Revise battery level reporting and Low Battery Warning
I am very happy with the battery life of the SMH-10 units I have. There is ample talk time for several days riding (2-4 hours/day) and the units hold charge for weeks in storage. There is a problem with the battery status reporting. At the start of the ride the status indicates Battery Level High but 2 hours in I got the Battery Low message, and about 5 minutes later the unit shut down.
I would like the to get the Medium level indicator about 4 hours from end-of-power and the Low level indicator about 1 hour from end-of-power. This would provide some time to either charge the unit or shut down early to conserve power.
Thanks
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IF you received a 5 min. warning you were lucky. On the 4 units my brother and I have would get the low battery warning and at the end of the warning the units would shut down.
Please give more time between the low battery warning and the shut down.
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Thank you for your feedback. We will get back to you after investigating this problem.
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Agree.
And louder warning... when it goes off during a ride, I typically miss it.
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This is the same issue with the SMH5 units. You get the low battery level message followed by < 3 mins use beforethey shut down. Voltage indicator flashes do not appear to detect the dropping voltage when tested.
Very frustrating when on the motorway especially you have stopped for lunch not 10 mins before (when you could have charged them up for an hour) only to find they shutdown with a flat battery and you then have a silent journey. :-(
Steve
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I have to agree with all above. My 2 units give the 'Low Battery' warning & then shut down.
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A year later and my SMH-5 is showing the same issue that's discussed in this thread. Has this really not been addressed? I rely on my SMH-5 for driving directions and this is the second time that I was literally left "Stranded". Very unwelcome behavior.
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Well it happened again yesterday. Riding along quite happily when the voices in my head suddenly says "Battery low. Good Bye". No warning at all or if there was I missed it. This issue says PLANNED, but WHEN !!
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2 years from initial post on this, and on a battery replacement thread, and no response(s), except to say " we'll look into it". Sena, this is where you could/should stand out from the competition, and react quickly. In doing so, you'll beat your competition into submission, which you know you want to do. However, letting this things linger for years, only hurts that effort. Please put forth the same efforts into addressing your customer's concerns, as you do in marketing and bringing new products to the market. Thank you, Rob 1 -
I agree with all of you for the too short delay between the vocal warning and shutt off of the unit, my SPH10H-FM is running not more than 2 minutes which doesn't give enough time to stop in the traffic and connect the charging cable.
I hope Sena staff is reading these comments! It doesn't look like it.
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I vote for less frequent (and maybe earlier) low-battery warning.
What is the pointing of warning every couple of minutes or something, just 10 minutes before battery ends.
You can't "plan" ahead like this.
Would be nicer if it started like a few hours before empty, with very rare notification and maybe more common as you go closer to end.
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Thank you for this feedback. We will look into the possibility of adjusting the "low battery" voice prompt in the future.
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My SMH-5 lost ALL low-battery notifications when i updated to the 2.1 firmware. I used to get warnings starting 30-60 minutes before I'd actually run out of juice.
Post-2.1 firmware: I MIGHT get a single warning that says "Low battery - goodbye!" and immediately shuts down. It's pretty useless.
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Having had 3 or 4 Sena units, all with the same "Low battery" issue, I believe this is more of an unintended side effect of an advantsge of Lithium batteries. The advantage is that Lithium batteries have a very constant voltage output. That is, doesn't matter if the battery is 100% full or 10% full, it still gives relatively the same voltage output. This is great electronically, but is a nightmare when it comes to determining charge state. This doesn't happen with lead batteries (like cars). A 12v battery gives almost 13v when full, and around or below 12v when empty, so charge state can be determined if you know the voltage. That isn't the case with Lithium batteries. Given that other manufacturers havr found solutions to this, I wish Sena would to. However I wish they would acknoledge this to be the problem. Mostly because most users think this is laziness on Sena's behalf, and that the problem can simply be fixed modifying some value in the software. I suspect that isn't the case. 1 -
Ah, how time flies. Seems like only yesterday that I was posting about battery status problems.
Still no better on my SMH5 - on a VERY good day I'll get "Low battery" and then about 3 blocks later "Low battery - goodbye!" Most of the time, though, it's straight to "Good-bye!" without any warning.
