Sennheiser BW900 Firmware Upgrade

The BW900 is an extraordinarily good Bluetooth microphone and works beautifully when connected to a cell phone, to a wired telephone and when connected via an appropriate wired connection to a personal computer. Because it contains firmware aimed at older vintage pc bluetooth drivers, the BW900 as sold in recent times has not been capable of making a direct bluetooth connection to a PC.

Sennheiser has finally made available the firmware upgrade which will allow communication with current vintage pc bluetooth drivers. We are happy to provide you with a download to the new firmware files and share the method of upgrading. Please note that the instructions below are based on a Windows XP operating system and assume you have a bluetooth equipped PC or cell phone.

[Note: the actual use of a bluetooth microphone with Dragon and other software can sometimes be tricky and detailed methods may depend upon your pc, operating system, and if used, the bluetooth dongle which you are using. We have tested this using Windows XP SP3 and an Anycom USB-250 bluetooth adapter.]

Basic Steps:

1. Download the firmware file by clicking on the following link and saving the file to a folder on your hard drive. It will be a zip file named "BW900x24.zip"

Download Zip File with BW900 Firmware Upgrade Files

2. Extract the file from the downloaded files. This is done by right clicking on the file and selecting "extract all". This will create a folder with two files in it: BW900HSx24 and BW900BSx24. These represent the respective files you will need for upgrading firmware on the headset and base station.

3. Update the Headset as follows:

• Prepare to send the file BW900HSx24 BIN file from either your bluetooth equipped PC or cell phone, but do not initiate the send.
  
  
• Bring the BW900 headset into the paring mode by holding both multi-volume and hook button down for about 4 seconds. The LED will flash alternating red and blue.
  
  
• Double quick push the hook button on the BW900 headset hook button 3 times. If you do this correctly the blue and red LEDs will light simultaneously, providing a generally purple color. (This step can be confusing and involves repeated double taps on the headset hook button, i.e., tap-tap .... tap-tap ... tap-tap until the LED shines purple!)
  
  
• Send the BW900HSx24 BIN file from your mobile phone or pc. (right click and select "Send To" and select "Bluetooth Device". If necessary select browse in order to find the device called BW900 HS XXXXX). If asked choose not to select a passkey. The actual transfer will take a couple of minutes
  
  
• Verification is done by bringing the BW900 headset in paring mode and thereafter double push the headset button. The LED will here blink double as fast red/blue. If you conduct a bluetooth search for the headset it should broadcast 1.24
  

4. Update the base station as follows:

• Prepare to send the file BW900BSx24 file from either your bluetooth equipped PC or cell phone, but do not initiate the send
  
  
• Bring the BW900 base station into the paring mode by opening the door on the left side of the base and double pushing the PRG button. The LED on the front of the base will flash red/blue
  
  
• Double push the right hook button on the top front of the base station 3 times until the LED turns purple (please note: we are saying double-tap three times and not 3 single taps!)
  
  
• Initiate the send of the BW900BSx24 (right click and select "Send To" and select "Bluetooth Device". If necessary select browse in order to find the device called BW900 BS XXXXX). If asked, choose not to select a passkey.
  
  
• Verification is done by bringing the BW900 base station into pairing mode and double push the hook-button - The red/blue will blink double speed. If you conduct a bluetooth device search th base station should be broadcasting the 2.4 number.

5. Verification:

• Bring the headset or base station into the paring mode as described above - it will flash alternating blue and blue
  
  
• Double tap on the hook button (base station or headset depending on which you are verifying) - the LED will now flash in a constant purple.
  
  
• If you now search for available bluetooth devices from either your bluetooth phone or PC, it will broadcast the current firmware version (for the headset 1.24 and base 2.24)

Acknowledgements: We thank Peter Maddern at Speech Empowered Computing and David Frost at DNS Wireless for their contributions to the instructions shown above. Thanks also to Sennheiser Technical Support for providing the ugrade files and basic upgrade instructions.