senna/garmin question

Here is my rookie dumb ass question. If I want to use my Bluetooth flip phone on the bike do I attempt to pair it to the Senna or the 590 Garmin??? and is there an easy way to do it or just RTFM. I have the book for the senna but don't remember getting one with the Garmin. TIA and be gentle.

Another question. If it is paired to the Garmin and I have Patti withe me is she stuck listening to the phone when she could have tunes???

I would pair the phone to the Garmin that way you get call display (if you have that feature on the phone). Since I ride solo and have never set up a Sena for 2 up I can't answer your other question.

You can download the manual for the Garmin by going to the Garmin Support page at this link:

Garmin Product Support

Click on "Support" at the top and select Manuals from the dropdown list and then select "Automotive" in the 'Type of Market" and then "Motorcycle" in the sub category. From there select the Zumo 590 and download the manual.

I've had better performance pairing the phone to the Sena. I've tried connecting to a Zumo 550 and a Zumo 390. The connection for calls on the phone (on my setup) is much better hooked directly to the Sena. Most people can't tell I'm on the bike. You do lose the call display on the Garmin tho.

I've not done a two up connection so I can't speak to that situation.

I tried to pair my phone to the 390 and then the 390 to the Sena. Was a no go for me. I could hear the caller, they could not hear me. So I have the phone and the Garmin paired to my Sena seperately. Works just fine that way. I don't get the call info on my screen however. I can live without that. I ended up with my phone primary, Ipod as the 2nd "phone" and the GPS as a GPS.

I have my iPhone paired directly to the Sena. I've had issues when I paired through my 660, and pairing directly to Sena solved that.

I can use Siri by pressing the phone button on the Sena. So I can just speak to who I want it to call, "call John Doe", for instance. Also, I can have Siri read texts to me or send texts to someone. I can also change playlists, while listening to music. All of this, with just the push of one button. Less distracting this way than going through the Garmin.

I don't know if all this can be done having it paired through the Garmin.

I pair my phone to my Zumo 665. Works great. I can see who is calling and control the phone through the Zumo. Spanky doesn't hear any of it unless I intercom her in. Unlike others who have posted troubles with this setup, it works great for me. Sena SMH10 headset w/earbuds and mic stuck to inside of chin piece(not boom).

Flip phone???? That is so 2002.......

Pterodactyl said:

Flip phone???? That is so 2002.......

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Yeah well I wasn't smart enough for the smart phone and I wasn't willing to get ripped off for data that I never used. Some day my grand kids will offer to pay for it. NOT.

MNFJR05 said:

I tried to pair my phone to the 390 and then the 390 to the Sena. Was a no go for me. I could hear the caller, they could not hear me.

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I had the exact same issue pairing my phone through my Garmin 660. I could hear the caller but the Garmin apparently didn't relay my voice back to the phone as they could never hear me.

Now I just put the phone in the Ram mount so I can see the caller, control playlists, etc and leave the gps to do gps things.

The flip phone is the question,

I can answer calls & make calls using the 20s and my iphone. My wife can continue listening to music while I take a call or I can 3 way her into the call.

My GPS Zumo 390 & iphone 5s pair independently with my Sena 20s. When I get a call it tells me the number calling in the headset. I am not sure if this is because the number is in my contact list or not. I seem to think it just announces the number that would be seen on call display.

If you are both running Senas then there should be no issue. She listens to what she want. You listen to what you want. When you need to talk just smack that little old knob on the side and your talking. If she wants to listen to what your listening to then its just a hold of the knob for 2sec?? and it will start broadcasting what ever you have paired up and she can listen. I love my system. My brothers, Dad, Mom, friends, and I always are forcing bad music on each other just for kicks. Never underestimate the fun these systems can be when your ridding boring flat freeways in OHIO.

Which Sena model? We're making some assumptions on what you've purchased and the features may not work the same across all models.

The bluetooth version of the flipper *should* still be compatible and work with the Sena. Most bluetooth versions are backwards compatible.

I just received my 20S (my very first comm system, so I'm 8 years behind the curve there). This model can pair to my schmart-phone and to my G 550; I don't need to pair the phone through the Garmin. As LKLD said, now I lose the on screen display from the Garmin, but my phone is mounted in an Otterbox, so I can see who's calling and ignore accordingly.

