FM Radio does not work
I have a Nolan N104 and a Scalarider G9 and where I live they both pick up FM radio perfectly fine The Noland is a little better than the G9 but they both work on at least 4 stations. The 20S however gives me nothing. Even getting much closer to the transmitter I get very little and have to turn my head just to get a very slight signal. The speaker cable goes up over the top of my helmet and I even tried with the little side aerial up but no dice.
The FM radio on the 20S is not only extremely poor but is in fact useless to me and is one of the reasons I purchased it. Not the main reason but an important one.
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I received a 1412 here in Australia and on my first ride i have not had an issue with the radio or the base locking. Will update if i have any issues otherwise wont post again :)
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I recently purchased a 20S and I found I had problems with FM Radio, I had a lot of interference and eventually the Radio hung, I then needed to turn the FM radio off and back on to restore its operation. I performed the following steps to rectify: -
1. Turned off RDS AF - this stopped the hanging, but I still had a lot of interference
2. Inside the crash helmet i had just routed the right hand speaker wire behind the interior lining, so I tried securing the wire to the helmet shell with gaffer tape, this resolved most of my radio interference.
Having performed the above two steps I am now happy with the Radio reception having completed several journeys following the changes I made above
Hope this helps someone
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The newer replacement units fix the radio problems (and the latch problems). Serial 1501xxxxxx and above is MUCH better overall and Sena is exchanging faulty units for free (2 year warranty). I sent mine in and got a replacement (2 units) in about 3 weeks. Totally worth the effort.
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thomashohl
When did you buy your units, and what was the serial number series that you first came from
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I bought mine when they first released them. 140xxxx type serial. The new 1501xxxx units work perfect!! 0 -
The FM radio function does not work. I recently purchased a dual pack (1502)(April 2015) with a friend of mine and the FM function does not work. It works for a few seconds and then goes silent. I have to then switch the unit off and then on again to try and re activate the radio and still I have no joy. I have also tried talking to "sena" to turn the radio function on she then says "radio on" and announces the station frequency (which BTW is also frustrating as I bloody know what station I'm on). So after yelling obscenities at "sena" in my helmet I ride to work in silence grumbling and thinking why I ever purchased this piece of s***t.This is very frustrating for me as I enjoy listening to the radio while traveling around town as I commute daily on my bike. I have also tried as mentioned on the forum a wire crossing the antenna/speaker wire but that has not helped. I believe that "sena" is not delivering on what it is advertising and selling the customer short, as the device is priced at the top end of the comms market I expected a lot better.I have come to a point that I would like to get rid of the unit and get a refund. Any help from sena would be much appreciated.
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Hi Drummond, by any chance do you have activated "alternative frequencies" in the settings? If so, try to turn it off. This function doesn't work. Hope this helps Cheers Wilhelm 0 -
Hi Wilhelm, I have switched off the RDS/ Alt frequencies and still not working.
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Try a couple more things. With the sena device manager make sure you have the region set to the area you are in. Next do a fault reset. If still no joy, place a ticket to Sena for replacement. Mine works just fine but I know when things go quirky - had it happen to my SMH 10 - a fault reset corrected the problem.
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Drummond, Send the unit(s) in and get replacements. When they work, they work great. It's worth the effort in my opinion.
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The poor reception issues I have been reading about on here must be due to the speaker wire being routed across the top of the helmet pads. That's how mine is and the radio works perfectly with no reception issues at all. (I'm in Houston, TX) Just my 2 cents.
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Thanks guys for the advice, I've run the speaker wire over the top of the helmet with no change - still no reception. I've also reset the unit and my area is correct (Australia). I've also just upgraded the firmware to Ver 1.4 and still nothing. I think its time to send the units back. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
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It is certainly odd that you have two units with exactly the same issue. But it sounds as if you've done everything you can. How far away are FM radio transmitting sites? We're assuming that your in an urban area with good, strong FM signals.
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Hi Ken, Yes I'm in Perth (Western Australia) I'm not 100% sure of the distances from transmitting towers but I would say not to far as the city centre is 15min drive from where I live. I've decided the units are going back and with any luck the new units will be bug free.
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I'm suffering with the same FM Radio problem. Compared to my previous Scala Q2 the radio is horrendous. In fact it's not working at all now. It starts off okay then after 5 minutes the station disappears and all I get is static. Searching for stations doesn't get anything either.The RDS function doesn't seem to. So all in all....PANTS!
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I presented a ticket 10 days back and have not heard anything yet either.... Wanting to get notification from Support soon. buy pinterest follower
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As well as having problems with the FM radio I now have a problem in that my unit will often not turn on and if I get it to turn on it either won't pari with my phone anymore or turns off. In dialoguing with Senna they have determined my 8 month old unit is faulty.
However because I purchased the unit it the USA but have now returned to NZ they are unwilling to honour the warranty. Here is there response.
"Hai, Apr 30, 8:57 AM:
Hai, Apr 30, 8:57 AM:You can check out the current warranty policy on our website: http://www.sena.com/support/warranty/
It actually states "Sena provides the warranty service ONLY through the sales channels where the purchase was made, with an exception of the US."
Regards,
HaiI did just confirm this with our RMA department and you are required to pay both ways as we are making an exception since we don't normally provide warranty service for outside of U.S customers.
Regards,
Hai"They believe as a customer I am powerless....Here is my response.
I don't think it is acceptable to change your warranty terms after I purchased the product. The warranty terms in my manual do not say that the "warranty service ONLY through the sales channel where the purchase was made, with an exception of the US."
