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Toggle Bluetooth with keyboard?

stoid

stoid

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 17, 2002
4,312
29
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
I have a PowerBook that I hook (in clamshell mode) to a 23" ACD at home and I use a Bluetooth mouse. To save battery in class, I turn off bluetooth since I just use the trackpad. Then, when I get home, it's a hassle to have to open up the laptop after it's plugged into monitor, firewire, usb, and everything to then have to pull it out and try to navigate up to the menu to turn bluetooth back on.

Can I set up a hot-key to turn bluettoth on, or toggle it on/off?

Thanks!
 
I can't imagine that bluetooth drains battery that quickly, I would just leave it on and not worry about it. I mean, my phone has it and I never turn it off and my phone lasts a few days between charges.
 
wwooden said:
I can't imagine that bluetooth drains battery that quickly, I would just leave it on and not worry about it. I mean, my phone has it and I never turn it off and my phone lasts a few days between charges.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth does take lots of batteries, just like how the wireless does, so it is good to turn it off whenever possible.

I couldn't find any way to create a shortcut, but then again, i don't know much about making short cuts:p

There may be a way, but I don't know how
 
ebouwman said:
Bluetooth does take lots of batteries, just like how the wireless does, so it is good to turn it off whenever possible.

I couldn't find any way to create a shortcut, but then again, i don't know much about making short cuts:p

There may be a way, but I don't know how
Click to expand...

Actually, you're completely wrong. Bluetooth is DESIGNED to consume TINY amounts of power. That's why it's A) slow, and B) very small range. WiFi takes up a far greater amount of power than Bluetooth does. This is why Bluetooth can be used in very small devices like cell phones with little impact on battery life. I wouldn't worry about it.
 
stoid said:
I have a PowerBook that I hook (in clamshell mode) to a 23" ACD at home and I use a Bluetooth mouse. To save battery in class, I turn off bluetooth since I just use the trackpad. Then, when I get home, it's a hassle to have to open up the laptop after it's plugged into monitor, firewire, usb, and everything to then have to pull it out and try to navigate up to the menu to turn bluetooth back on.

Can I set up a hot-key to turn bluettoth on, or toggle it on/off?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Do you have a network in your home that you connect to?
If so, you could use this to automatically toggle bluetooth whenever you join your home network. If we can figure out how to toggle bluetooth...
 
Code: 
tell application "System Preferences"
	activate
	set current pane to pane "com.apple.preferences.Bluetooth"
	
	tell application "System Events"
		if (UI elements enabled) then
			tell process "System Preferences"
				try
					click radio button 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
					click button 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
					
					tell application "System Preferences"
						quit
					end tell
					
					return 1
				on error
					return 2
				end try
			end tell
		else
			return 0
		end if
	end tell
end tell

Here's my Applescript for Toggling Bluetooth. Works almost exactly like that Bluetooth program posted above.

I have one for Airport too if anyone wants.
 
i know i'm a little bit late with this BUT you can press CTRL - F8 and it brings you to the Bluetooth drop down menu then just use the arrow key and enter to disable bluetooth.
 
Bluetoggle

i have always wanted something like this as well since i got my powerbook a couple of years ago. i actually wrote an application to toggle bluetooth and i just recently made it available on the web. i have been using it myself for a while now and you can get it at http://www.axoniclabs.com/Bluetoggle/

enjoy :)
 
is there something to toggle airport?
that app works nicely, easy to install easy to set the shortcut, works perfectly.
 
GimmeSlack12 said:
I have one for Airport too if anyone wants.
Click to expand...

Code: 
tell application "Internet Connect"
	activate
	tell application "System Events"
		
		tell window 1 of process "Internet Connect"
			tell button "Airport" of tool bar 1
				click
				
			end tell
			
			if exists button "Turn AirPort On" then
				
				tell application "Internet Connect" --brings the following dialog window to the front, allowing you to hit the return key to cancel, otherwise you'd have to click on the dialog window to bring it to the front - as I had to do in my first attempt.
					
				end tell
				
				tell button "Turn Airport On"
					click
				end tell
				say "Airport, On"
				
			else
				tell application "Internet Connect" --brings the following dialog window to the front
					
				end tell
				
				tell button "Turn Airport Off"
					click
				end tell
				say "Airport, Off"
			end if
			
		end tell
		
	end tell
	quit
end tell

Here is the Airport toggle code.
 
wouldn't that be a little slow though because from the looks of the code it seems that it has to open system prefs then close it.
 
ebouwman said:
wouldn't that be a little slow though because from the looks of the code it seems that it has to open system prefs then close it.
Click to expand...
The script above doesn't do anything with System Preferences.
Do you mean "Internet Connect"?

Even though it has to open Internet Connect is is just as fast as the script below which open nothing.

This script will only work if you have the AirPort menu extra (the little icon in the menu bar that tells you your signal strength) enabled.

Code: 
tell application "System Events" to tell the front menu bar of process "SystemUIServer"
	set menu_extras to value of attribute "AXDescription" of menu bar items
	repeat with i from 1 to the length of menu_extras
		if item i of menu_extras is "airport menu extra" then
			set airport_extra to i
			exit repeat
		end if
	end repeat
	tell menu bar item airport_extra
		click
		tell 2nd menu item of front menu
			click
		end tell
	end tell
end tell
 
wwooden said:
I can't imagine that bluetooth drains battery that quickly, I would just leave it on and not worry about it.
Click to expand...

I think I switched bluetooth off once on my Macbook and I got an extra minute of battery life out of 3 hours. Switching airport off added about 5 minutes
 
Eraserhead said:
I think I switched bluetooth off once on my Macbook and I got an extra minute of battery life out of 3 hours. Switching airport off added about 5 minutes
Click to expand...

i usually get a lot more than 5 minutes extra for switching off wireless, it probably has to do with the fact that my computer would allways be looking for a network to connect to, then if it does find one it has to stay connected, also running apps like MSN or iChat are allways using the internet.
 
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