-remote-control-and-smart-phone-app-for-siemens-hearing-aids/).
The problem - My phone is a single handset Panasonic KX-TG7731. Connecting (pairing) my aids to it seems to work fine, to a point. I can do everything when someone calls me (receive a call by just pushing the easyTek button, hang-up when done) but I have yet to master calling out. Anyone have some step-by-step advice? No doubt it is something simple I am missing (I hope!). I’m about 10-15 feet away so in range there.
Thank you in advance for any help!
John
The hearing aids should automatically start streaming when you make the call using the handset, but if not, press both volume buttons together on the easyTek to establish the connection.
I think you have to dial the call from the handset. I don’t know of a way to dial out from the streamer.
Don,
Although the Panasonic documentation says you should be able to make a cell phone call using the Panasonic through its link to cell function. That didn’t work for me. Do you do that? Can you give me some specifics on how to do it?
The documentation:
a. The unit can be used to talk on 2 lines at
the same time (for example, 2 cellular lines,
or the landline and 1 cellular line).
b. Only 2 Bluetooth devices can be used with
the unit at the same time (for example, 2
cellular lines, or the headset and 1 cellular
line).
c. Before making calls, confirm that the
corresponding CELL indicator on the base
unit lights up (page 15).
1 Lift the handset and dial the phone
number.
To correct a digit, press [CLEAR].
2 [CELL]
d.The unit starts dialing when:
– only 1 cellular phone is paired
Go to step 4.
4 When you finish talking, press [OFF] or
place the handset on the base unit or
charger.
I did as instructed, I think. The headset light was on and the cell light said 1.
Nothing happened. I’m missing something for sure.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
What do you do to start the cell call? With a landline you press the talk button, then dial the number. With a cell call how does that work? Do you dial the number then press talk?
Don, I’ve actually made some progress, but not quite enough. I’ll keep experimenting. Here’s exactly what I did:
I made sure that the phone clip and cellphone were connected on the Panasonic. On the panasonic base the headset light and cell light are green. I made sure the cellphone bluetooth said Panasonic Dect phone and Hearing Aid Phone were connected.
I picked up the handset. Pressed [CELL] on the handset. Dialed the number and waited. (I called my husband’s cellphone) It takes a number of seconds before it starts ringing. His phone rings. He picks it up. He can hear me but I can’t hear him. I don’t know whether my voice is coming to him from the Panasonic, my cellphone, or the phone clip. All three devices are near me at my desk. His voice isn’t coming to my hearing aids. Since he’s in another room, I can’t hear him.
I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with the phone clip during this process. I tried pressing the call icon on the phone clip but nothing happens except at some point the call is ended.
I’ll do a little more experimenting tomorrow. I just wish there were some sort of window on the phone clip to let you know what’s going on.
It may not make a difference but you could try this; make sure the phone clip+ is not connected to the cell phone while you are calling through the Panasonic. You want the phone clip+ to be the headset for the Panasonic and nothing else. The Panasonic is handling the fact that the actual call may come through a landline or a cell line, and using the phoneclip+ as the headset. So then, when you make a call you should be able to hear it through the handset. Then if you press the button on the phone clip+ it should take over the call. Make sure the volume is up on the phone clip+. If pressing the button ends the call then it does sound like the phone clip+ had the call.
To disconnect the cell phone from the phone clip+ you will have to go to the list of bluetooth devices on the cell phone (after making sure the phone clip+ is powered on) and make sure the phone clip+ is not connected to the cell phone.
Thank you Rasmus andDon! I tried this before, but apparently not patiently enough. This time I made sure the base showed the headset ‘green’ light, picked up the handset, picked a number out of the directory on the phone, pressed call, and while dialing pressed the volume buttons simultaneously. Did not work right away, but I recalled reading something on here about a few seconds delay. So, second attempt, holding the easyTek volume buttons a bit longer I finally heard the phone dialing ‘in my head’! I put the handset down in the base and went on with my call. Fantastic! Now I can call my family (and hear them - the sound was crystal clear!) long distance at land line rates, rather than cell rates.
Thanks Don, for the suggestions.
I made two experiments:
- Disconnected phone clip from cell phone. Left it connected to Panasonic. Made sure my hearing aids were connected to the phone clip by pressing the white button. Made sure Panasonic was linked to the Nexus 5. Made sure Nexus 5 showed BT connection to Panasonic. Then picked up Panasonic, clicked on [cell]. Dialed number. Chose [cell] again. Cellphone lights up and dials. Husband picks up his phone. He can hear me. I can’t hear him. Maximized volume on Panasonic, phone clip, and cellphone. Made sure volume of the phone I called was maximized. No success. I hang up.
- Tried the reverse BT connections with phone clip. Disconnected phone clip from Panasonic, connected phone clip to cell phone. Picked up Panasonic, chose [cell] as before, dialed, chose [cell] again. Cellphone lights up and dials. Husband picks up his cellphone but call ends itself immediately. I hear dial tone. That is the same situation I had when the phone clip was connected to both Panasonic and cell phone.
In situation 1 above, at least the phone call happens. I just can’t hear the called although the called can hear me.
Eva
I just got my new Starkey aids with Surflink and have good results calling and receiving calls from my cellphone. I have been thinking of getting the Panasonic phones for my landline and am a bit hesitant. I also have a Bluetooth adapter on my TV streamed into my aids and have a Tablet connected. I find I spend a lot of time with these Bluetooth connections, not necessarily paring but maintaining connections. My cellphone and hearing aid to a better job of keeping the connection but not the other items.
How does the Panasonic phone do for pairing and maintaining connection?
