Very distracting in night time riding. Too visible and not in the "hear I am" type of way. Provide option to turn off. Most blue tooth headsets that employ such blinking lights have some mechanism to turn it off or on (and this is remembered in subsequent power cycles). The LED is only useful when setting up the device or initially turning on or off and helmet is not on (i.e. earbuds or speakers not near the ear). Should not remain during normal operation on the helmet.
Date
Votes
36 comments
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Brett Attracts too much attention from people questioning whether or not this is legal.
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Sena Thank you for your suggestion. We will do the feasibility not to blink LED during normal operation. We will keep you informed later.
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David I agree, was just trying to figure out how to do this but I guess the Sena can't
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Steve Willis Having spent some time with our SMH5 units, I have to say the flashing blue LED is a handy feature and it has stopped either my wife or I forgetting to switch our units off when we have stopped for a break. It would be nice to have control to turn it off / on but not disable the feature all the time because as I say when on a road trip a flashing LED is less troublesome than a flat battery. -Not advisable to attempt to recharge the units while on the road and its raining.
Steve
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RBEmerson I get that the blinking LED might get LEO excited. I have yet to even hear of anyone who was stopped for it, or had it arise in a stop. OTOH, earphones are a good way to tick off LEO (BTDT - still got just a warning, because he'd already written it when I pulled the helmet off and let out my little secret). The LED doesn't do much for that. I agree with Steve Willis, more than once I've looked at the blinking light and been glad I saw it and remembered to power down the SMH-10.
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Irhs I would like this option as well. Night driving it can be distracting when you catch a glimpse of a reflection and for a moment, think you are getting pulled over by LEO. -
RBEmerson IMHO, if you're paranoid to the point where your main unit's light has you worried, that's not a good sign.
That said, SENA, please make this an optional feature. I want that flashing light to remind me the unit's on and working as it should.
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Irhs Exactly, optional only. During the day, I would probably leave it on. I just occasionally get a glimpse of it at night, and for a slight moment, my brain says "oh $h..". Nothing like a little adrenaline boost to keep you awake on a long ride.
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Rory Francis Please leave the LED on. Sometimes the battery dies without any warning so its nice to check in the mirror if the device is still turned on. Also when I take my helmet off and I have forgotten to turn the device off.
Thanks.
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ThreeZeroEight I prefer the LED. An option to disable would be the way too go.
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DH CHANEY If it REALLY bothers you, you could paint it with a marksalot or put a piece of tape over it, maybe leaving a small hole to verify whether it's on or not.
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RBEmerson That's sooo no-tech! I wish I'd thought of it first. ;-)
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Ed R. I think the best compromise is to use always-on LEDs during normal operation and not blinking LEDs. Always-on LEDs are not distracting, even when blue.
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Steve Willis One advantage to a flashing LED is the lower current consumption and a longer battery life compared to an equally intense permanently on LED. It may be a small current but it all adds up. :-)
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RBEmerson +1 to Steve's comment -
Ken Auto-off would be a feature that would keep people from forgetting to turn the headset off. Other BT headset brand(s) have auto-off and it's a good feature.
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RBEmerson Please do not add auto-shutoff!!! Riding along and the unit thinks it's done for the and shuts down? No way!
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Ken UClear only auto-shuts down if all Bluetooth devices are disconnected or go out of range. For instance, when I turn my motorcycle off, the Garmin powered off and quit communicating with it. But the Uclear would stay ON because my phone was still paired. It would only shut down after I stepped out of the Personal Network Area. So I never experienced an auto-shutdown by accident; so it was smart enough to know when it was time to turn itself off.
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RBEmerson OK, I can see "no BT connection" to enable a shutoff timer. OTOH, particularly when doing updates, either the feature can be disabled, or the timeout period is long enough (15-30 min.?) to do some work.
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Ken Yeah, you're right. I thought 10 minutes was a little short; and never did a firmware update in the Uclears. But maybe their unit was smart enough to know that it's USB'd to a computer and keeps the power ON. If the hardware supports internal shut-down, they could do this and make it as smart as their programmers like. No doubt, I would have left the Uclear headset ON countless times after riding . . . .there are so many opportunities to be distracted during dismount. With the auto-shut-down Uclear has, I went 3 to 4 weeks without needing to charge the battery; and only charged it because I couldn't believe it was lasting that long.
