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Build Your Own Bluetooth Hearing Aid

Posted by michael on from the volume-goes-to-11 dept.

CloudShape writes "I've been trying to find a way to make a mobile phone work with my hearing aids for some years now, and I finally managed it a few days ago. Although the procedure itself is pretty simple, the surrounding issues are good for quite a bit of discussion."

4 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe It's Asking Too Much ... by SteveM · · Score: 4, Informative

    That you RTFA. This is /. after all. But if you did you would have seen:

    No amount of extension cable will make a wired hands-free usable - the wire always conducts enough RFI to cause trouble, regardless of any filters that might be in place.

    So connecting the phone directly to the hearing aid via a wire isn't an option.

    SteveM

  2. Re:Cell phone RF bad... Bluetooth good. by rohan_leader · · Score: 5, Informative

    edit:

    Seems as if Phonak has their own deal called SmartLink. No sign of a Widex version like I said earlier, but again, it's planned but may not exist.

    I'm going to be looking into this since I have a Phonak Claro hearing aid that I bought a year ago. Finally can use those cellphones now!

    For those of you who are wondering, hearing aid users experience an extremely loud crackling sound when using the cell phone normally. If we use the telephone switch which make use of built in telecoils in some cell phones, a loud buzzing sound overpowers the voice coming out of the phone. It's very annoying indeed. Some phones, amazingly, do not have these problems. I once tried my friends phone made by Samsung, and it was amazingly clear! Just a bit of advice, in case, anyone was wondering :)

  3. Re:Cell phone RF bad... Bluetooth good. by gr8fulnded · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use a Kyocera 2035 without any problems. I'm profoundly deaf (HA model escapes me at the moment).

    The phone itself is a "brick" according to my friends that have new ones smaller then my thumb, but I'm hesitant to upgrade because it simply WORKS. I've used friends' fancy new Nokias and they just don't do the job. Crappy telecoils or something? I don't know, but my 3.5 yr old Kyocera keeps working for me...

    --Dave

  4. Re:Am I missing something? by J2000_ca · · Score: 3, Informative

    RTFA - "No amount of extension cable will make a wired hands-free usable - the wire always conducts enough RFI to cause trouble, regardless of any filters that might be in place." Wires really transmit. I used some spare wire to wrap around my wireless to boast the signal.