Your lovely pillion will not be included on the call, as others have said. She can pair her phone or MP3 player or, if you have a version that supports it, plug into the AUX port on the Sena headset for music.

HTH

I've just joined the 21st century and gone bluetooth to the helmets. I had resisted for so long because, unlike so many others, we never really had any problems with our Starcom1 Advance comm system, except for the dangling wires.

I first bought a Sena SMH10-11 for my dual sport helmet about a year ago. When off roading it makes a lot of sense to lose those dangling wires. I also got a SM-10 BT transmitter and have that hard-wired to the stereo output from my zumo 550 (music and GPS prompts) and also the output from my Radar Detector (for the rides to the dirty stuff). The zumo 550 can be configured to direct just the phone directly to the headset so you get the microphone connection. That configuration seems to work well enough for me alone that I decided to get another SMH10-11 headset for my wife's helmet, and an extra cradle so that I could mount mine to my street helmet when I'm using it.

We just started playing with them around the house and I'm a little put-off by the Blue Tooth intercom functionality. We tried using the Vox Intercom feature, but quite honestly, that sucks. You have to make a really loud noise to get it to open the intercom link, and then it seems to take forever to switch back off. If you switch it off by tapping the jog dial it will no longer Vox switch until you cycle power. I decided to just try turning Vox off altogether and use the jog dial to initiate and discontinue the intercom.

However, I've found that during the time that the BT intercom is active you will be completely disconnected from your music (as expected), but also disconnected from any GPS directions or RD alerts. The nice thing about the old Starcom was it would mix all of the audio inputs so that even during intercom conversations you knew what other important stuff was happening.

I guess we'll give this a few on-the-road trials, but I'm hanging on to my Starcom gear and may end going back to being wired for on-road riding with passengers.

Keeping in mind that mine is a 20S, Zumo 550, SM10, when I was riding with escapfjrtist yesterday all that stuff worked. When George and I talked both the music [XM stero because the Zumo and SM10 are hardwired] and the voice directions stopped. But very quickly after George and I quit talking both music and directions came back on.

Fred W said:

However, I've found that during the time that the BT intercom is active you will be completely disconnected from your music (as expected), but also disconnected from any GPS directions or RD alerts. The nice thing about the old Starcom was it would mix all of the audio inputs so that even during intercom conversations you knew what other important stuff was happening.

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Fred, I've had the Starcom unit (various models over the years) and have been following this conversation for quite awhile. I'm like you, would like to get rid of the wires connecting me and pillion to the bike, but so far I'm hesitant to say that convenience is worth losing the features the Starcom provides. No worry about having to charge batteries, very good sterio music quality, accepts multiple inputs including GPS, MP3, Phone, radio, etc etc. Oh well, guess I'll just follow along and see how the Senna BT technology progresses!

Hey guys, sorry for derailing Ray's original question. My point in mentioning what I did is that this stuff doesn't always work the way we hope, even for someone that is relatively tech savvy. Throwing different phones, GPSes and BT headset models into the fray and I think we are all lucky if we can get these things to work for us.

Viper Pilot said:

Fred, I've had the Starcom unit (various models over the years) and have been following this conversation for quite awhile. I'm like you, would like to get rid of the wires connecting me and pillion to the bike, but so far I'm hesitant to say that convenience is worth losing the features the Starcom provides. No worry about having to charge batteries, very good sterio music quality, accepts multiple inputs including GPS, MP3, Phone, radio, etc etc. Oh well, guess I'll just follow along and see how the Senna BT technology progresses!

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The 20S includes an FM Tuner. I turned it on the other night while pairing with my devices and figured out how to save presets. The QuickStart guide was helpful to me.

The Unit easily detaches from the cradle. If you normally leave your helmet on your motorcycle you will need to add a step to your routine to remove it before heading indoors. This is going to take some work for me as well since I normally lock my helmet on the bike...

Sena does have a mostly useful YouTube channel with some How-Tos. **CLICKY** Or specifically,

So far it's as clear as mud but when I feel like wasting some time I will pair my phone to the sena10 and see what happens. I figure as long as I don't let any smoke out I can't hurt things. I'm going back to welding for now cause I understand that.

Don't weld the Sena to the phone....lots of magic smoke there...