...however in the interests of being fair I will post your comment above (and ) my response in the forums where I am sharing this experience.
The bottom line is the product was purchased legitimately through one of your authorised dealers and you want me to pay for the full costs to both return your faulty product to you AND for you to return it to me.
I was initially happy to pay for the one way freight cost...but now wish that you meet the terms of the warranty in the manual I got with your warranty terms clearly spelled out in it at the time I purchased the item.
This is my 2nd Sena unit (I loved the first one). You have managed to turn a previously happy customer and product advocate."
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I've just purchased a 20S - serial is 1503 and FM Radio reception is dire to say the least. Surely Sena can't be making hardware modifications to these units to improve FM reception since my unit serial is 1503 (that's 2015, March - right?) and reception is still useless.
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It seems whether the radio works is pretty hit and miss. Some people report the new units fixed the problem with appalling radio reception and others have found it doesn't. Turning off the RDS function were the radio tries to seek another frequency to listen to the same radio broadcast when the signal becomes to weak can also help as it seems that Sena's RDS function does not work. (The RDS function on my car radio works fine.)
I suspect the key factor in whether your radio function works is whether you ride in areas with good radio reception. For those of us who tour and consequently travel in rural areas between cities the radio is worthless.Sena has now done 4 firmware updates for these units and apparently one hardware update...and the radio still don't work well. At this stage it seems that the Sena is not goiong to be able to fix the radio within the confines of this units hardware.
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The good news is that if you gought the unit to get the radio functionality you can send the unit back to Sena (or the place you purchased it from) for a full refund as per page 66 of the user manual but just saying you do not agree to the terms of their warranty " Return for a full refund Should you not agree to the terms and conditions explained above, you may return the product for a full refund. o get a refund , within 14 days from the purchase date you must return the product to the seller in such a condition as it was purchased."
Also in some jurisdictions you will find the consumer protection laws will allow you to get a refund on the basis that the product is not fit for the purpose it was sold for. With the refnd you can go and purchase an alternative brand where the radio actually works. If you check out some f the posts in this thread you will see many customers have very good things to say about the Cardo Scala units radio performance.0 -
Wander if the radio problem is only other countries besides US? Anyone else having issues with the newest units not receiving FM? Mine works fine 1503xxx serial
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Hi Guys, I returned my units and received new units serial 1501. I was told they had just arrived in Australia from the USA. I tested the radio and worked fine inside the house soon as I got onto the bike it went dead. I've tried all the fixes that have been suggested before and nothing is a true fix. I've reached the conclusion that it should not be used for the radio function (which is very frustrating) but more for the comms side which works great and then just Bluetooth music from your phone which I find works great even with my phone locked in my top box. I did try the radio the other day while leaving work and the unit worked fine all the way home so it certainly is a bit of a hit and miss. I will however just stick to the music I downloaded onto my phone as its ad free :).
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It must be country specific then because my FM radio works great. I use it everyday riding to work and all stations come in great. Weird...
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Thomshohl, are you riding in an urban, rural or city environment?
If you are riding a short distance to work it is possible that you are staying within range of a signal transmitter and good signal strength. I think the problem is exacerbated in weaker signal strength areas (urban and rural) and when your radio needs to use the RDS feature to switch frequencies to swap from one transmitting frequency to another to maintain reception from the same radio station. I am pretty confident the RDS feature doesn't work at all and it seem the units have such a poor aerial that they are not able to get good reception on weaker signals that competitive units easily work with.
If you only ride in cities the radio may be good enough for you but if you tour you may be better off with a Cardo Scala or a unit built with touring riders in mind.0 -
My Radio works also fine, that the only think that works because the bluetooth from Zumo 660 and intercom works say 10 minuts then stopped, then onley the radio works still.
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I found a US coverage map for FM stations. Maybe this will help. Search for the station(s) in your area:
http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WOBL&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
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I too have no radio, nothing but white noise. I sat next to my car on 89.7 blasting out the radio, but my helmet on the same frequency gave me nothing but noise. The exchange process doesn't seem easy with Sena, but I'll work with it and see how long I have to be without an intercom. 0 -
Good luck with exchanging it. They wanted me to pay the freight in both directions to repair mine. I gave up on them and bought a Cardo Scala to replace my useless 20S. Radio works great on Cardo Scala as does other features. I had an earlier model from Sena that worked great but the 20S was the worst buy I ever bought.
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That's strange that they insist on your paying freight both ways. Through all the problems that have been experienced here, Sena has been exemplary for most of us. They shipped my new unit with a UPS shipper inside the box for me to return the defective unit. FM radio inoperative is one problem for which they're taking full responsibility.
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Not only is it strange it is contrary to the warranty terms in the manual. Their reasoning is that because I bought it while I was touring in America last year I should return it to the US supplier I bought it from. However I am now back home in N.Z. and they say because I am now in a different country to where I bought it from I needed to pay freight both ways to Sena. I travel quite a bit and no other electronics vendor makes you do this that I know of. I doubt I will be back in America before the warranty expires. I can't imagine that their freight cost to NZ is any more expensive than their freight cost to the US from Korea. Not a company I would ever buy anything from again given the unreliability of the unit and all the trouble we are having with the radio and the dodging of their warranty commitment. Interestingly at one stage they told me that that they had updated their warranty terms since I bought the unit (and hence the warranty terms in my manual by implication are now superseded by their new warranty terms) and that their new warranty terms were on their web site....never heard of that trick before.
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