BT110 Setup and Deployment -

Setting up BuddyTalk Tablet Controller and Mobile App

Alexa built-in

Setting up and Deploying BT110 in a Home or an Office Environment

Before proceeding to the Tablet Controller and/or Mobile App setup, you should have successfully completed the BT110 device setup. 

Setting up BuddyTalk Tablet Controller and Mobile App

The BuddyTalk products offer multiple modes of call management.  They include:

  1. Voice commands (for example: “Alexa, call John Smith”)
  2. Device touch panel
  3. Companion Mobile App
  4. Tablet Controller
  5. RJ11 POTS phone

While voice commands are useful for call control in many cases, non-voice-commands based call control mechanisms can be more appropriate and/or convenient in some other cases.  The BuddyTalk products offer two context-sensitive GUI-based call control vehicles: the Tablet Controller and the companion Mobile App.  The Tablet Controller and companion Mobile App offer the following features:

  1. Place and manage calls through context-sensitive GUI.
  2. Record/maintain Call History and use Call History to make calls.
  3. Manage Contacts and support Contacts-based calling.
  4. Display the device current call state..
  5. Manage the BuddyTalk device:
    • Control speaker volume
    • Turn on/off muting for Alexa interactions
    • Setup start-of-request/end-of-request sounds

Additionally, the BuddyTalk companion Mobile App offers a private communication mode which uses the mobile phone as the audio input/output (instead of the BuddyTalk device speaker/microphones in a hands-free mode).

Setting up BuddyTalk Tablet Controller

To set up the BuddyTalk Tablet Controller for a specific BuddyTalk BT110 device, the Tablet Controller’s WiFi interface needs to be configured to be in the same subnet as that of the BT110 device it is communicating with, and the Tablet Controller’s WiFi interface needs to be able to reach the external AVS server. 

Note that the Tablet Controller needs to communicate with both the BuddyTalk device and the BuddyTalk Server in the Public Internet.  Therefore, its WiFi interface should be connected to the data network of the BuddyTalk device when the BuddyTalk device is configured with the Dual-Homed network setting. 

Follow the steps below to setup and bind the Tablet Controller to the BT110 device:

  1. Setup the Tablet Controller WiFi interface. Click the WiFi Setup icon on the Main GUI page to enter the WiFi setup. Select the WiFi SSID and enter the WiFi passphrase for the Tablet Controller to connect to the WiFi AP which connects to the same subnet as that of the BT110 device.
  1. Pair the Tablet Controller to the device. Tap Settings, enter the MAC address of the BuddyTalk unit, e.g., 001099xxxxxx, or tap the BAR CODE SCAN icon and use the phone camera to read the device bar code.  Then click NEXT >>
  1. Click the speaker icon, write down the paring code announced from the BT110 speaker, enter the pairing code, and click NEXT >> to complete the pairing process.
  1. Click the START button. The Tablet Controller will return to the main page, and the two icons on the upper right corner will turn green after several seconds if the device to which the Tablet Controller is connected to has successfully completed its ACM and SIP registration/Authorization requirements. Now the Tablet Controller is ready to be used.

The Cloud icon

  • Green Cloud icon, indicating that the BT110 device has successfully completed ACM and SIP registration.
  • Red Cloud icon, indicating that the BT110 device has either failed ACM registration or SIP registration.

The Device icon

  • Green Device icon, indicating that the Tablet Controller has successfully connected to the BuddyTalk device.
  • Red Device icon, indicating that the Tablet Controller has not connected to the BuddyTalk device yet.

Setting up the BuddyTalk Mobile App

The BuddyTalk Mobile App is a companion application running on your mobile device to manage phone calls and contact information. You may download the BuddyTalk Mobile App through Google Play or the Apple App Store.

To set up the BuddyTalk Mobile App for a specific BuddyTalk BT110 device, place the BuddyTalk device physically close to the mobile phone running the BuddyTalk Mobile App before starting the process.  Additionally, the Mobile App‘s WiFi interface needs to be configured to be in the same subnet as that of the BT110 device it is pairing with. 

