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Sena 20S cannot update Firmware higher than 1.6.2

Diabolik65

November 22, 2016 10:50

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In my group we got 6 Sena 20S and none of us, I repeat, none of us can update the firmware anything higher than 1.6.2 without running into troubles...

I don't think that we got 6 faulty units (what are the chances), and all the unit we got do perform well.

I just want to know why we can't update the firmware....

Device Manager is 3.3 and the highest firmware we can use is 1.6.2 (or lower) but not higher.

If we update even just to 1.6.3 we can't turn things off anymore (radio,music)

and the problem is that all the unit display the same problem after being updated.

Also if we try to restore the firmware it says at the top (of the device manager window) that the restore version is 1.6, and yet after finish restoring it recognise the device as 1.6.3

We have also reset them all to factory default (12 second reset) and also tried update version by version and the result remained the same

Are these software and firmware bugs? Or are these 6 devices all faulty?

Please advise to what is the best course of action as we would like this matter resolved

Thank you

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17 comments

• 1
  
  Ethan December 01, 2016 05:24

  I'm another user of the Sena 20S and use it daily. I can confirm that your diagnosis of the problem is accurate and it has a lot of bugs after Firmware Version 1.6.2 (1.6.3+). I figure out a work around in 1.6.3 but didn't want to hassle with it so just downgraded back to 1.6.2.

  I've already put in a ticket for this problem about a month ago and here is the details, https://support.sena.com/hc/en-us/requests/135422 (Let me know if the link doesn't work).

  Hopefully Sena will have this problem fixed soon, but it's already been 2 firmware updates already so I'm doubtful.

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 01, 2016 07:26

  Hi Ethan... More importantly, it has been 10 days and not a single beep form Sena ?

  Is this the best they can do regarding customers care ?

  What's the point of having this space for submitting request, if no one bother to read them???

  I wish I would have known this before we bought the units...

• 0
  
  Sena Marketing December 03, 2016 04:02

  @Diabolik65

  Please contact our Technical Support department for assistance with the issue that you are having regarding your batch of 20S headsets. You can visit the home page here https://support.sena.com/hc/en-us to see the various ways they can be contacted.

• 1
  
  Ethan December 06, 2016 00:11

  Hey Diablo,

  Any luck with attempting to call Sena and get your problem resolved?

  I called today to see if I could get it fixed and basically what happened was I had to call them 4 times(first call, the guy had me reset my Sena and while repairing to my phone I accidentally hung up on while testing the Sena 20S, second call the guy hung up on me after giving him the details, third call the lady couldn't hear me at all even though I was speaking directly into my phone, a the fourth call can me "soft reset" the phone via the pinhole in the back of the Sena 20s unit and wanted my email to send me information about how to get it replaced) and all of which I could barely understand. So basically I got nowhere unless I wanted to wait a week or more a replacement Sena unit (They didn't say a week but I know these things take time to resolve).

  I really do like the Sena 20S for what it has the potential ability to do but I wasn't expecting to buy a top of the line headset unit for just potential ability and not actual ability.

  If you call them and get yours replaced or exchange yours at the store, let me know what happens.

• 1
  
  Diabolik65 December 06, 2016 03:31

  @Chris

  Well to be honest, after ten days I was hoping for a public easy fix considering that there are few people out there with the same problem. I thought that was the idea of this Help Desk Community blog???

  So instead you want the six of us to contact the Tech Supp Department...

  Sorry man but is not really a feasible solution as we all have jobs and don't like wasting time in stuff like this unless really necessary.  Like Ethan wrote above, we like the 20S, but this firmware problem has make us wonder what else is out there...There were originally 9 Sena in my group and after this past experience 3 have already moved to Scala. I'll let the other 5 know about having to contact the Tech Support Dep. but I doubt it will ever happen.

  @Ethan

  I don't have the time for this and plus we have already tried all the tricks (soft reset and factory reset), to no avail. Plus I can't justify the 10 days for a response that really does nothing to fix the problem.

  We will probably keep the 20S for a bit longer but I think in the end a product is only as good as the backup and service behind, if you know what I mean...

  The 20S work fine on 1.6.2 and that pretty much it... I just wish they did bother to let the customer know about the firmware problems they are having, instead of wasting customer time like this...

