Is there a Bluetooth TRRS Headset Adapter for Audio jack on my Chromebook?

10
2014-03
  • amouravski

    My Chromebook has Bluetooth, but as of writing, ChromeOS does not support HSP or A2DP, so I cannot play music or record audio through my Bluetooth wireless headset.

    I very much would like to be able to use my headset for something like Hangouts, so I can talk and hear through my heads.

    The Chromebook does have a TRRS headset jack, which works just fine, so I figured there'd be a device that could interpret Bluetooth as analog, and vice versa. There do exist many devices that either receive or transmit audio over Bluetooth when plugged into a 3.5mm jack, and some devices that purport to do both, but I have not been able to find a device that can transmit and receive at the same time.


    My question for you is thus: does there exist a device that I can buy that will plug into the TRRS jack and be able to connect via Bluetooth to my wireless headset, using HSP or something like that.


    Worst case, I could try to hook up a TRRS splitter that's male TRRS to two female TRS and then hook up a Bluetooth transmitter to the audio TRS and a Bluetooth receiver to the mic TRS, and then tell my headset to receive from the former and transmit to the latter, but that will require several pieces of hardware, and I'm not sure if there would be some weird lag between the transmit/receive that would cause calls to be terrible.

  • Answers
  • Dave

    Found a solution!

    I was in the same boat and extensively researched various Bluetooth devices for a TRRS-compatible solution. Finally I found this unit, the Plantronics Pulsar 260 http://www.amazon.com/Plantronics-UPP260-Pulsar-260-Stereo/dp/B000N8P4R8

    While it doesn't say TRRS anywhere, if you look at the way it works, it utilizes a 2.5mm earbud/inline mic combo, rather than the usual 3.5mm audio-only output w/ an internal mic in the hardware.

    I ordered this + a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter, and it works great with any pair of 3.5mm earbud/mic hardware. Just ensure that the adapter you order has a 4-conductor plug - if you end up with a standard 3-conductor plug you'll lose the mic signal.

    Working great for both music listening and phone calls on an iPhone 5S. As is traditionally the case with Bluetooth, music listening is not super crystal clear 100% of the time - but it's stereo and works well.

  • mechcow

    My understanding of 3.5mm jack's is that they tend to be serial and transmit data in one direction only, e.g. mic jack vs headphone out jack, so I don't think it would be possible to transmit in both directions.

  • Thor84no

    I'm looking for something like this as well (though in reverse) as my car has a TRRS jack in the glove box and I'd rather not mess about with putting my phone in the glove box and plugging it in if I can avoid it. I've found something similar, but unfortunately it's for TRS. It does however imply this should be possible, and it may even be possible to make the TRS plug work with your TRRS jack, it just won't be two-way (and you'll need a converter and my limited experience with those have been universally bad).


  • Related Question

    Bluetooth to 3.5mm audio jack
  • srand

    I want to connect my laptop's (and cellphone's) bluetooth to an audio jack. Of course there has to be some sort of receiver on the audio jack side. Are there any devices for this?


  • Related Answers
  • David Spillett

    Do you mean so that you can play from the laptop via bluetooth to a device you can plug any 3.5mm jack into? If so then yes, several are on the market. http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=160887 is one example. As you can see from that picture the provided earphones connect via a standard jack so you could plug compatible in in their place. Mine, also by Jabra but a clips-to-your-collar affair rather like then the dog-tag look that one has, doesn't seem to be made any more but I'm sure I've seen similar from other manufacturers.

    Your laptop's bluetooth stack would have to support sending audio data over Bluetooth in a fashion that the receiver understands, so you'd have to verify that. I've never used mine this way so I couldn't tell you (mine has always been used with my phone).

  • Paul R

    Does it have to be Bluetooth ? For 802.11 there are low cost solutions like Airport Express which is a very small WiFi router with audio streaming capabilities.

  • srand

    After going through numerous pages on 'Bluetooth to 3.5mm' on Amazon and I think found the device I was looking for. They are called Bluetooth stereo gateways. Ventev SoundCLIP has a wall/car charger, headset output, and supports A2DP (Bluetooth v2.1). My phone supports Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR so it supports A2DP.