This is pretty silly, Sena. My phone, my laptop, my everything-else-with-a-Lithium-ion-battery has NO problem tracking the battery level with at least SOME degree of accuracy (+/- 10% is fine by me). No clue why your product seems to have lost the mojo on this. Like I said - prior to the 2.1 update, my SMH5 was great. 20-30 minutes of notice was PERFECT. And then it all went wrong.
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I would definitely not mind a message on Power off. Even if it was an option I had to activate in the menu. Extra points if it only says the battery level is low if it's under 50%.
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I think the warning I got yesterday was about 5 minutes. I check the battery level every time I switch the unit on and it always gives 4 flashes. The same yesterday, but 30 mins later it (quietly) told me that I had low battery and then 5 mins later it shut down. More warning please !!
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Yep, my two SMH-10 units shut down a minute or two after declaring "low Battery". The battery charge flashes remains at 4 right to the end. Turning the unit back on after a shut down displays two flashes and shuts down right away.
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I would also like if the unit could TELL me the battery level on startup. If I'm driving, why should I remove the unit from my head and count the flashes?
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Lkld, I could not agree with you more. They are not addressing the problems of battery replacement and unless they do, prospective buyers will go elsewhere. The fact this has rumbled on for over two years.....that’s how long we have had ours....... and still no progress is really bad marketing, design and follow-up by Sena. The directors should be looking at this and asking their subordinates what is going on ? Alas it looks like old customers ideas and future growth prospects do not feature on their limited radar. It’s a shame when a company with a good product does not address the basic customer liaison issues and fix the requests.
How hard can it be to advise old customers how to change the batteries ? let customers sign a disclaimer if Sena are worried but atleast give them the chance to replace the batteries !!!
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I'm in agreement. I get the warning about 30 seconds before the unit shuts down. Then after those 30 seconds the warning comes through again and then the unit immediately powers down. That's not even enough time to let my riding partners know that I'm about to lose battery power.
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(to add to my previous post) Maybe I should mention that the unit I'm using is the 20S.
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I agree. The low battery "good bye" on my 20S comes way too late. Please arrange a "low battery shut off coming" message at least twenty (20) minutes before it happens.
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The original post is from July 2012 and since then, Sena's 2 answers for all these years:
Thank you for your feedback. We will get back to you after investigating this problem. July 30, 2012, 8:30 PM
Thank you for this feedback. We will look into the possibility of adjusting the "low battery" voice prompt in the future. September 16, 2015, 4:14 PM
Sena, what have you been doing during those 3 years?0 -
Definitely agree! I love my Sena SMH10R, but, when I get the low battery warning it means that I can expect the device to turn off in the next 2-3 minutes. I'm normally lucky if I finish the song. It's such an absurd problem that I don't know how it hasn't been looked in to. Honestly, I'd expect at least a warning somewhere within 30-60 minutes.
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Me too, please fix it, it's totally nonsense to have less than 5 minutes of battery life when the announcement arrives, i usually drive when this happens, and i can't do anything to recharge my S20,,,,
I'd like to hear the voice announcement 1 hour before (or at 25% of the battery capacity, and then 10% and 5%) the battery dies...
Thank you.
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Battery will not change keeps dying can't get any help from harley Davidson is battery have a warranty it's 10 months old? 0 -
Seems like this could be changed in five minutes. It seems the that when you get to 25% you're at more like 5%.
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I'm am very unhappy with sena headsets batterys keep dieing To spend a lot of money and get no service help dose not say much about sena products. I thought I bought the best Not. 0 -
How are you making out on changing the low battery alert on the 20S? we have paid a lot of money for these units and this is a simple issue to resolve.
As stated above - under 5 min warning that the battery is low before powering off is useless - should provide at least 30min warning (at the minimum).
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Well said MVSainz. I have this exact issue with my Jambox. In fact it often goes from warning me to dying before I can get the charger plugged in. However, phone manufacturers have figured this out. Mine has a low battery warning level set at 15% and the battery depletes at a predictable rate thereafter. Seems to me that Sena just have to test their batteries better to find out what voltage is equivalent to 15 or 20% or something.
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