When the phone call is made, you should be able to hear the call in the Panasonic handset. If that is not happening maybe there is another problem. If that is the case, that when the call connects you cannot hear the call on the handset, then I would try this. Turn off the phone clip+ and try to make a CELL call just using the Panasonic handset.
The only thing missing in your description was pressing the phone clip+ button to take over the call once the call connects.
I have the Resound Phone Clip+ and I end up managing which devices are connected. It can only connect to two at a time and I will be streaming TV from the TV transmitter, which is not bluetooth, and it streams directly to the hearing aids, and either the laptop or the tablet will interrupt the TV signal with the very important information of a beep or key click so I end up turning things off more than anything else.
When I used the Panasonic phone bluetooth function it connected every time I got in range of the Panasonic base. What I didn’t like about it is that bluetooth is built into the base and not the handsets so it only works about 25-30 feet from the base. We have our phone base in the bedroom so it would barely work in the living room and not at all in the kitchen.
I’ve been waiting to get back into this thread till I got some fitting help with the Phone Clip which was screaming loud even with the volume set down as far as it would go. Got that fixed.
Today I made my first landline call to a customer service number using my Panasonic link2cell phone. I made sure the phone clip was on and bluetooth connected to the Panasonic. I lifted the handset, dialed the number and pressed talk. I could just barely make out holding the handset to my hearing aid that it was ringing so I pressed the phone button on the phone clip. After a short delay I heard the connecting melody and another short delay and I could hear the menu offered on the customer service site. I also have a caption phone which complements my poor word discrimination though the captioning isn’t much better than what the automatic Google captions offer. I lifted the handset on the caption phone and set it on my desk. Captioning began. I have in the past used a Panasonic phone with a T-coil neckloop together with the caption phone with no problems. I now have no T-coil setting on my Saxo HAs so I’m trying the bluetooth phone clip method.
The customer service menu asked me to enter selections, like my id number and other choices on the phone number pad. I punched in the numbers on the Panasonic. Nothing happened. The menu choices were repeated. Still could not get any numbers to be recognized. The site allows voice choices. That almost worked. It accepted some of my choices though repeating my date of birth was not recognized. It would have been easy to punch it in on the phone but that again, just didn’t work.
Don, have you or anyone else been able to enter numbers while the phone clip is being used? Is there something I’m missing?
I don’t think I’ve ever tried that. It sounds like the call is going through the Phone Clip+ and the Panasonic handset is not connected to the call at all. When you use the cell phone for that same scenario the cell phone still retains the key ability, so you might have to use the cell phone for those types of calls.
Don, Cellphone probably would work. Unfortunately my caption phone only works with landline. I need the caption phone to supplement what I don’t understand with just a phone. The next time I have to make a phone call that requires number input from the phone I will see if I can input the numbers on the caption phone. It is entirely independent of the Panasonic/Bluetooth/phone clip system.
Hello. I would like to input my experience on connecting Bluetooth to the landline. I’ve recently received Phonak aids with the ComPilot neckloop, which as one of its functions, receives Bluetooth signals. I was reading this thread, I was thinking of purchasing a new cordless land line unit with Bluetooth enabled, but as was mentioned in the discussions, only the base unit has the Bluetooth.
What I was able to figure out that, since I am a Comcast Voice user (landline phone), that there is an app that can be installed on my Smartphone called Xfinity Connect. This app pairs your smartphone to your landline via wifi. When your landline phone rings, your smartphones preset alert goes off along with you hearing chimes, you would then press the button on your streamer, the ComPilot in my case, and that answers the call. When you are done, press the button to end the call. Also when the phone rings, my smartphone screen activates with the callers ID and ’Answer’ or ‘Reject’ buttons. Since my ComPilot is always paired to my smartphone, it’s one less pairing that has to me made and constantly assured with the landline. I find that this is a works very well for me, in that I never could hear well using any type of land line without using headsets with my t ‘coils.
Also, I read on a previous post that a user was using a system for captioning. You can still use it, put you would have t0 lift the handset, and maybe either walk away from the handset or cover the mouthpiece. The captioning doesn’t work well when it hears your voice from two sources.
I just spoke with Panasonic Tech support. I used the keypad on my CaptionCall phone to input the numbers needed for menu selections. Tech support confirmed that when using a headset (phone clip in my case) the handset is disabled. So what he told me was that to make a phone call I would need to use the handset for all required input before engaging the headset. I mentioned that the purpose of the headset was to hear what couldn’t be heard using the handset. He essentially said, in less direct words, sorry, you’re screwed.
Very cool! So the landline call would be available to your cell phone app throughout your wifi range?
Don.
I may have miss stated on the wifi part, because I can also receive landline phone calls on my smartphone no matter where I am. My smartphone is also set up to use wifi instead of my carrier (Verizon) when it can, so it always searching for wifi availability.
The app on my smartphone is linked from my carrier to Comcast and my home phone number.
Also, If I am to understand correctly, that you can make long distance calls using your smartphone thru your home phone number, and not get stuck with roaming charges. You can also access you voicemail, Email, Text, among other things. Here’s the link to the Comcast site. Also check out the Frequently Asked Questions link when you get to that page.
For Android Phone and other devices: http://xfinity.comcast.net/learn/internet/mobile-android/
For IPhone and other devices: http://xfinity.comcast.net/learn/internet/mobile-iphone-itouch-ipad/
(coming up for air)
ANYWAYS… The whole point of this discussion was connecting via Bluetooth to you homes landline. I find that since I usually have my smartphone on my person, that with the connection of my smartphone to the my landline as noted above, there is no point for me, OR even an normal hearing person to lug a home phones handset around with them. And I do all the communication thru my ComPilot via Bluetooth, and I can actually hear conversations better now.
Yes VERY cool. 