SENA BLUEOOTH INTERCOM

I've asked this question before, but hopefully there is new technology.
On my SENA 10S, it can take several seconds to connect the intercom to my passenger.
That is, I'm listening to tunes, she's listening to tunes, and we pass an interesting scene.
I then click the intercom button to talk to her.
A wired system would connect immediately.
The SENA 10S takes several seconds to switch into the intercom mode.
Often, by the time the headsets connect, we're past the scene I wanted to point out.
Sometimes it seems to take as long as 5 seconds, or it fails to connect at all, and the SENA lady announces "Intercom failed. Try again later".
Does the new SENA 30K with the mesh technology connect any quicker ?
Any information from anyone ? Dave ??
And to all the others who switch into intercom mode at the beginning of the ride, and remain in intercom mode, thank you for your comments, but that's not the scenario I need help with.
I'm trying to resolve the issue of time delay when switching between modes.
Thanks so much in advance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

I've asked this question before, but hopefully there is new technology.
On my SENA 10S, it can take several seconds to connect the intercom to my passenger.
That is, I'm listening to tunes, she's listening to tunes, and we pass an interesting scene.
I then click the intercom button to talk to her.
A wired system would connect immediately.
The SENA 10S takes several seconds to switch into the intercom mode.
Often, by the time the headsets connect, we're past the scene I wanted to point out.
Sometimes it seems to take as long as 5 seconds, or it fails to connect at all, and the SENA lady announces "Intercom failed. Try again later".
Does the new SENA 30K with the mesh technology connect any quicker ?
Any information from anyone ? Dave ??
And to all the others who switch into intercom mode at the beginning of the ride, and remain in intercom mode, thank you for your comments, but that's not the scenario I need help with.
I'm trying to resolve the issue of time delay when switching between modes.
Thanks so much in advance.

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I know little about the the 10s, but with the 20s, I connect to the passenger then I first turn them on, then it is instant when I talk to the passenger. At the sound of my voice the music gets quiter instantly, and the conversation begins. Once the conversation is over, the music goes back to the volume I had it set at.
The only thing that interrupts the conversation is GPS directions, they override everything, music pauses, and passenger is blocked. Once directions are given the music restarts and the conversation can continue.
No buttons to push to talk, just speak.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

I've asked this question before, but hopefully there is new technology.
On my SENA 10S, it can take several seconds to connect the intercom to my passenger.
That is, I'm listening to tunes, she's listening to tunes, and we pass an interesting scene.
I then click the intercom button to talk to her.
A wired system would connect immediately.
The SENA 10S takes several seconds to switch into the intercom mode.
Often, by the time the headsets connect, we're past the scene I wanted to point out.
Sometimes it seems to take as long as 5 seconds, or it fails to connect at all, and the SENA lady announces "Intercom failed. Try again later".
Does the new SENA 30K with the mesh technology connect any quicker ?
Any information from anyone ? Dave ??
And to all the others who switch into intercom mode at the beginning of the ride, and remain in intercom mode, thank you for your comments, but that's not the scenario I need help with.
I'm trying to resolve the issue of time delay when switching between modes.
Thanks so much in advance.

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Well, I feel your pain!!! I just set my wife and I up with the 10s and are having the same problem, it sounds like we should have gone with the 20's from the last post!!:banghead: Is there some thing we are missing Dave? I have had to reboot my head set to get reconnected with the wife at times, haven't really had enough time to play with the unit to figure it all out.

Also had the 10's. Tried both the SENA 20 and the CARDO FREEDOM 4. Both have the multitasking, meaning if you start talking (or press a button) the music drops and the intercom mode is on. Answer a phone call by saying "HELLO" loudly. All hands free. We went with the Cardo Freedom 4, lot cheaper, nice phone app. The HD speakers sound awesome too.

Just my 2 cents :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

I've asked this question before, but hopefully there is new technology.
On my SENA 10S, it can take several seconds to connect the intercom to my passenger.
That is, I'm listening to tunes, she's listening to tunes, and we pass an interesting scene.
I then click the intercom button to talk to her.
A wired system would connect immediately.
The SENA 10S takes several seconds to switch into the intercom mode.
Often, by the time the headsets connect, we're past the scene I wanted to point out.
Sometimes it seems to take as long as 5 seconds, or it fails to connect at all, and the SENA lady announces "Intercom failed. Try again later".
Does the new SENA 30K with the mesh technology connect any quicker ?
Any information from anyone ? Dave ??
And to all the others who switch into intercom mode at the beginning of the ride, and remain in intercom mode, thank you for your comments, but that's not the scenario I need help with.
I'm trying to resolve the issue of time delay when switching between modes.
Thanks so much in advance.

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We're in the camp who just switch into intercom mode at the beginning of the ride. Combination of battery life and convenience. That said, to address your question, at least on the 20S there is still a delay for the intercom connection to occur -- it's typically more in the 2-3 second range, in my experience, based on the delay when we first connect at the start of a ride.

