Sena/Com Recommendations?

[Ryan_c_F]

My SMH5 interfaced really well with the voice commands from my Galaxy Note 2, but unfortunately it doesn't work with the LG V10. Super lame.

[Bad324]

1 hour ago, ScubaCinci said:

That is one of the best reasons for getting a headset/intercom. You can send or respond to texts on the fly, check weather, traffic, without having to stop, pull of your gloves, pull out the phone, etc. If you have the phone mounted, it saves you from having to be looking at it while you're riding while doing the above.

It's great until that bitch Siri can't understand what I'm saying half the time. Then I start swearing at her and it sends that as a text

[ScubaCinci]

I'm sure it heavily depends on your helmet model, how much wind protection your bike has, the sound level of your exhaust, and what your speed is - not necessarily in that order.

Edited September 16, 2016 by ScubaCinci

[ricer1]

I've only used the voice command for "play music" when I forgot to start the iphone music. 

[DerekClouser]

I just press the button on the SENA to initiate voice commands and then speak the command and it works everytime, the first time. 

[Tonik]

So i thought i had a wu tang mix going for on the way home. Somehow i put CREAM on repeat. I got that one down now. Gonna rush the stage Friday and steal a mic and join in. @Casper is in charge if recording it for youtube.

 

[Helmutt]

On 9/15/2016 at 10:41 AM, what said:

bell star?

 

not that I do much interstate riding anyway...

Sorry for the delay.  Yes sir, Bell Star.  It's a noisy bitch, but I love the airflow, it's lightweight ( carbon ), and no significant buffeting at speed.  Although I'm leaning towards a modular for my next helmet.  Bell Revolver maybe?

[what]

5 minutes ago, Hellmutt said:

Sorry for the delay.  Yes sir, Bell Star.  It's a noisy bitch, but I love the airflow, it's lightweight ( carbon ), and no significant buffeting at speed.  Although I'm leaning towards a modular for my next helmet.  Bell Revolver maybe?

I like my Star better than I liked my RF-1000. It is a bit noisy though, damn ear vents. 

[swingset]

I'm on my 3rd Sena 20s.

Overall it's a good unit, and when it works it's just awesome....but I think it's a flawed product that could be a lot better. 4 of the 5 guys I ride with have the 20s, and group communciation is always a fucking pain...people drop off, pairings don't retain, we end up fussing with it at every stop. Annoying as fuck, everyone's technically savvy, all matching settings, firmware, they just don't play nice in a big group. Now, pairing with 1 other person? Pretty flawless, and the features rock.

The other issue I've had is a bad base on one of my units (wouldn't ever seat correctly, lost audio on one channel). Sena replaced it, the second unit worked for a while but kept locking up, requiring a hard-reset with a paper clip...replaced that one too. The 3rd unit has been good so far.

My experience is not rare, btw, here's a big thread on the 20s and a lot of people have had some niggling issues.

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/sena-s20-experience.993790/

Would I buy the 20s again? Probably, it's so nice when it works, but I think for the $$ they charge, it's got too many bugs and the build quality isn't there.

Edited September 17, 2016 by swingset

[Tonik]

I would suspect the dropping issues are due to range.  Larger groups would be more spread out..more hills and curves between riders.  I honestly don't get from a tech standpoint how they can claim a 1.2 mile range.  That is far beyond anything I have ever seen from bluetooth.

Not complaining, as I have made clear I won't be pairing with anyone.  At least not anyone that is alive.

And I am very happy with mine.  The battery life is wonderful.

[JustinNck1]

Yes, people will drop if out of range for a certain amount of time. For long range connections, CB radio is still king, but I use my sena for primarily music and in town navigating.

[Helmutt]

The range was line of sight, and also extended from pairing 8 riders ( I think ).  So a total of over a mile between the 1st and 8th rider because of the pairing sequence.  That's another issue, if you dont ride in the order you're paired, the pairing will be sparse and problematic.  The 1st rider to pair needs to lead, then sequentially to the last rider ( ie, A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E, etc )

[Tonik]

Ahh, a sequential relay system. Genius.

[Helmutt]

3 minutes ago, Tonik said:

Ahh, a sequential relay system. Genius.

Yup.  Sena wasn't technically lying about the range, but it's not possible between just 2 riders.  

Now, you can BT to your phones and stay linked via a call - but in the mountains it would surely still drop out due to lack of signal in some places.

[Tonik]

6 minutes ago, Hellmutt said:

Yup.  Sena wasn't technically lying about the range, but it's not possible between just 2 riders.  

Now, you can BT to your phones and stay linked via a call - but in the mountains it would surely still drop out due to lack of signal in some places.

Now if I get out of range of someone that I am paired with...and they get caught back up do we automagically reconnect?

