14

SM10: Automatically turn on/off with external power (ignore battery)

Ed R.

January 29, 2013 22:55

None

Follow

I use the SM10 on my motorcycle and keep it plugged into external power at all times. I would like the ability to ignore the battery and just automatically turn on or off with external power, so it would come on when I turn the bike on and turn off when it's off. (External power is through a DC-DC converter running off the switched power of the bike.) Of course there should still be an on-off switch so the device can be permanently turned off regardless of external power.

This can either be a version of the SM10 that does not have a battery, or a switch added to the unit to enable or disable battery discharge. (Charge should always be enabled or the battery would drain away, of course.)

That would be ideal, but a simpler alternative is to just swap the pair button with the on-off button, because the former is so much easier to use than the latter, yet you only ever pair your device once, pretty much, yet it's turned on/off constantly.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

50 comments

• 0
  
  Brian Casey April 20, 2013 16:40

  I would find this capability very useful.

• 0
  
  Eddiepants April 23, 2013 11:09

  Find the SM10 unsuitable at this time with out this feature .  I bought an aftermarket product for my gl1800.  It was less than a 1/3 the cost

  and works similarly, it is a single bluetooth transmitter not daul and no Aux in . What a pain to have to turn it on all the time or leave it  on

  battery .

  I was very excited when the SM10 first can out but after reading that it lacked the auto on/off feature I took it off my Xmas list.

  Let's hope I can put it on this Xmas list.

   

• 0
  
  Kerry Cox May 08, 2013 15:38

  This would be a great feature.

• 0
  
  Csaba Blazsovics May 13, 2013 08:34

  This would be a great feature me too!

• 0
  
  Derek Vogel June 17, 2013 04:10

  Can-Am is selling this thing now as part of their "Bluetooth Dongle" kit, but they place it in the front trunk of the Spyder RTs, behind the liner.  Out of sight, out of mind, and I'm often forgetting to turn it off manually.  Worse, it won't pair with anything until it has built up a charge.  Think my Harley buddies are going to wait on me while my "new fangled thingy" charges?  Uh no.
  
  As a computer programmer myself, this should be a relatively easy thing to implement as a software/firmware patch.  Provide the user the ability to turn on the "auto on/auto off" feature (triple click?), and then monitor the power-in line for voltage to drop to 0.  Triple-click -->  Blue=Auto on/off feature ON, Red=Auto on/off feature OFF

• 0
  
  Derek Vogel June 17, 2013 04:17

  P.S.  Be sure and "thumbs up" this idea if you like it.

• 0
  
  Ricky Slaughter June 30, 2013 20:43

  I would like this very much. I've just added the SM10 to my Ultra and would love *LOVE* to permanently tuck it away in the tourpak, hard wired to the audio IN and powered by the (switched) power port.

  I currently have it on the bars, in the weather, with TWO cables flapping in the breeze for no other reason than the need to hit the power switch.

• 0
  
  Michiels July 08, 2013 17:50

  I was going to buy this unit to put on my Can-am Spyder to go with my SMH10 headset but by luck someone pointed out that it would have to be manually turned on and off every time is was used. Before this I had assumed that it would work just like a GPS and if you plugged it in a switched outlet, it power on and off with the key. Since I was planning to put it in the recommended location of the trunk I decided it was too inconvenient to use so I am not going to purchase it. If in the near future you change the firmware to support this feature I may reconsider. 

• 0
  
  Dtgames July 21, 2013 19:44

  I did buy the SM10 for my Can-Am Spyder and it is to say the least a little flaky.  It requires several power on/off/on cycles maybe even one or two unplug/plug attempts of the USB connector to get it to play through my headsets. This feature would probably help a lot but then there is the question of pairing.  Is pairing in the SM10 lost if the battery dies or is it somehow written to flash so it does not require battery power?