Note that the BuddyTalk Mobile App needs to communicate with both the BuddyTalk device and the BuddyTalk Server in the Public Internet.  Therefore, its WiFi interface should be connected to the data network of the BuddyTalk device when the BuddyTalk device is configured with the Dual-Homed network setting.

Follow the steps below to setup and bind the Mobile App to the BT110 device.

Tap the Settings icon.

Input the device’s MAC address, such as 001099xxxxxx. Characters are case insensitive, or tap the BAR CODE SCAN icon, and use the phone camera to read the device bar code. Tap NEXT>>
Prepare a pen and paper. Tap the speaker icon  on the screen and the device speaker will announce a 5-digit Pair Code. Input the code to the text box.​ Tap NEXT >>
Once the App successfully pairs with the device and registers to the voice server, the setup process completes. Tap START to exit the setup page. After tapping the START button, the Mobile App will return to the main page, and the two icons on the upper right corner will turn green after several seconds if the device to which the Mobile App is connected to has successfully completed its ACM and SIP registration/Authorization requirements. Now the Tablet Controller is ready to be used.

Once the Mobile App has been setup and paired with the BuddyTalk device, the SETTINGS page provides the following BuddyTalk device settings options:

  1. Check New Version:  tap the CHECK button to check if there are newer Mobile App versions available.  
  2. MAC Address: Showing the MAC address of the BuddyTalk device currently paired with the Mobile App. To remove the pairing, tap the REMOVE button. The Mobile App will then show the Device Setup page to allow the user to re-pair the Mobile App to a different BuddyTalk device.  
  3. Device Authentication: Tapping the RE-PAIR button will trigger the Mobile App to be paired with the BuddyTalk device with the MAC address shown in the MAC Address field.
  4. Alexa Start of Request Sound and Alexa End of Request Sound:  Choose to enable or disable the sound when the BuddyTalk device detects the Alexa Wakeword and at the end of the device listening to Alexa requests respectively. 
  5. Restore Web Console ID/PWTap the RESTORE button to restore the BuddyTalk device’s web console user login ID and password to their factory default values which are on the label pasted on the based of the BuddyTalk device.

The Cloud icon

  • Green Cloud icon, indicating that the BT110 device has successfully completed ACM and SIP registration.
  • Red Cloud icon, indicating that the BT110 device has either failed ACM registration or SIP registration.

The Device icon

  • Green Device icon, indicating that the Mobile App has successfully connected to the BuddyTalk device.
  • Red Device icon, indicating that the Mobile App has not connected to the BuddyTalk device yet.

Import or Edit Mobile App Contacts

The BuddyTalk Mobile App contacts can be imported from your mobile phone, or from other BuddyTalk Mobile Apps or the Tablet Controller which have been paired with the same BuddyTalk device. The contacts can also be edited. Here are the steps to import or edit the Mobile App contacts:

From the HOME page tap CONTACTS, then, tap IMPORT, 

There are three options:

  1. Import from another BuddyTalk Mobile App (or the Tablet Controller)
  2. Merge the existing contacts with your mobile phone contacts
  3. Import from your mobile phone contacts

If ‘Import from another BT App‘ is chose, then, all the other BT Apps and Tablet Controller paired with the BT device will get a ‘Contact Request‘ notification, and those Apps/Tablet Controller which respond with “YES, I AGREE.” will present to the requesting Mobile App as a choice of a source Contacts from which this requesting Mobile App can import contacts from.

Note that since the ACM uses the Alexa App contacts for calling by name, it is highly advised to have the same contacts in the BuddyTalk Mobile App and the Tablet Controller as the contacts in the Alexa App.  To do so, you can import your mobile phone contacts to the Alexa App, and import the same contacts from your mobile phone to the BuddyTalk Mobile App and the Tablet Controller.