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Nick Sardelianos I definitely vote for a setting to turn off LED blinking when operating.
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M. Davis I also vote for a way to turn it off or have a setting to be
1) Turn light off 30 (?) seconds after you power the unit on. (That way you know you turned it on)
2) Frequent blink (what it is now)
3) Infrequent blink
4) Always on
I like the blinking because it reminds me to turn the unit off. However, like others, I am concerned that it attracts too much attention from other motorists and possibly law enforcement officers.
What I really want/need is for the unit to simply turn itself off after X minutes of nearly nearly no sound and/or no bluetooth connection. Then I won't have to remember to turn it off!
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RBEmerson Um, not to make to fine a point of it but... I don't give a flying frick about what someone in a car thinks of a blinking blue light. I suppose it's possible some LEO will ask about the blinking light but, to date, I have yet to hear of anyone taking a hit from law enforcement over it.
The timeout feature seems appealing, particularly after parking a bike mid-day and coming back, a couple of hours later, to a blinking SMH-10. OTOH, having the thing shutdown without my commanding it is an utter non-starter. Wearing a Schubert S1, there is surprisingly little air noise coming from the boom mic. Running down long stretches, the GPS or phone, running something like Google Maps, may not have anything to say for perhaps tens of miles. Having the SMH-10 shut down at the wrong time would not be welcome. Not in the least.
In short, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The current light system ain't broke.
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M. Davis So you have long stretches of wanting the Sena on and yet not connected to ANY bluetooth devices? Exactly what good is it doing then being on?
Properly implemented, an optional auto-off mode not only makes sense, it solves REAL problems, like forgetting to turn it off and then not being able to use it AT ALL because the battery goes completely dead when you don't expect it to be...
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RBEmerson What I said was, "Wearing a Schubert S1, there is surprisingly little air noise coming from the boom mic. Running down long stretches, the GPS or phone, running something like Google Maps, may not have anything to say for perhaps tens of miles." I didn't say I dropped the Bluetooth connection.
In general, things such as time-out power-down "features" are more of a problem than a help. For example, if I'm riding down the Interstate and coming up to an exit that may, or may not, be one I care about, if the SMH-10 has shut down, meaning no GPS prompts, coping with 70 MPH traffic, navigation, and the SMH-10 at the same time is not a good thing.
Ben Franklin, in Poor Richard's Almanac, summed it up pretty well: "Experience is a dear school, but a fool will learn in no other." (dear = expensive or costly) Be foolish about powering down the SMH-10 and the point gets made sooner or later. 'Nuff said.
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Ken Other Bluetooth headsets (Uclear for one) have an auto-turn off. It times out, but only after the connected devices has been disconnected or turned off. I never put on my helmet to find my Uclear battery dead. It lasted for weeks and weeks because it didn't have to be turned off at the end of the ride.
When out of range of the iPhone and the Zumo turned off with the motorcycle ignition, the Uclear would wait 30 minutes and then turn itself off.
Ken
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M. Davis Like I said before, a *properly* implemented (and optional) auto-off feature can be very useful. RBEmerson- in your examples, you did not lose connections to all other devices, so an auto-off based on losing connection with all bluetooth devices would not occur. Plus, as long as it is also optional, you wouldn't have to turn the feature on, anyway.... so it is nothing but a "win".
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RBEmerson Nope, lose - lose. If I can't even manage to turn off my SMH-10 every time I take off my helmet, maybe I need to think about what I'm doing sitting on top of 130 hp and two wheels. When I turn on the SMH-10, I expect it to stay on, period. When I turn it off, I expect it to stay off, period. The last thing I want is my equipment demanding I do something to make it happy when I have bigger issues to deal with.
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M. Davis It might be something YOU would not want but not the case for other people. If it were an optional feature (which is what I have recommended), you wouldn't have to turn on the feature, so it would never affect you in any way.
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