• 0
  
  Derek Vogel July 21, 2013 20:01

  I completely agree, Dtgames! I have an LG HBS-730 headset and find that I have the most success when I turn it on first, and then immediately turn on the SM10. They both start looking for each other and almost always connect. Wait too long, and I have to try again by powering both off and then try again. Then... if I start up the Spyder .... half the time I lose the connection and have to do it all again. I'm really regretting having paid the $$$ for this set up considering the hassle. It is nice to be able to switch over to weather radio or regular radio of i'm in a dead zone. But continue to irritate my friends as I fiddle with the bluetooth. I want to get bluetooth communication system, but am afraid that it'll just be more frustration, so I'm holding off to see what BRP and/or Sena do about this (if anything).
• 0
  
  Ricky Slaughter July 22, 2013 16:38

  Having just completed a 4700 mile trip with the SM10, SMH10 and iPhone 4S, some observations on the SM10:

  1. the  PROs outweigh the CONs, no doubt.

  2. biggest issue with the SM10 is that it will refuse to work if the battery is not fully charged even though it's powered. This is the crux of the switch issue. If it would simply operate from line power regardless of charge level, then we wouldn't CARE about the switching issue.

  3. when charged, I had little trouble pairing the SM10 overall. There were two times that it would not pair and turning it and the SMH10 off and right back on (easy while riding) fixed it. Had the SM10 been stowed in the tour pak, this would have been difficult, of course.

  4. My use of the SM10 is to allow me to hear the factory HD audio (AM/FM/XM/WB/CB/NAV) ~plugged into the SM10's audio port~ in my SMH10 headset AND

  to let me hear audio from my non-bluetooth 1490 GPS via the Aux port.   The headset is also paired with the iPhone. This worked very well, in fact, better than expected.

  5. As long as I turned it off at the end of the day and back on in the morning, there were no battery and no pairing difficulties with the SM10 (on switched power). I did not need to kill it every time I shut the bike down.

  6. The headset surprised me in this scenario: I parked the bike and went into a restaurant carrying the helmet; w/o turning off the headset or the SM10. The phone was in my pocket. The headset and phone remained paired but the SM10 lost pairing (expected). When that happened, the headset started playing music from the phone (unexpected). It made sense, but I had forgotten that I had been listening to the same source when last I paired the SM10. Put the lid in the next booth and let it play. After lunch I fully expected to need to futz with it to re-pair the SM10, but nope, as I neared the bike I heard "media connected" and silence.  After turning on the key, I was hearing my XM radio.

  7. I think the SM10 has a power consumption issue which could explain the other business.

  8. I adopted the practice of charging the SM10 in the hotel each night even though I have mine on switched power on the bike. The charge LED on the unit will be BLUE when fully charged. Starting the day on the bike, it will be blue, but after a bit, it will turn RED, indicating that it's no longer 100% even though it's powered. This would imply that it is drawing more energy than the charging port supplies thus it is draining the battery somewhat while plugged in.

  9. Either the inlet power circuit protection is over regulating or the unit is just too power hungry. Perhaps there will be a firmware fix?

  10. My Garmin 1490 is a car unit to which I have added a headphone jack so that I can plug it into the SM10's aux port to get its nav alerts. This works fairly well, at least as far as the SM10's function. The GPS alerts override the HD radio and the radio switches back on as soon as the Garmin stops talking. I'm having some trouble with feedback noise but I'm assuming that is my fault due to my improvised headphone connection. I will add some shielding to address this.

  11. Learning curve stuff: Using the headset for a year with the iPhone, I've gotten used to a single tap of the jog dial muting/ un-muting the music. I thought the SMH10 was muting the sound (within the headset). When using the SM10, such tapping will not mute the radio, I have to use the handlebar controls to mute it. I finally realized that the headset wasn't internally cutting the audio from the phone, it was telling the iPhone to mute itself.  The HD radio doesn't support AVRCP, so no such control.

• 0
  
  J Bichsel July 25, 2013 11:09

  We have two (2) gen 1 SMH10's that we purchased in July 2011. Have upgraded bike to BMW K1600GTL and added SM10. We have issues when connecting both SMH10's to the SM10, but that is another story that Sena has NOT dealt well with in my opinion.

  Anyway, I have the SM10 mounted under the seat using Rocket Moto's USB power cable connected to a owe Electronics PDM60.