Has the firmware been updated? You’d be surprised that even just out of the box the unit can be out of date c

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flamewinger

Has the firmware been updated? You’d be surprised that even just out of the box the unit can be out of date c

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Thanks.
Yes, of course updating the firmware was the first thing I tried four years a go and every time SENA has sent out a firmware update every time since since.
I've decided to get 2 of the new SENA 30K units.
Motorcycle Dave, as always, has the best price and support.

I found this. What do you think ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SENA-30K-DU...4383.l4275.c10

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

I found this. What do you think ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SENA-30K-DU...4383.l4275.c10

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I saw this also and asked Motorcycle Dave about it. He seemed to think it was a reboxed return. I also asked the seller if Sena would honor the warranty and if he was an authorized dealer and the seller dodged both questions and simply said he hasn’t had any problems. Definitely buyer beware.

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Originally Posted by LeftCoast

I saw this also and asked Motorcycle Dave about it. He seemed to think it was a reboxed return. I also asked the seller if Sena would honor the warranty and if he was an authorized dealer and the seller dodged both questions and simply said he hasn’t had any problems. Definitely buyer beware.

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Yes, I agree.
I'll stick with Dave.

Benjamin Franklin: The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.

I've been reading some questionable reviews of the 30K.
Poor battery life ?
The mesh seems to disable the intercom ?
Does anyone have any real world experience ?

I’ve been all over the place on what to buy for an upcoming trip between the 20evo and the 30k. I’ve also read all the reviews and some owners definitely aren’t happy with the 30. The guy that taught my Spyder Safety class loved his as did the sales person at Cycle Gear (he is a sales person) and attributed a lot of the problems to user error.

My thoughts at this point:
Both are overhyped by Sena’s marketing dept
Both require time by the buyer to actually sit and learn to use them
Both will have firmware/software issues that Sena should take care of, but may or may not, plus if they don’t have a good QA dept the fix they provide may break something else
Everytime there is a phone operating system release, a BRP firmware/software upgrade or a Garmin firmware/software release it may render something that worked to go buggy

Yes there are industry standards for Bluetooth and everything else that are supposed to eliminate these issues but there are a lot of moving parts and software engineers and coder skills can be all over the map as far as what they deliver.

I will probably get the 30s as I have nothing to compare them to and I’m a new tech sort of person who has a tendency to overbuy. With that I am probably in for some additional headaches. Either way at some point and under some conditions they probably will not perform the way you expect them too and if you paid over $500 for the 30k you are probably going to post a negative review on the web.

EDIT: As mixed as some reviews seem to be for the 30 there doesn’t seem to be a huge used aftermarket for them either so I assume people complain but still keep them.

When alone, I get music, GPS, phone no problem. When paired with my wife, Either I get music, or she gets music (from my phone source). We get intercom, no problem. Never ever have both got music, intercom, GPS, Phone. I would love to get music and GPS and intercom on both at the same time.
Intercom seams to be instantaneous when we speak.

Yes,
I've upgraded to the 20S and there is DEFINITELY a REMARKABLE improvement in the intercom.
I tap the button and immediately hear the beep that connects the two headsets.

I have Sena 30K and I’m very happy. With the mesh intercom there’s no delay. Just flip up mesh antenna and it automatically connects to other mesh users. No delay when talking. And if u buy a dual pack, the 2 units come paired together, in case u wanna use regular intercom, not mesh. I’ve owned the 30K for about 4 months, no problems, only positive experiences w them. Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

Yes,
I've upgraded to the 20S and there is DEFINITELY a REMARKABLE improvement in the intercom.
I tap the button and immediately hear the beep that connects the two headsets.

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:yes::yes::yes: That is awesome news :yes::yes::yes:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ThreeWheels

Yes,
I've upgraded to the 20S and there is DEFINITELY a REMARKABLE improvement in the intercom.
I tap the button and immediately hear the beep that connects the two headsets.

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Just came back from an overnight trip to the Red Lion Inn.
It just gets better.
The music coming through is louder and cleaner.
The intercom connects nearly immediately and has an adjustment to minimize wind noise.
I've got a nasty little issue with one unit physically connecting to the mounting base, but that's just a matter of getting it adjusted right.
The second unit is perfect.
All told, a very good upgrade.
The Sena 20 generation units are miles above the 10 generation.
Communicating with my partner was a real pleasure.
Really glad I made the switch.
Now I've got to sort out that pesky physical connection issue. Maybe it's the way the clamp holds things together...............

I just got back from a 4 day 500 mile ride with my brother up hiway 1 along the coast using the 30ks that I bought from Motorcycle Dave. Here are some quick impressions. Keep in mind I have no experience with other units.

Installation - It took me a couple of hours on my Schuberth C3 pro modular. This was due to my wanting to be very careful never having done this before and due to helmet shape and watching videos multiple times during the process. In the end it turned out fine but there are a few tweaks I need to make. My brothers Shoei took about half an hour as we didn’t need to come up the learning curve again. His non modular was easier. If I had to do mine now I could probably do it in 30 mins. He was able to use the wire microphone which won’t work with the modular, I had to use the wire boom mic with mine. I have not yet found a way to not have the mic cover touch my lips with the boom but I’m getting used to it.