   

• 1
  
  VFRcanada December 06, 2016 11:30

  Have you tried to download the latest version V1.7? I haven't tried it yet but I'm wondering if it'll help you???

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 06, 2016 22:06

  Hi Richard

  Yes we did.  "none of us can update the firmware anything higher than 1.6.2"

  Anything really mean anything. Anything higher than 1.6.2 and the 20S stop turning things off like radio or music and the lady voice just disappear.

  You can try this yourself if you have a 20S with a lower firmware version than 1.6.2.  It won't brick the unit as you can always go back to your previous version of firmware.

  Such a pity that Sena can't fix this, otherwise I'm guessing, they would have already release a firmware version that actually does work with all the 20S out there... We only find out this by mistake as the unit are working fine but I wanted to see if the latest firmware was going to improve the device even further. Unfortunately is not the case...

• 0
  
  beans December 06, 2016 22:18

  I have updated to v1.7 recently, and I'm able to listen to the FM tuner. I can hear the voice prompts when you power on/off.

  Make sure that your volume is all the way up - rotate the volume wheel clockwise several times. When you do a factory reset the volume goes all the way down. So you need to adjust the volume.

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 07, 2016 07:55

  Hi Bean

  We can update to 1.7 and we can listen to the FM radio as well and hear the voice prompt when the unit turns on or off...

  Our problem is that you can't use voice prompt to turn things like radio or music off after updating firmware, anything higher than 1.6.2, like I said in my first post. All it does it just stop working until you turn the unit off and on again...

  But thanks for trying to help. Much appreciated

• 0
  
  Sena Marketing December 10, 2016 02:35

  @Diabolik65

  My apologies. Here is what you can do to fix the problem that you are having.

  1. Perform a Factory Reset on your 20S.

  2. Power on your 20S and pair it to any Bluetooth device it was paired to before the Factory Reset.

   

  Now test out if the Factory Reset has fixed the issues.

  1. Setup the FM radio station presets on your 20S. You can do this by using the Sena Smartphone App, the Sena Device Manager or through the 20S itself.

  2. Activate the voice command system (easiest way would be to tap the Ambient Mode Button on the bottom of the clamp kit once).

  3. After the voice prompt says "Say a command", say "FM Radio" to turn on the radio.

  4. Activate the voice command system again and say "FM Radio" to turn off the radio.

  5. Activate the voice command again but use the command "Music" to start playing music from a paired Bluetooth music player. You can also give the command "Stereo". They both have the same function.

  6. Activate the voice command and say "Music" to pause the music playback.

   

  Please keep in mind that you can't use the "Hello Sena" command to activate the voice command system while a function such as the FM radio or music is active.

   

  If you are still having issues with your 20S after updating the firmware to v1.7, then it would be best to contact our Technical Support department so that you can receive product replacement service.

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 10, 2016 02:57

  Hi Chris

  Thank you for your reply... I'll try to get all the guys together, and see if we can send them all 6 back to you in a single box then, as they all have the same problem...

   

   

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 10, 2016 03:52

  UPDATES

  I got three of the unit here and just downloaded the latest Sena Bluetooth Device manager 3.3.1 Upon updating the devices to firmware 1.7, where before we had problems with voice command FM radio and Music on trying to turning them off, I now only have the FM radio problem as following:

  You can turn the FM radio on with the voice command, but when you issue the same voice command to turn it off, the Sena just beeps at you once and then you can't get the radio to work any more. You can still change the radio station by using the dial and push button, and her voice will confirm that, but the radio won't come on. To get the radio back (as to hear it again in the speakers), you need to turn the device off and then on again...

  Considering that the only change here from before is the Sena Bluetooth Device Manager, (from 3.3.0 to 3.3.1), it makes me wonder if it is a compatibility driver or software problem with windows 7 64 bit.

  At least we are now moving in the right direction as the Music command works again for both on and off...

  Maybe when 3.3.2 will be released, the FM Radio problem will be fix as well... 8-)

  Chris, I hope you are reading this....

  We can only hope....

