Like many people who have struggled with the small SatNav display on the newer Spyders, after several weeks of trying it on our 2121 Sea-to-Sky (using an iPhone), we decided it was time to go back to a standalone SatNav unit.
Although many people like the TomToms, we have had Garmins for 20 years on our GoldWings so I decided to go with their latest offering and bought the Zumo XT (which is generally wonderful, BTW).
Sadly, this then highlighted one of the many known deficiencies of BRP Connect/Go in that it will not pair with the XT. The known workaround is to pair the XT to a standalone Bluetooth (BT) receiver and feed the output of this into the bike's auxiliary input by wire. What a palaver this is becoming, eh?!
I happened to already have a tiny BT receiver, so I tried this. It passed the XT's music into the bike for playing through the speakers very successfully - but surprisingly the SatNav directions did not come through!
Research yielded the fact that BT devices have different profiles which indicate whether they can pass only music or voice as well. I have to admit that I hadn't realised these 2 signals were separate - I thought it was all just audio! As a Zumo XT FAQ notes: "to pass the voice, the BT receiver's spec must include the term "HSP" (Head Set Profile)".
I also happen to have a BT Speaker which I use for playing music outside while we wash the bikes. It's obviously too big for my current need but I decided to test it anyway. Sure enough, after pairing to the XT, both music and SatNav directions played through it just fine....which at least proved that what I was trying to achieve could be done! So, the final job is to find a small BT receiver with HSP.
More research discovered hundreds of tiny BT receivers on Amazon and eBay, none of which included HSP in the spec. Deeper digging found one which did, so I gleefully ordered that and it arrived today. It took but a moment to set up and it looked very promising because it showed all the right things in the display (e.g. the previous one had shown a music symbol but not a headset symbol - the latter being key, apparently). I fed it some music and a route - it played the music fine and even this time successfully paused the music when the SatNav was apparently issuing directions.....but sadly the directions themselves did not come through!
So, to get to the nub of the matter, has anyone found a small BT receiver which will do the job? I have seen one mentioned by a US owner, but haven't been able to find the same device here in the UK.
P.S. I don't wish to listen to the audio in my helmet thanks, before anyone suggests a Sena.
Although many people like the TomToms, we have had Garmins for 20 years on our GoldWings so I decided to go with their latest offering and bought the Zumo XT (which is generally wonderful, BTW).
Sadly, this then highlighted one of the many known deficiencies of BRP Connect/Go in that it will not pair with the XT. The known workaround is to pair the XT to a standalone Bluetooth (BT) receiver and feed the output of this into the bike's auxiliary input by wire. What a palaver this is becoming, eh?!
I happened to already have a tiny BT receiver, so I tried this. It passed the XT's music into the bike for playing through the speakers very successfully - but surprisingly the SatNav directions did not come through!
Research yielded the fact that BT devices have different profiles which indicate whether they can pass only music or voice as well. I have to admit that I hadn't realised these 2 signals were separate - I thought it was all just audio! As a Zumo XT FAQ notes: "to pass the voice, the BT receiver's spec must include the term "HSP" (Head Set Profile)".
I also happen to have a BT Speaker which I use for playing music outside while we wash the bikes. It's obviously too big for my current need but I decided to test it anyway. Sure enough, after pairing to the XT, both music and SatNav directions played through it just fine....which at least proved that what I was trying to achieve could be done! So, the final job is to find a small BT receiver with HSP.
More research discovered hundreds of tiny BT receivers on Amazon and eBay, none of which included HSP in the spec. Deeper digging found one which did, so I gleefully ordered that and it arrived today. It took but a moment to set up and it looked very promising because it showed all the right things in the display (e.g. the previous one had shown a music symbol but not a headset symbol - the latter being key, apparently). I fed it some music and a route - it played the music fine and even this time successfully paused the music when the SatNav was apparently issuing directions.....but sadly the directions themselves did not come through!
So, to get to the nub of the matter, has anyone found a small BT receiver which will do the job? I have seen one mentioned by a US owner, but haven't been able to find the same device here in the UK.
P.S. I don't wish to listen to the audio in my helmet thanks, before anyone suggests a Sena.
