the SR10/R2D2 issue

[Ed]

You guys who've run into this- how did you have your setup(s) paired together, at the time? ...was your SR10 paired to another Bluetooth device (i.e., an enabled GPS) as well as to the SMH10 when this was going on?

Now that I have a Bluetooth-enabled GPS (thx Yarbi ) I was piddling with various pairings today. The SR10/SMH10 pairing worked swimmingly when the GPS speaker-out was wired directly into the SR10, but things somehow never seemed entirely stable/happy when the GPS was added wirelessly to the SR10/SMH10 mix.

Adding my phone as a multipoint-paired "device connected" to the SMH10 (just for music, not as a phone) didn't seem to impact performance, but I really only ran 'em together for a few minutes... seems like you guys typically had stable connections for a while, then things went sideways.

Just curious whether anyone had ever nailed down a set of conditions which could consistently/conclusively/repeatedly upset the SR10 pairing dynamic... any feedback?

[Bob]

My radar and gps are hard wired into the SR10. Iphone paired directly with the SMH10---I tried pairing it with the SR10 but the audio was horrible. It seems the only audio coming thru the SR10 that is decent is the GMRS, everything else sounds tinny and scratchy like a cheap transistor radio. The radar audio is awful, the radar's volume control has no effect on the volume I hear thru the SMH10, it is either full-on or full-off, and some of the tones it emits come across as just "clicks".

It has r2d2'd once immediately after transmitting while listening to music from my phone, which I had just started doing, so I am thinking having an additional channel open to the SMH10 might upset the SR10 connection--but it did not do it consistently. It has done it several other times and I'm unable to link it to any one thing.

things somehow never seemed entirely stable/happy when the GPS was added wirelessly to the SR10/SMH10 mix.

What, specifically , does this mean?


My overall take on the SR10 is Sena cut all the corners they could with this, and other than providing a 2-way radio solution, it's pretty pathetic.

[Ed]

:shrugs: Sorry you're having such an overwhelmingly unhappy experience with Sena, Bob... mine works consistently well, and has done so for three years (as of December 18th) now.

I only run music occasionally, and therefore don't fret that it isn't audiophile-quality reproduction... everything I have on the phone is compressed/volume-balanced mp3s, so it's somewhat better through earbuds but the cord is an annoyance. You're welcome to try my earbud-ready baseplate if it will work with the latch on your SMH-10.

FWIW cabled in through the SR10 port, GPS turn-by-turn audio is clear- plenty loud with earplugs- and the nav/master volume controls on the Zumo seem effective. I can't see any advantage to be gained in pairing the GPS to the SR10 via Bluetooth, since it's so simple/convenient to run the audio in with the cord.

[Bob]

Sorry you're having such an overwhelmingly unhappy experience with Sena, Bob...

Not at all, I think you're reading something in that I didn't intend. My remarks all pertain to the SR10's ability to handle anything other than the radio input, which it does quite well. I am simply disappointed that Sena passed on a great opportunity to knock Autocom's dink in the dirt, by making all audio channels as good as the radio. There are thousands of Autocom users out there (I was one) who have no real incentive to make the switch, but with a few better quality modules could make the SR10 on par with it (or better). I would gladly pay an extra $100 for an improved Sena SR10 that does what it *should* do, consistently.

The SMH10 is great--the bluetooth music audio from my iphone is clear as a bell and the quality is as good as it gets using ear speakers. I have no complaints whatsoever re. the SMH10. And glad I made the switch. Sena--are you listening? lol

[Ed]

Sorry you're having such an overwhelmingly unhappy experience with Sena, Bob...

Not at all, I think you're reading something in that I didn't intend.

I thought so too, the first half-dozen times you said it but you're still caning the SR10 as a disappointment at every opportunity, so I was starting to draw a conclusion

[Bob]

... but you're still caning the SR10 as a disappointment at every opportunity, so I was starting to draw a conclusion

Lol--well it isn't ALL a disappointment. I do like the way the SR10 handles the GMRS and the SMH10 is wonderful. Overall, glad I made the switch! So I'm taking the good with the bad.
But I am still curious, why did you say the GPS wasn't quite "happy" or not "stable" paired up thru the SR10? What was happening...?

[Ed]

lol Fair enough.

But I am still curious, why did you say the GPS wasn't quite "happy" or not "stable" paired up thru the SR10? What was happening...?

Just a gut-feel thing; I need to go back and dink with multiple-pairing the SR10 again to see if I had it in the right order.

I'm used to the way the SMH10/SR10 and SMH10/Galaxy phone multi-point pair together- no fuss, turn 'em on and they synch. The inital SR10/Zumo pairing was also very easy, set the devices to discoverable and voilà... no dithering with PIN codes, et cetera to get them aligned.

Took the whole works out in the garage, including the F4011 and requisite cabling to see if there was any hint of the F4011 interacting with the Zumo (using the Zumo kit power wiring, which is different from the Nüvi wiring) during handset transmission. The SMH10 and SR10 paired automatically at power-up as always, but the SR10 needed to be coaxed (long pairing-button press routine) to re-acquire the pairing to the Zumo.

With the SR10 and Zumo now locked together, I didn't seem to be getting the normal/expected F4011/SR10/SMH10 behavior when I keyed the PTT (an open-channel whoosh, then a short gulp of static when the PTT is dropped, then channel-close ~3 sec later)... I prompted the Zumo to take me somewhere (forcing audible directions) and never heard anything from the helmet speakers... did pairing the Zumo supersede/cancel the SMH10 pairing?

Wanted to take the Bandit out for a run so I said "hmm" to myself at that point, turned off the Zumo Bluetooth and plugged in the Zumo-to-SR10 cord. That worked immediately with turn-by-turn coming into the SMH10, so I stopped pooching with it and went for a ride. Didn't go far, but the turn-by-turn prompting worked great.

So-o-o--o, I haven't been back to resolving the "hmm" yet... need to the SR10 again, quite likely that I just wasn't following correct protocol but if I had to jump on the bike and go right this minute I'd use the Zumo speaker-out rather than f*ck around for a wasted hour with the Bluetooth pairing.

At the least, I didn't see the Zumo warning me that power had been turned off when I keyed the F4011. I haven't tried powering any of the GPS' with the little 12VDC-5VDC converters yet, so that's another experiment in the queue.

That's what I meant by 'not happy' ...not the GPS per se, but a perceived imbalance somewhere in the Zumo-SR10-SMH10 Bluetooth universe.

[Bob]

Sounds like you may have run into one of my "SR10 sore spots" . My phone was also not happy paired with the SR10. Let us know if you're able to get the GPS to working that way.