• 1
  
  Agmwildhorse December 12, 2016 18:22

  I bought a new Sena 20s about 3 weeks ago, updated firmware to 1.7 and could never get the FM to turn off once it was on and had numerous other problems with voice commands.  Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.    I have gone back and forth with Sena support over numerous emails and a couple of phone calls to no avail.  They just talk about resetting, etc.  After reading this post, I downgraded to Firmware v 1.6.3 and still had the same problem.  More back and forth to support without successful results.  Then downgraded to 1.6.2 and it all works fine.  At one point in time, they finally admitted that there's a problem with v.1.7 and it would be corrected by their tech team.  I sent them a support email requesting that I be notified when 1.6.3 or 1.7 was finally fixed, but have not heard back.  For now, I'm sticking with 1.6.2.  I agree with the poor support.  They have responded to most of my emails sooner or later (sometimes several days), but they do not resolve the problems, which I'm sure many others are having as well.  It would be much more professional if they would send out emails to owners (like factory recalls, etc.) stating what the problems are and what they are doing about it, and noticing us when it is done.  If you (we) have registered our products, with email address, etc., that should be a no-brainer.

• 0
  
  Diabolik65 December 12, 2016 22:35

  Hi Agmwildhorse

  Unfortunately that's the truth...

  We had originally 9 Sean 20S in our group, but after a trip 3 of the guys moved to Scala. (that from personal experience is not that much better and it is also a lot harder to use when wearing gloves).

  Now there are six of us left and we all have the same problem... What are the chances???

  I honestly believe that if anybody that has a Sena 20S took the time to upgrade the firmware and then check if all the functions still work, there would be hundred of people here repeating the same post over and over 

  We are not stupid! If the device works perfectly fine on 1.6.2, there has to be a software problem along the lines when you try to move up with the firmware version.

  If there is an incompatibility problem, they should tell us and do something about...

  Such a great product, let down by a silly customer attitude... What a pity...

  I asked my friend about sending all the units back and they just laugh...

  It is a lot less stressful and quicker to just live them on 1.6.2 and move on... Obviously, this is as good as it gets with Sena products...

• 0
  
  Agmwildhorse December 12, 2016 23:30

  Just got this from Sena:

  Thank you for contacting Sena Support.

  Are you referring to the 20S? If you are, we still do not have any word from our Research and Development team any new updates on it, they are still working on the fixes on the issues of this device.

  Thank You!
  Best Regards,

  Joseph
  SENA Technologies

   

  
  ARVEL MARTIN, Dec 10, 9:15 AM PST:
  When will you have bugs fixed in v1.6.3 and 1.7 firmware. Neither will take commands to turn off FM radio and turn on music.

   

• 0
  
  Keith February 21, 2017 04:23

  One comment on the voice commands. If you are using the "Hello Sena" voice command after 60 seconds since the last voice command, you will not get a response. I believe Sena put this time limit on keeping the mic active in an attempt to extend the battery life, which was well short of the originally advertised 10 days on standby. I was told by Sena support that the current expected standby time is 48 hours. This is after they put the 60 second timeout in the firmware. I was getting approx. 30 hours or less on standby before that. If you want to issue a voice command after 60 seconds, you need to push the "ambient mode" button. You will hear "please say a command" and then can issue the voice command. This is very easy to verify.

  1. Push the ambient mode button (you'll hear "Hello. Please say a command")

  2. Say "check battery" (it will say "battery level is xxxx")

  3. Wait for 15 seconds after it responds

  4. Say "Hello Sena" (it will say "Hello. Please say a command")

  5. Immediately say "check battery" (it will say "battery level is xxxx")

  6. Wait 70 seconds after it responds

  7. Say "Hello Sena"

  It will not respond to any voice commands at this point unless you push the "ambient mode" button again. The mic cuts off to voice commands at exacly 60 seconds after the last response.

  I too had issues with 1.6.3. But, it was with my music input going away when my GPS chimed in. Only power off and back on got things going again. This happened numerous times on a day ride. I went back to 1.6.2.

• 0
  
  Keith August 16, 2017 02:11

  Just a quick update on my comment about my music going away for good when my gps chimed in. While running firmware version 1.6.2, I found that if I paired my music source first and then paired my gps, my music would not come back after the gps chimed in. If I pair my gps first and then the music source, the gps will chime in and then the music would come back after a few seconds. So, proper function is dependent on the order my gps and music source are paired