Anyone out there have the Sena SMH10?

Once the novelty of 3-way intercom wore off, our group decided not to use it much for this very reason (among others). It only takes an extra second or two to place an individual call and avoid these kinds of BT problems.

You do NOT have to restrict yourself to one pairing, however. In fact, for individual calling to work best, you should pair with everybody (up to the limit of 3). I think it's the extra bandwidth needed for bridging two conversations that causes the problems, not the initial pairing.

-dan

Lynn:

I'd love to tell you that Bluetooth is 100% reliable - but that isn't the case, at the moment. Each device maker seems to implement the Bluetooth spec in a slightly different way, and combinations of devices are being utilized in a way that was never envisioned by the design engineers. There are wide incompatibilities and inconsistencies between Bluetooth device makers, and that is just the state of Bluetooth today. It's sort of like a Windows PC; reboot and that usually helps . Wired systems are more like a Mac - plug in and forget about it.

While the Bluetooth world works most of the time, the kinds of things you're experiencing are not uncommon, and that is the state of things to have no wire dangling from your helmet. Bluetooth is way better than it was a few years ago, and in time, Bluetooth may approach the reliability and plug 'n' play-ness of wired systems, it's just not here today.

I own two Garmin GPS's - a 550 and a 665. In my opinion, the Bluetooth implementation on both of these devices is far short of what it should be (I was thinking about some harsher words, but restrained myself). The 665 is a bit better, but not terrific.

All that said, most riders (and passengers) that have Sena headsets are quite happy and accept the kinds of things you have experienced as part of the price of admission for 'cutting the cord'.

Not sure if this helps at all but 4 of us are paired almost permanently to each other for intercom (we even see each other without re-pairing after days of being in separate locations), then each phone is paired to their Sena, not the Zumo, and my Zumo is also paired to my Sena, and we never seem to have any major issues with dropping out, and all it takes is a switch off and a switch on of the Sena if anything does go weird. We each have one or other of iPhone 3's and 4S's. Maybe the Sena copes better than the Zumo with the Bluetooth connections.

Much as I agree with Adam about flakiness of Garmin BT, I don't think that's the culprit in this case. Like you, I do not pair my phone to my 660 but rather do it direct to my SMH10. But unlike you I turn off my zumo BT and have it hardwired to a Sena SR10, which also is wired to my Valentine 1.

-dan

Ok here's a picture of what I did:



On the back side of the bracket there is a large void that can be completely filled in with the putty,
then I continued on around the sides of the "bullet nose". Note that the putty can not extend beyond the surface of the bracket on the upper half (above where the bottom of the unit fits into the slot) as it will interfere with the headset snapping in the headset -
I had a bit too much putty there and waited for it to start to harden (about 5 minutes) then trimmed back the excess with a knife.

The putty is made by Locktite and is called Multi-purpose repair putty, I picked up my stick of it at Lowes.
I think it is a worthy reinforcement of the bracket which seems to be a weak-link for many of us....
I should have been a bit more generous with the putty and made it a bit thicker.... and smooth it out better ... the instruction say you can use a wet finger to get a smoother surface.

I will likely build out a second layer of putty and then color it with a black sharpie to blend in better ... unless I find my receipt and am still under warranty.

It looks like the SMH5 uses a different mounting system ... that the speakers/mic. just plug directly into the unit with all the electronics, instead of the arrangment the SMH10 uses ... I haven't seen one in person, but think this is likely a more robust and more reliable design... not to mention a bit less expensive to manufacture.....

Hi. I just received the SMH-10 yesterday. Should I upgrade to the new firmware before I pair with any devices?

I would. The latest firmware is the best they have had yet. Why not start out with the latest.

Won't hurt anything to pair first, but if memory serves me, you'll have to do it again after the update anyway.

Even if the update does not erase existing pairings, I found it worked better to do a factory reset after the update (fairly standard practice when updating firmware on these kinds of devices -- hello zumo owners), and that definitely does erase any pairings.

-dan

Thanks for the good info. I'll update the firmware first then start pairing.

FYI- Sena is running a promo on the SMH5's and SMH10's
We have the 5's and 10's in stock and ready to ship

http://www.cobraheat.com/Bike-Communications_c_92.html

FYI I have a brand new boom mic clamp for sale. I opted for the earbud clamp from the start. $20 including shipping. PM if interested.

Anyone have experience using these without helmets? My brother and I do car rally's about twice a year, and I'd love to get a communicator that did double duty.

Can I mount a sena to a normal pair of noise reducing Earmuffs? Kinda like These Peltors: rally com

Check out the SPH10's

http://www.senabluetooth.com/products/sph10.php?tab_menu=overview

How are those for blocking out road, wind, and engine noise? The car we use is waaay louder than my mc...

Is there a reason my SMH-10 continuously wants to "connect with intercom" while listening to the ipod touch, even though there's no other Sena around? I tried turning both the ipod and Sena off, but every few minutes the Sena lady blurts out that it is trying to connect to intercomom. Then I get the "failed" message. This will go on for hours while listening to music, lol.

I have no idea... I guess you could use foamy's too

Umm you might want to try a factory reset?!?

Are you accidentally hitting the jog dial with your jacket/shoulder?

Giving the jog dial a quick push in is how you connect the intercom. Maybe you are bumping it?

Either that or your Vox is getting triggered, but you can turn that off in the settings on your PC to not activate the intercom by Vox.

yep, my bet is VOX is turned on. Maybe you are singing along too loud?

I have the VOX set to be "ON" by default, at least that was how I planned to have it set up. Does this mean that I can't listen to music (via Bluetooth) unless I choose to just use the "push to talk" setting?