  I can't understand why Sena did not account for the possibility of this unit being remote mounted in a hidden location. There should be some programming that allows for an auto shutoff once BT connection has been lost for say more than 3 minutes. The unit should also be able to be used even if the internal battery is dead but it is connected to a power source.

  I am amazed at Sena and there lack of forethought on some very basic features.

• 0
  
  Dennis Rubery July 29, 2013 19:47

  This thread has been open since April!  3 months and no response from Sena?   I have the same issue.  Sena SM10 on switched USB power.  As soon as I power the bike off, the Sena goes to sleep which requires physically pressing the button to use the SM10.  May not be a big deal for some, but space is an issue and I do not want to be plugging and unplugging connectors every time I get off or on the bike.

  -D

• 0
  
  Earl Teigrom September 01, 2013 16:55

  I was wanting to get one of these and mount it under the seat and never have to touch it but so glad I didn't. Please Sena, let this thin operate with external power only. The fact that it can't even be run with external power with a dead battery is very poor design. It's runs as if plugging power into in the unit trickle charges the battery??? PLEASE FIX THIS AND I WILL BUY ONE!!! And when you fix this, think about the unit being in an inaccessible location and once it is paired, it should never have to be accessed again... Ever. THANK YOU!!! PS, love your headset!
• 0
  
  Rick Hooton October 09, 2013 18:07

  Has anyone tried putting a Portable Power Bank External Battery Backup Charger (like the ones that charge iPhones) in between the power source and the SM10? Just curious if that would supply enough reserve charge to the SM10 to keep its charge when the bike was not running....

• 0
  
  MarcFTL December 07, 2013 02:57

  I  just had Can-AM install the SM10 Update in my 2010 RT-S

  I also have SM10 SR10 SMH10R and SPH10H-FM

  The SM10 Battery dies in just over 36 hours from a full charge and the SM10 will not work again unless its gets a 15 to 30 minute charge.  As the others have said,  it is mounted in the Frunk behind the zippered liner.  

  What a pain to have to remember to turn it off every night. There must be a Firmware Update way of fixing this .  Maybe after an hour or two of no use, it goes into standby mode until power is applied.

   

  The biggest issue is why Can-Am did not install the unit with power supplied all the time.  That would fix this issue all permanently.  I always run a trickle charger when parked at night anyway.

  I just may have to re-wire the power connection to keep it charged all the time.

   

  Sena,  please respond to this.

   

  Thanks

   

• 0
  
  Els van H February 14, 2014 10:53

  Any news on this? As soon as I turn off both the headset and the SM10 I'm unable to pair the 2 again.

  Thanks, Els

• 0
  
  J Bichsel February 21, 2014 22:42

  Since Sena does not see fit to respond, despite my bringing this long lost thread to their attention, (Sena rep Chris Woodyard apologized and said that more resources would be directed to the forum) (yeah, right) I will provide info based on a couple of days of back and forth.

  Basically, we are screwed on this. The hardware design would have to be changed in order to implement what we are requesting, and Sena has no plans to do that.

  I don't know that this link to our conversation will works, but: http://support.senabluetooth.com/requests/29848

  Seems our only recourse is to manually turn off/on the power each time. For those of us that mounted the SM10 under our seat or some other hidden location, this is extremely inconvenient, puts more wires/cables out in the open for vandalism and requires us to remove the SM10 when we leave the bike and then reconnect when we return.

   

  For myself, I've had it with Sena. I will be saving my pennies for an Autocom SPA system.

• 0
  
  Derek Vogel February 24, 2014 12:10

  Thanks for that information J Bichsel. Very discouraging. I've stopped using the SM10 out of frustration, hoping that there might be a firmware update to resolve this. Between this and the ground loop electrical noises I can hear in the background, this was a complete waste of money.
• 0
  
  MarcFTL February 24, 2014 16:07

  I am not trying to be negative but I have no choice.

  The entire Sena line is ONE BIG EPIC FAIL!

  I have spoken with tech support several times about disconnects, problems pairing and the horrible tinny sound from the Headset Speakers.

  I have posted before about all of the issues SM-10. The Power On-Off issues,  the major hiss in the background and the fact that I have to power cycle my two headsets every so often while we ride. Now I am having problems with my SR10 when other two way radio users can't hear me anymore.

