Olin Lathrop wrote:
>> http://www.BTDongles.com
>>
>> ...
>>
>> Your comments regarding the website and the products are welcome.
>
> I'm a bit confused.  I thought you were making automotive products?  This
> not only seems like a departure, it doesn't seem to be your company 
> either.
>
> What market are you generally in and what is the web site for your 
> company?

Sorry for the confusion, Olin.

The company name is ScanTool.net, LLC. Our core business is PC-based 
automotive diagnostic scan tools, and our main website is 
http://www.ScanTool.net.


In 2006, we felt that there may be a market for a short-range (~100 m) 
wireless scan tool. After testing the waters with external adapters 
(AIRCable, FireFly, etc) we realized that we need something that is easier 
to use, costs significantly less, and can be built into the scan tool. 
Besides being bulky, the external adapters were routinely destroyed by 
customers plugging them into the wrong cable (car battery voltage across 
data pins).

Much effort was spent looking for an off-the-shelf Bluetooth module, 
unfortunately the options available at the time were few, cost more than the 
external adapters, and did not have all of the features we needed. In order 
to meet the requirements (cost, size, features), our only choice was to 
build the module ourselves. The result was the STM4100.


Along the way, we found that the cheap USB to Bluetooth dongles have several 
major flaws:

    * They are not FCC compliant
    * They rely on the BlueSoleil software for operation
    * BlueSoleil software supplied with the dongles is pirated

BlueSoleil was a support nightmare -- it doesn't work reliably, installs two 
dozen virtual COM ports, and is next to impossible to uninstall. So after 
much searching, we found a Class 1 FCC certified dongle that is based on the 
CSR chipset, supported natively by Windows XP and Vista, and is super easy 
to install. The downside is higher cost and MOQ.

Since we are forced to buy/build more dongles and modules than we need for 
the short-term, it made sense to offer them for sale. ScanTool.net website 
is not the best vehicle to sell Bluetooth products, therefore it was decided 
that a new website was necessary, http://www.BTdongles.com. As an added 
bonus, it is being used as a test bed for a new shopping cart and content 
management system that all of our websites will soon be migrating to.


To add to the confusion, we also run another website, 
http://www.OBD2Cables.com. The story is similar to BTdongles.com: we needed 
OBD cables, could not find a good source, and were forced to have them 
custom built in large quantities. So in 2004 we built a website and offered 
the surplus cables to engineers and hobbyists. Single cable orders were soon 
followed by orders for 10,000 cables, and eventually the sales grew to 
account for almost half of our total revenue.


I'm sorry for the long post, but I hope it helped to clear things up.

Vitaliy 

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