FM - For the last month I’ve been riding solo with mine using the fm radio and it’s fine. I can tune to 10 stations and change them by vocal command. One time out of 10 the station doesn’t change when it should. The Sena app made it really easy to tune and set stations without having to do it with headset by pressing buttons.

Phone calls - I need to learn more how to do this manually with the control unit and button presses so it interacts with my phone better. The app makes it really easy to set 3 speed dial phone numbers that are activated by voice command.

Intercom - Overall this worked very well. Voice command activation before every ride took just a few seconds. Multitasking is an issue that will hopefully be addressed in the October release. Pairing my 590 gps was automatic and when riding solo getting voice directions in the headset was great. In intercom mode once I got a gps direction or an alert for school zone the intercom pairing would fail 80% of the time necessitating a reboot of the headset and repairing of the intercom. That became annoying enough that I unpaired the gps from the headset after the 2nd day and had few issues with the intercom after that and it performed great. I also have not made or received a phone call in intercom mode so I don’t know if there is an issue there or not.

Voice Commands - 90% of the time saying hi Sena then followed by a command worked great. 10% of the time Sena went on vacation and I had to yell the command, repeat myself a bunch of times and once or twice reboot.

Sound Quality- both my brother and I ride with earplugs but unless we were doing over 50+ we had no issues hearing although we did need the volume pretty high and occasionally had to repeat ourselves. When I have used the phone function people from Colorado and Washington DC have said the sound is crystal clear even when I’ve been doing 70. When we took our earplugs out using intercom we were obviously able to turn the volume down and the sound was amazing.

Battery Life - we had no problem having the units on for 5 hours a day which may not be a lot. Each unit charged within 90 minutes each night although I never thought to check in on battery level before charging them. My impression is you should be able to get a good 8 hours without a problem but mesh may suck more battery.

Mesh - haven’t tried this yet.

Hope this is helpful.. I have no regrets on the purchase but look forward to fixes from Sena. Happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

I started out with Uclear and when I decided to get a Sena 30k, the first thing I noticed it not the best sound compared to the Uclear. Last November I got a newer Uclear AMP Plus and even better sound. Can pair to my Sena and still listen to music. The Uclear AMP Pro has unlimited pairing.

Sometime before the end of the year They will be coming out with a new headset called Motion series. One of the features is a U-Safe crash sensor that has an accelerometer that detects impacts and can call emergency for you. Hoping their new Dynamesh might work with Sena’s mesh but I won’t hold my breath.

https://www.ucleardigital.com/motion-series/

We have the nolans but if my wifes helmet is not on it tells us the same, I always ask her if her helmet intercom is on. we also et disconnected on incoming calls of course

Dave

Flamewinger, just curious what your overall opinion is on the Uclear Amp series compared to the Sena 20S. I'm looking to purchase the Uclear for mainly an intercom system for my wife and I, and maybe a bit of music now and then.
The Sena 20S looks promising also.

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Originally Posted by BigBlock

Flamewinger, just curious what your overall opinion is on the Uclear Amp series compared to the Sena 20S. I'm looking to purchase the Uclear for mainly an intercom system for my wife and I, and maybe a bit of music now and then.
The Sena 20S looks promising also.

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I started with the Uclear HBC200 because I have had headsets for years and really liked the boomless mike. Late last year I upgraded to the Uclear AMP Plus that has better speakers and a few extra features. I got a Sena 30K due to a special BRP deal and tried it out and most any other rider uses Sena and I want to communicate with them and having same brand seemed to be the way to go. The sound wasn't quite as good and I had to deal with the boom mike again. Problem is pairing with other riders is better when we all have the same brand headset. Crossbrand pairing is glitchy. I have been able to pair my Uclear to the Sena and still listen to music as well as talk to the Sena rider. Works great other than when we turn them off they forget the pairing. Now that Uclear is coming out with a new headset that has quite a few extra neat features I can't wait to get it.

Would love it if these bluetooth headset makers would get them to pair with each other's brand and work without problems. Oh, and mute the mike until we need to say something.

Thanks for the info. I’m leaning more towards the Uclear. The boomless mike is a nice feature.

We have had 20s for a while now. Honestly, our needs and setup utilizes a fraction of the a ailable functions.

initially, I became less excited about the 20s but via others advice, accomplished resets after a recent firmware upgrade. This task really made the 20s very nice.

When not in multitasking mode, after the initial intercom connection, which we accomplish at the start of a ride, or after powering the Senas up, the intercom connects almost immediately with no isdues.

I plan to revisit multitasking. One downside being, if music is playing, and your passenger sings along, the intercom kicks in...

Realize also, if using an IPod, and the Spyder radio / interface and a Sena Dongle, the Spyder will limit the IPod volume to 50%. Because the IPod volume is reduced by the Spyder system, often, you increase the Sena 20 volume. Because of this, between songs, you might have a slight hiss, but is not an issue.