Installation of BRP Bluetooth Dongle (Sena SM10) on 2015 RT Ltd

[robhowen]

This is how/where I installed my BRP supplied Bluetooth dongle (Part Number 219 400 458) and cable on my 2015 Spyder RT Limtied. This includes a Sena SM10 and all appropriate cables and connectors.

I read many of the previous postings on this product and installation and Finless Bob’s postings and videos regarding making your own cable and installing in the rear topcase. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom.

Ultimately I chose a different mounting position that I’m hoping will work well over the long run. So far I am pleased. In summary I installed the BRP supplied cable to the radio as instructed and I’ve mounted the SM10 under the seat with easy access from the left side of the bike. Here are the details:

Video Link for radio access: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouqcJvyXXBY

1. Remove the right-side passenger control panel, as shown in the “radio access” video. You do this simply to get to the radio so you may plug in the supplied cable.

2. I took out the 4 bolts holding down the radio to give myself a little bit of movement to make it easier to install the connector. I reinstalled the 4 bolts after connecting the cables.

3. As you look down to the front-most portion of the radio you’ll see a large cable connector plugged into the right-front part of the radio with a bunch of wires. Leave this alone. To the left of it is another slightly smaller cable connector that you will use for installing the BRP Pigtail cable. In my case this cable connector was covered with a rubber cover that you easily remove.

4. The BRP cable kit comes with one long cable that goes to the SM10 (P2 in the included image), a small pigtail (P3 in the included image) that connects to the radio on one end and connects to the long BRP cable on the other end, and a build your own blank plug that you may have to use if you have the CB installed. I do not so I can’t speak specifically to this. In my case I connected the short pigtail to the radio and then connected the long cable into the other end of the pigtail.



5. My next issue was Where do put the SM10? I didn’t want to do the frunk given all the bad press about lost connections and I didn’t want to have to drill a hole into the rear topcase if I didn’t have to. Also, since the BRP cable provides power to the SM10, you don’t have to have additional power access. I ultimately decided to mount the SM10 under the seat, left of the center support bar. The long cable is much longer than you need for this so I curled it up and put most of it in the area just in front of the radio that is rather open. I then took a wire from the access hole near where I mounted it and was able to fish it up to where my cable was. I secured the cable end to my wire and gently pulled it through until it came out where I wanted to mount the SM10.

6. The final installation step is to connect the cable ends to the SM10. The power end goes into the cell phone like connector (same as Sena headset charger connection) and you plug one of the 3 or 4 pole supplied coiled audio cables into the SM10 and the female connector from the long cable. I used the 4-pole plug as the main audio connector, but don’t know if you have to use the 4 pole one. I installed the 3-pole coiled cable into the AUX connector on the SM10. I don’t know if I’ll use this AUX cable or not or if I’ll use the one from the topcase. My iPod is too old to be compatible with the RT’s audio system so I just purchased a used 5^th gen iPod Nano from eBay. It’s TBD if I’ll connect it to the cable from the topcase or if I’ll connect it to the AUX port on the SM10. I may have to switch the 3 and 4 pole cables. Note: I will probably replace the coiled audio cables with short non-coiled ones where one end is a straight connector and the other is an “L” end connector. I’ll connect the “L” end connector to the SM10 to make the installation cleaner. Images:



7. Finally I tested everything and I’m pleased with how easy it was to connect devices and how well it works and sounds. The audio quality is far superior to the included FM radio in my Sena 20s headset. My last step was to mount the SM10 with the supplied plastic mounting bracket and put in a cable tie to make sure the cable end to the SM10 is secure.

I spent much more time thinking about where things were to go and trying this and that then it actually did to install everything. If you take away all of the scratch-my-head time, this was one of the easiest installations I’ve done on the RT to-date.

I hope this helps others and I welcome any comments or faults you may see. Let me know if I’m likely to experience future problems that I have not thought of. Hopefully I’ll be pleased long-term. If not I’ll post such.

Rob