  I have all the latest Firmware updates,

  I was even told by Tech Support that they are aware of the poor speakers and I was told that they are thinking about upgrading them at our additional cost of course.

  Unfortunately I am stuck with these products because I have a Can-Am Spyder which has the "SM-10" Dongle.

  For what I paid for all of their products, I am really disappointed in the entire company.  I am heavily invested in Sena Products and I could kick myself for that.

  I used to have J&M headsets and the sound was fantastic but I could not use those Headsets with the SM-10.

  At this point I am just ranting, sorry about that.

  I have the following Sena Products so you can understand my anger.

  SMH10R   SPH10H-FM   SM-10   SR-10 plus accessories.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

• 0
  
  J Bichsel February 24, 2014 16:23

  The SR10 has this line in its product specifications: "Optional 12V bike-powered kit with on/off control by ignition switch".

   

  Too bad the same cannot be said for the SM10.

  I too have significant investment in Sena products, especially when I had to upgrade the original SMH10's that were NOT firmware upgradable, to the B version.

  Now this issue with the SM10 and the ongoing issue of the SMH10's losing connect when operating the intercom feature more than twice.

  I'm sure that if at some point in the future, Sena decides to upgrade the hardware of the SM10 to support "Optional 12V bike-powered kit with on/off control by ignition switch", it will be another cost of replacement at full price.

  I've had enough of Sena's lack of support and business model.

  I will not be buying any more Sena products and will be saving up for an Autocom SPA system, what I should have done in the first place.

• 0
  
  Dave March 15, 2014 14:11

  It's pretty pitiful that SENA won't even respond to the SM10 issues.   Especially with a major manufacture (BRP- CAN AM) offering the SM10 as a factory available option for their Spyder's. 

• 0
  
  Ricky Slaughter March 17, 2014 17:58

  I agree, and I have posted repeatedly about this.

   

  WHERE THE HELL IS SENA?

  Why no comment?  You haven't even bothered to say "we're working on it"

   

  Why no feedback?

• 0
  
  J Bichsel March 17, 2014 19:50

  Yet another reason I'm leaving Sena. I just acquired an Autocom SPA that I will be working on getting installed to my K1600 GTL and new Arai RX-Q.

  YAY! I'm almost done with the frustrating problems of Sena!

• 0
  
  Ricky Slaughter April 01, 2014 21:26

  I talked with James at Sena today 4-01-14 about an issue with a headset and while I had him on the phone, I discussed ~at great length~  this power issue with the SM10 and also with their lack of attention to THIS FORUM.  I requested that he have someone AT LEAST respond here to say "we're working on it" or similar.

• 0
  
  J Bichsel April 01, 2014 22:48

  I've had Sena tech's apologize for the lack of response, promise that steps were being taken to beef up the forum presence, blah, blah, blah.

  I found a great deal on an Autocom SPA on another forum I frequent. I purchased it, installed it and am loving it. The sound is so many more times improved over the Sena, volume is significantly louder, I don't have dropped connections, dead batteries AND, getting a response from Autocom HQ in the UK is faster and more intelligent than anything I've experienced from Sena.

• 0
  
  Turgut August 10, 2014 17:36

  Just open up SM10 and disconnect its battery.. that should do the trick, no?

• 0
  
  Michiels August 12, 2014 15:51

  The work around I am using is to connect the Sena SM10 so that it is powered all the time. It actually works better this way. Turn on the headset and it will pair every time without fail. The downside is the parasitic drain on the battery. Unless you don't drive your toy for weeks at a time this should not be a problem. 

• 0
  
  Eddiepants August 12, 2014 21:03

  Don't have a SM10 so I would like to ask what is the parasitic current  drain for the SM10 ?

• 0
  
  David Shaw September 10, 2014 21:09

  Well, I'm pleased I took a look in here, because I thought the SM10 might be the answer to the problem I have: zumo 590 audio over bluetooth isn't great, tone-wise (it's much better wired).  I won't be buying an SM10 now, because of this powering issue.

  BTW, I've just gone the other way, from an Autocom SPA to Sena 20S (x2), because having a cable hanging off my helmet was a pita.