Sena Bluetooth Configuration

[Brentc]

I've seen quite a few threads the past few days with people who seem to be having the same issue that we had when we first got our Sena20s. The intercom will cut in and out to the point of not being usable when talking to a passenger. If you ride alone everything works great. Here are the steps I took over the last 6 months to fix. We have a 2014 RTS with the SM10 dongle installed in the frunk connecting to a pair of sena 20s headset units.

1. Reset all configurations and update to the latest firmware on all devices. Currently the Sena 20s is at v1.6 and the SM10 is at v1.1 firmware versions.
2. Placed a support ticket with Sena. This is the slow piece, as they typically respond every 3-4 days. But in order to get the unit replaced you have to open a ticket and go through the steps. (Sorry no shortcut here)
3. After 3 back and forth emails with support verifying that I had done the firmware updates and setup correctly they issued a return authorization and replaced my defective unit.
4. Once i had good units, I setup with the Sena desktop app, which is quite easy and user friendly.
5. We noticed that the feature on the Sena that will lower the volume when switching between either GPS or intercom seemed to be causing some issues with ours. Cutting in and out, and poor quality of audio, so we turned it off.
6. I make sure both units ares et the same also, it seems to help especially when your looking at the Audio Multitasking features

From the factory the two 20s units are paired together so that is all set, I then paired my 20s to the dongle (Hold pairing button for 4-5 seconds on dongle), then I pared my 20s to my iPhone. I then paired my wife's 20s to the dongle as the second unit (hold the pairing button for 11 seconds or so) then paired her 20s to her iPhone. I use my iPhone as my Gps so I can hear that if need. We can both communicate to each other with one touch of the jog dial, and we can either listen to the music from the bike through the dongle or through our individual iPhones. At the end of last season we finally had things working well and I went from hating the Sena to just being mildly upset with it for being broken from the factory and having to waste all of my time troubleshooting it.

I know how frustrating it is getting them setup, and if I can help anyone out I'm happy to just PM me. There are many others here too that helped when I was tryng to get mine setup. Finless Bob and Motorcycle Dave were both a huge help in getting me on the right track to figuring things out.

Here is the snapshot from the Sean app of how our units are setup and seem to be working fine now.

[rugerbear]

Do you have to touch the jog dial each time you want to talk to passenger or driver? For example, listening to radio thru spyder then you want to say something, do you first push dial and then other person has to push theirs to respond?

[JCWeatherman]

Thank you for taking the time to put together step-by-step instructions. I received my 20s dual pack about 10 days ago. One of them is not working properly. When Sena eventually gets around to replacing it, I will follow your instructions. I don't want my wife to get frustrated with technology that is difficult to use, so this should be a bit help.

<RANT> Now, if I may, I will say a little more about Sena. Many people who use these products have jobs. These jobs help us to purchase Sena's products. Thus, the only time we have to install and troubleshoot our new Sena products is evenings and weekends. And, by the way, when it is nice outside, we want our stuff to be up and running so we can be riding and using our hundreds-of-dollars-worth-of Sena products. It would be nice if Sena would offer better hours for customer support (currently Monday - Friday 8 AM - 5 PM Pacific Standard Time). Those are not customer support hours. Those are company convenience hours. Considering how many people have mentioned having problems with their new 20s units, you would think they would take a good look at their customer service department and step it up a bit. Also, what they call "Forums" is nothing more than a few already-answered questions. There is no option to interact with others or get questions answered by their techs. Thank God we have SpyderLovers forums!<END RANT>

Again, Brentc, thanks for saving us new Sena 20s users hours of trial-and-error setup time.

[Brentc]

Do you have to touch the jog dial each time you want to talk to passenger or driver? For example, listening to radio thru Spyder then you want to say something, do you first push dial and then other person has to push theirs to respond?

I initially tried the voice prompt without much success. We actually found that touching the jog dial was easy enough for us, so it was one less thing I had in the equation of what might be messing up the setup. Not to say that if you get it all working to your liking, you could add on different things one at a time and see how it goes. I may do that this year with teh GPS navigation, especially for trip to Spyderfest.

[Jetfixer]

All of my problems with the 20s' went away after moving the dongle to the rear trunk. However, the Sm10 dongle still seems to show two issues occasionally. One is that it will sometimes not connect to the bike audio. It does always connect to my phone. The simple solution is to use the switch on top to turn it off, then back on. It connects immediately. The second issue is related to the first. After a few times doing this, it still seems to have trouble connecting. That seems to be the cue to give the battery a full charge. Even though the unit is powered by the bike, my guess is that constant use will only provide power and not much extra to keep the battery charged. After a full charge, no problems again for awhile.

[Devious56]

Do you have to touch the jog dial each time you want to talk to passenger or driver? For example, listening to radio thru spyder then you want to say something, do you first push dial and then other person has to push theirs to respond?

My wife and found that touching the jog dial was the best way to work this, when we had it set up to VOX, the wind noise (even though you couldn't hear it when using the intercom) kept the intercom active all the time and we could hear music.

David

[finless]

One tip to tweak and do things fast without hooking the 20S to your PC.

If you have a smart phone (Android or iPhone) install the Sena APP!

So much easier to change settings on BOTH headsets this way....

Bob

[pitzerwm]

I have the SM10H in both helmets and a SM10 dongle with an iPod connected in the back for music. The SM10 is connected with the wiring harness into the radio. Getting them connected worked ok, but when I turn off the bike, and the helmets, dongle, iPod are still on, there is a low volume static. There is no music as loss of power to the iPod, I'm thinking. When the bike totally shuts down, it goes away. Any suggestions?

[jcthorne]

Odd that you disabled audio multitasking. I found that to be one of the BEST features for moving up to the 20S from my previous Sena headsets. That along with the noise cancelling I can carry on a conversation and have the music playing. The music fades back when my wife speaks. No reason to press buttons at all. It just works.

[GeorgiaBill]

Hope it's not defective. Thank you for the tutorial.

-Bill

[GeorgiaBill]

Do you use the dongle for anything other than AM? I don't have a dongle, don't even try to hear the Spyder radio, and am hoping to get FM reception from the 20S.

Looks like I'm going to have quite a learning curve with the 20S.

-Bill

All of my problems with the 20s' went away after moving the dongle to the rear trunk. However, the Sm10 dongle still seems to show two issues occasionally. One is that it will sometimes not connect to the bike audio. It does always connect to my phone. The simple solution is to use the switch on top to turn it off, then back on. It connects immediately. The second issue is related to the first. After a few times doing this, it still seems to have trouble connecting. That seems to be the cue to give the battery a full charge. Even though the unit is powered by the bike, my guess is that constant use will only provide power and not much extra to keep the battery charged. After a full charge, no problems again for awhile.