OK, I can understand that if you get too much distance between users the Bluetooth connection will drop out.
But my passenger says the shared music is beyond useless, dropping out and breaking up. And her helmet is less than a foot from mine - my son, riding on another bike nearby reported the same issues. Strangely, when I test on the dining rom table it seems to work well.
These are 20s units running 1.6.3
Anyone?
Responding a bit late, but here it goes.
I experienced the same thing with my 20S. I noticed that it was only when I was in an intercom call. The 20S will lower the music volume when you talk. I believe that, when riding, the background/road noise is picked up by the mic and the unit lowers the music volume. This *sounds* like the music is breaking up, when in fact it's just lowering the volume because it thinks the background noise is you talking. I don't keep intercom calls up when not talking, so it's not a problem for me. But, if you want to keep the intercom call up all the time and listen/share music, you might want to try lowering the "Intercom-audio Overlay Sensitivity" level so the mic is less sensitive to background noise and leaves the music volume up unless you are actually talking. Hope this works for you.
Hey Keith;
Thanks for taking the shot, but it IS breaking up . . . . . It's simply cutting out, completely and badly. If I had to guess, it would seem to me as though there is no ECC implemented in the data stream and there are simply lots of errors and no recovery.
I used to design mobile data systems (hardware/software/deployments) for a living.
Hmmmmm...... If it was an ECC issu, I don't know why it would work fine in your dining room. The only variables I can think of between the two environments would be noise or vibration.
Ok. One more shot. If you haven't already, you may want to try going down to firmware version 1.6.2. I updated from 1.6.2 to 1.6.3 and had nothing but problems. I didn't try music sharing with 1.6.3, but I had problems with my GPS and satellite radio connections dropping out. I'd be listening to the radio, the GPS would chime in and then nothing from either after that. Only a 20S power cycle would get them working again. I went back to 1.6.2 and everything is fine. I haven't tried the later versions (1.7 or 1.7.1). But, I don't see any bug fixes listed for those versions. Just "improved connection" for devices I'm not using. So, I'm playing it safe and sticking with 1.6.2.
https://www.sena.com/category/firmware/firmware-20s/
Again, good luck!
Also, just for the record, mine worked fine in the quiet of my living room. It was only on the road with a intercom call up and road noise that it cut out. So, we've now verified that music sharing works fine in a living room and dining room. Anyone want to try a bathroom :-)
Actually that's WHY I think it's an ECC issue - sitting on the dining room table the links are absolutely stable - so the error rate will be very low - yes, BT chip sets implement ECC as a function of the protocol, but it can be disabled - and the performance is bad enough that I wonder if somehow they've disabled ECC for the music sharing environment.
Without looking at the code I could never tell.
In the meantime there's snow on the ground and I'm not riding anywhere for the next 6 weeks or so at least.
So, here's another issue; If you use the handlebar remote, does yours go into spasms of disconnection at apparently random times?
Mine will spontaneously announce that the remote as disconnected and when I press a button it will announce that it is connected, immediately followed by an announcement that it is disconnected. It can do this for a while, and then, for no apparent reason it will then go back to operating as I would expect it to for a while, then eventually start acting up again.
I have 2 remotes (purchased months apart and from different vendors) and 4 20s modules (purchased as 2 dual sets, and again from different vendors and with very different serial numbers and one of the 20s modules was exchanged under warranty) and every combination of remote and module behaves the same way.
I don't use a remote. So, can't comment on that.
For music sharing, I would still recommend trying it without an intercom call being up. When weather allows :-)
For both your music sharing and remote issues, I would definetely recommend trying 1.6.2. Other users had issues with 1.6.3 as did I. Although I haven't been able to find the forum thread it was discussed on.
This is the thread I was talking about.
The issues don't appear to be fixed in 1.7. I don't know about 1.7.1.
Again, this is not an intercom/VOX issue, but a link or processing problem of some sort.
I'm up to 1.72 and it persists.
Oh well. I'm running 1.6.2 and haven't had that problem. That is unless, as I mentioned above, I'm in an intercom call in a high noise environment (like riding on the freeway). The music will cut out regularly then because the unit thinks I'm talking.
Just FYI, I recently contacted Sena support to see if they had resolved the issues with firmware versions 1.6.3 and higher. This was their response:
"No bug fix yet. Update is optional, if you already know the functionality of your device and want to keep it that way, you don't have to update the unit every time there's a new release. Just like 1.7.2 it's just an additional language, you can skip it for now"
With 1.6.3 and higher, I had a problem where my GPS and/or phone connection would drop and only power cycling the Sena would bring it back. That or I would be listening to music, enter into an intercom call, the music would lower while talking (as expected), the music would come back up if there was a gap in talking with the intercom call still up (as expected), but when either I or the other person on the intercom call started talking again, the music wouldn't lower again and we couldn't hear each other at all. I had to drop the intercom call and make the intercom call again. This happened several times on a trip with 1.6.3.
So, 1.6.2 is where I'll stay until a confirmed fix is in place.
When sharing music on a 20S over the intercom with another 20S, the antenna on both headsets needs to be flipped up. When flipped up, the antenna improves the Bluetooth connection between the 20S and the devices it is paired to. As the 20S is sharing stereo music and connected over the intercom at the same time, the Bluetooth connection is not stable enough which is causing them to disconnect or the music break up. With the antenna up, the Bluetooth connection will be more stable.
Thanks Chris, they are indeed both up and it breaks up anyway. This is both when trying to share with my son while he is on his bike and with my daughter who rides pillion on mine.