[Helmutt]

17 minutes ago, Tonik said:

Now if I get out of range of someone that I am paired with...and they get caught back up do we automagically reconnect?

Yup.  Wife and I go through this the last few Epic rides.  They disconnect until we're back in range, then they repair automatically

[swingset]

On 9/17/2016 at 10:11 AM, Tonik said:

I would suspect the dropping issues are due to range.  Larger groups would be more spread out..more hills and curves between riders.  I honestly don't get from a tech standpoint how they can claim a 1.2 mile range.  That is far beyond anything I have ever seen from bluetooth.

Not complaining, as I have made clear I won't be pairing with anyone.  At least not anyone that is alive.

And I am very happy with mine.  The battery life is wonderful.

 

Range isn't the issue...it'll happen when we're bunched up in traffic. Occasionally someone disappears from the group. I've experienced range issues, they're precipitated by static, loss of signal, beeping as it tries to re-establish. This is different.

Also, ANY disconnect from the group and re-entry (via switching to a call, someone's listening to music for a while, or we re-start things at a stop) things are screwed up. Sometimes you come back in to the 4-way group and you can only hear two guys, etc. Then, without anything changing, same guy drops out and back in, and it's working. Sometimes a soft reboot helps, but it shouldn't require that and it's a pain.

It ain't just one bad unit, either, we've tested around that. There have been other bugs...like I'll take a call, and the group can hear my call (and whoever's on the phone with me) not supposed to happen. Even SENA's stumped about that one.

I'm not saying every person who has a 20s has or will have these issues, obviously that's not the case but read the ADV thread posted - problems are rampant.

I wish it wasn't the case, I want to love the unit but it's a buggy fuck...no two ways about it.

 

[Perception]

Is the 20S the only one that allows for communication with multiple people at the same time?

[Helmutt]

1 hour ago, Perception said:

Is the 20S the only one that allows for communication with multiple people at the same time?

No sir, I believe most of Sena's products allow multiple rider connectivity.  The 20S is just the most modern and multi-functional unit.  

@swingset hopefully you get things sorted with yours.  I've not had issues like you're having, but the base on mine has recently become quirpy where my left speaker doesn't function without me manipulating the unit on the base.  Likely a bad connection, I need to clean the contacts on both to see if that's the culprit

[DerekClouser]

On 9/16/2016 at 10:10 PM, swingset said:

I'm on my 3rd Sena 20s.

Overall it's a good unit, and when it works it's just awesome....but I think it's a flawed product that could be a lot better. 4 of the 5 guys I ride with have the 20s, and group communciation is always a fucking pain...people drop off, pairings don't retain, we end up fussing with it at every stop. Annoying as fuck, everyone's technically savvy, all matching settings, firmware, they just don't play nice in a big group. Now, pairing with 1 other person? Pretty flawless, and the features rock.

The other issue I've had is a bad base on one of my units (wouldn't ever seat correctly, lost audio on one channel). Sena replaced it, the second unit worked for a while but kept locking up, requiring a hard-reset with a paper clip...replaced that one too. The 3rd unit has been good so far.

My experience is not rare, btw, here's a big thread on the 20s and a lot of people have had some niggling issues.

http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/sena-s20-experience.993790/

Would I buy the 20s again? Probably, it's so nice when it works, but I think for the $$ they charge, it's got too many bugs and the build quality isn't there.

 

On 9/17/2016 at 10:11 AM, Tonik said:

I would suspect the dropping issues are due to range.  Larger groups would be more spread out..more hills and curves between riders.  I honestly don't get from a tech standpoint how they can claim a 1.2 mile range.  That is far beyond anything I have ever seen from bluetooth.

Not complaining, as I have made clear I won't be pairing with anyone.  At least not anyone that is alive.

And I am very happy with mine.  The battery life is wonderful.

 

On 9/17/2016 at 10:46 AM, JustinNck1 said:

Yes, people will drop if out of range for a certain amount of time. For long range connections, CB radio is still king, but I use my sena for primarily music and in town navigating.

 

On 9/17/2016 at 10:48 AM, Hellmutt said:

The range was line of sight, and also extended from pairing 8 riders ( I think ).  So a total of over a mile between the 1st and 8th rider because of the pairing sequence.  That's another issue, if you dont ride in the order you're paired, the pairing will be sparse and problematic.  The 1st rider to pair needs to lead, then sequentially to the last rider ( ie, A-B, B-C, C-D, D-E, etc )

You guys should check out Fusar.   They are an up and coming company that has recently released a free app on your phone that allows you pair to your SENA or their product called the Mohawk.  They claim you can have limitless communication distance.  One could be in Florida and one could be in Ohio and still talking over your SENA.  The app, also, allows you to start rides and it will track your route, avg speed, top speed, distance traveled, time etc.  If you are using their mohawk, they have safety features implemented where it can tell if you've crashed and automatically alert a preset set of people with your location and time of crash and the Mohawk will blackbox all the information prior to the crash.   All the mohawk stuff is irrelevant to this conversation, but their APP is free and does quite a bit without purchasing any of their stuff.  

