Knowledge base

Connect a mobile phone to The Grid 2 with Bluetooth

The Grid 2 allows you to send and receive SMS text messages via your bluetooth mobile phone. These instructions are to guide you through the process of setting up your computer and mobile phone to communicate, and then set up The Grid 2 to find your mobile phone.

1. Install your Bluetooth adaptor

The first step is to install your bluetooth adaptor. Usually this will be a small USB device. When you connect it to your computer, Windows will detect it (which may take a few minutes). When it is ready, you will have a notice saying “your new hardware is installed and ready to use.”

2. Edit your Grid 2 user

The Grid 2 stores separate SMS settings for each user.

• Select the user that you want to send/receive SMS messages.
• Select Edit > User Settings from the menu.
• Select Workspace > SMS from the categories.

3. ‘Pair’ your phone to your computer

The next step is to ‘pair’ your phone with your computer. Bluetooth works by ‘pairing’ devices (such as a computer and a phone) so that they have permission to control each other.

• Click on the Bluetooth Settings button in The Grid 2. These instructions are for Microsoft Bluetooth Drivers. If nothing happens when you click on Bluetooth Settings, you probably have an adaptor that uses the Widcomm driver. The process is similar, but some buttons may have different text and some steps may take place in a different order.
• In Bluetooth Devices, click the button Add…
• Ensure that your phone has Bluetooth turned on, tick the box and click Next.
• Select your phone from the list of available devices, and click Next.
• Allow Windows to choose a passkey and click Next.
• A message will come up on your phone saying that your computer is trying to connect.Type the passkey into your phone.
• Windows will establish connection with your phone. Click Finish to close the Wizard.
• In the Bluetooth Devices window, select the COM Ports tab.
• Check which number has been assigned to the Outgoing port for your phone.
• You might have more than one outgoing COM port for your phone. Use the first one in the list in this case. If there are no outgoing COM ports listed then your phone is not compatible with SMS in The Grid 2.
• Click Ok to close Bluetooth Devices.

4. Setting up The Grid 2 for SMS

You can now configure your Grid 2 user to connect to the mobile phone.

• Select the outgoing COM port for your phone (from the previous stage). If you do not know which one it is, you can click AutoDetect and The Grid 2 will try to determine which port it is.
• Select the country code for phone calls in your country.
• Click on Test to test the connection to the phone. The Grid 2 will connect to the phone and test that it can download the inbox. It will then try to send an SMS – enter a phone number when prompted to test SMS sending, or click cancel to skip this test.

5. Security settings on the phone

Some phones have a security setting that controls how your computer can connect to the phone. This may cause the phone to ask you to click a button each time Grid 2 tries to connect to the phone. The followings settings are for a Sony Erricsson w850i walkman phone:

• Select: Connectivity->Bluetooth->Mydevices
• Scroll through the list of paired devices to select the computer
• Select: More->Allow Connection->Always allow

That’s it! You’re now set up to use your phone with The Grid 2 for SMS messages. Try using our pre-made SMS grids (such as the ones in the “Star Talker” user profile. You might want to set up some friends as your contacts so that you can send them messages.