On top of it, they went out and said anyone who pre-ordered a Skull helmet and lost out on their $1500, they would issue them a $1500 coupon for any of the FUSAR products and would even let you split it up and give coupons to other people.  That's a huge investment for a company that has nothing to do with what happened at Skully.  They seem like the genuinely care about the motorcycling community.

I've personally downloaded the app and played with it very briefly.  I'd like to do a full test with the SENA.  I'm not sure if it uses the cell phone data, cell signal, or something else to communicate.  If it uses data or cell signal, I'm not sure how well that would work in the country roads, etc.  

 

Just an idea. 

 

After further review it appears you may have to purchase their handlebar remote to get the unlimited distance comm. 

 

FUSAR's Unlimited-Range Bluetooth Communications System includes the FUSAR F7 Universal Bluetooth Headset and Handlebar Remote Control. This system is compatible with nearly any helmet and any handlebar, and it allows you to have unlimited-range Push-To-Talk capabilities with any other Bluetooth headset, no matter the brand (requires other users to have Handlebar Remote Control).

Edited September 19, 2016 by DerekClouser

[JustinNck1]

1 minute ago, DerekClouser said:

 

 

 

You guys should check out Fusar.   They are an up and coming company that has recently released a free app on your phone that allows you pair to your SENA or their product called the Mohawk.  They claim you can have limitless communication distance.  One could be in Florida and one could be in Ohio and still talking over your SENA.  The app, also, allows you to start rides and it will track your route, avg speed, top speed, distance traveled, time etc.  If you are using their mohawk, they have safety features implemented where it can tell if you've crashed and automatically alert a preset set of people with your location and time of crash and the Mohawk will blackbox all the information prior to the crash.   All the mohawk stuff is irrelevant to this conversation, but their APP is free and does quite a bit without purchasing any of their stuff.  

On top of it, they went out and said anyone who pre-ordered a Skull helmet and lost out on their $1500, they would issue them a $1500 coupon for any of the FUSAR products and would even let you split it up and give coupons to other people.  That's a huge investment for a company that has nothing to do with what happened at Skully.  They seem like the genuinely care about the motorcycling community.

I've personally downloaded the app and played with it very briefly.  I'd like to do a full test with the SENA.  I'm not sure if it uses the cell phone data, cell signal, or something else to communicate.  If it uses data or cell signal, I'm not sure how well that would work in the country roads, etc.  

 

Just an idea. 

I was in Fusar's beta program, seemed like a decent company. I made it to the last group or so before they sent out demo units. This was when they were pushing for the smart helmet instead of the Mohawk. I talked to the CEO once, pretty nice guys.

[DerekClouser]

Just now, JustinNck1 said:

I was in Fusar's beta program, seemed like a decent company. I made it to the last group or so before they sent out demo units. This was when they were pushing for the smart helmet instead of the Mohawk. I talked to the CEO once, pretty nice guys.

I've also spoke with them and they do seem like good people.  

I like the fact they are creating a product that is universal to any helmet so you can transfer the product if you switch helmets, etc, rather than what Skully was doing where you were required to purchase a new Skully helmet. 

[Tonik]

49 minutes ago, DerekClouser said:

I'm not sure if it uses the cell phone data, cell signal, or something else to communicate.

Well, it either uses cell, data or magic.  Those are the only three choices.  Magic is out I think.  Cell is also out since Cell can only make phone calls, so yea it uses data.  In the middle of no where it won't work. But it is a very slick system and outstanding company.

For emergency crash calls, ride recording and lean and all that I have an app called Eat Sleep Ride that does all that.  It senses the phone changing angle suddenly and the impact and the fact it isn't moving anymore and will text and call and email your location to any contacts you set up.  It also records your ride, lean angles and speed info.

I was an early alpha tester, so I have if for free for life.  I can't say I would recommend it to anyone, it's still pretty full of bugs and has limited abilities.  Mowhak.Fusar is the way to go.

[2talltim]

I have the 10U which I think runs about the same firmware as the 20s and I've never had any problems with group communication. But I've only used it for up to 4 different people. Pretty simple to me, one, two, three or four taps to get the person I want to speak with and that has to do with the order you pair them. And press and hold for group intercome.

[2talltim]

As far as range it depends on the model. My buddie that has a smh5 it's about 100 yards. With my wife's smh10 is line of sight or 1/4 mile. And I'm sure my 10U help extend the range of those. With my other buddie's 10U it's really far. I've lost him on BRP and could hear each other over hills and corners and even I straits we couldn't see each other.

Edited September 19, 2016 by 2talltim