Sena SMH-10 and Droid

[not2shabby]

Yep, I'm loving it, you can set it to 'auto brightness' and it's much easier to see in daylight and switches to different colors/brightness after sundown. I gotta upgrade my bluetooth headset now though, mine only does intercomm/phone calls and it's not stereo. I wanna try out Pandora radio while riding, no commercials and no fiddling with playlists. Don't like the song? Push 'skip' until one comes on you do like!

I think there's a limit on how many skips you can do in each session - at least that's the case with the version of Pandora on my Blueray player at home, and pretty sure the same thing happened to me on my iPod version as well.

If you upgrade to the 'pro' version or whatever, you can skip as many times as you want (I think) and get unlimited listening time. The free app you only get 40 hours/month, then it'll cut you off.

 

[dbvolfan]

OK, so I got my system yesterday and I am impressed. It's so easy to use that even a caveman could use this thing.

It definitly looks like the "Medium/Wide" Aqua box is the way to go. I measured the interior demiensions of the Medium vs. the Medium/Wide and laid my Droid X with a Right Angle charger inside the box. No way, no how this thing would work in a Medium Box. If for any reason you need to charge this thing you will have to go with the larger box. I guess you could always get two extra capacity batteries but I'd rather keep mine charged as the GPS and Pandora suck battery life.

Pics below are of the Droid X (with Right Angle Charge Cord, laid over the inside dimensions of each box)

 

[Aasland]

ahhhh.... bummer that the charging cable is on the side. Both ours are on the end, so the aquabox 2 (2.88 W x 5.75 H) works great.

Before you get the box .. be aware that with gloves (even with glovetips) you might have difficulties using it through the box membrane. At the moment I'm considering switching to the universal finger grip mount ... and losing waterproofing.

 

[dbvolfan]

Yeah. Iam struggling with the tradeoff between waterproofing it vs ease of use. I experimented with the voice commands and you really don't need to see the phone to use it. Iam going to dig around for a secure case I can use with the ram mount and see what's out there.

 

[JET]

I just did a weekend trip out on the Cherahola Skyway, the Dragon and Moonshiners 28, yeah it was awesome! But I regress...

Yesterday on the way home I got caught in a gully washer but I had time to stash the Droid in my glovebox so it was fine. During the beginning of my trip I found that I could barely see the screen, so I didn't/couldn't use the screen)at all. Instead I relied on the turn by turn directions. First I loaded my directions, then I looked at the "trip information" to get an idea of which roads I would be on and approximate mileage between turns. Then it was clamped down on the RAM mount with the screen off. Once I got caught in the storm (dodging the downed trees was the best!) it stayed in the glovebox for the rest of the trip. I think I like it better in the glovebox. It's safe from the weather, didn't overheat, and my BT capabilities were not affected in the least. Granted I had to check it a couple of times, but I really found no benefit to having it mounted to the handlebars. Also, I found that I did not have to have it charging while running. Although I shut off the GPS once I hit the Cherahola, but by then I knew I only had 3 other roads to get on before hitting the Dragon so I didn't feel like I needed the GPS. I had music streaming the entire trip (Sympathy for the Devil and Can't yeah hear me knocking were rocking on the Dragon!) and my battery lasted the whole 8 hour day.

I may just ditch the RAM mount, mount a USB port in the glovebox and use that to charge the Droid as needed.

JET

 

[not2shabby]

I just did a weekend trip out on the Cherahola Skyway, the Dragon and Moonshiners 28, yeah it was awesome! But I regress...

Yesterday on the way home I got caught in a gully washer but I had time to stash the Droid in my glovebox so it was fine. During the beginning of my trip I found that I could barely see the screen, so I didn't/couldn't use the screen)at all. Instead I relied on the turn by turn directions. First I loaded my directions, then I looked at the "trip information" to get an idea of which roads I would be on and approximate mileage between turns. Then it was clamped down on the RAM mount with the screen off. Once I got caught in the storm (dodging the downed trees was the best!) it stayed in the glovebox for the rest of the trip. I think I like it better in the glovebox. It's safe from the weather, didn't overheat, and my BT capabilities were not affected in the least. Granted I had to check it a couple of times, but I really found no benefit to having it mounted to the handlebars. Also, I found that I did not have to have it charging while running. Although I shut off the GPS once I hit the Cherahola, but by then I knew I only had 3 other roads to get on before hitting the Dragon so I didn't feel like I needed the GPS. I had music streaming the entire trip (Sympathy for the Devil and Can't yeah hear me knocking were rocking on the Dragon!) and my battery lasted the whole 8 hour day.

I may just ditch the RAM mount, mount a USB port in the glovebox and use that to charge the Droid as needed.

JET

Interesting; but you may want to hang on to the Ram mount if you want to use GPS. I don't think it'll work with the phone in the glove box.

 

[JET]

Now that I think about it, I believe I did use the GPS on the way home Monday until I got to I-85. And it was in the glovebox. I'll have to try that again to make sure.

 

[DELETE-PLEASE]

You can also rely on the droid for turn by turn directions, and buy a very cheap NON turn by turn direction gps to watch as a visual. You'll get the turn by turn, always updating google maps, etc. etc. The other one is cheap and replaceable. Plus you'll have a backup should one or the other fail.

Look for maybe a used garmin 2610 if you feel like going this route.

Alexi

 

[not2shabby]

You can also rely on the droid for turn by turn directions, and buy a very cheap NON turn by turn direction gps to watch as a visual. You'll get the turn by turn, always updating google maps, etc. etc. The other one is cheap and replaceable. Plus you'll have a backup should one or the other fail.

Look for maybe a used garmin 2610 if you feel like going this route.

Alexi

That's a good idea. I'll have to try it out and see if the Droid will give turn by turn via bluetooth and use the 2720 for visual if it looks like rain. I wonder if Google navigation will match up with Garmin's directions. It'll have to wait till the F4 interphone gets here...this farkling stuff never ends!

 

[Aasland]

I don't use my phone for navigation. Too hard to see the display in bright sunlight with sunglasses on .. and this the Epic, with the otherwise awesome auper-amoled screen. The Zumo does navigation for me (silently).

 

[user 27543]

Jet, Good review. BTW, what make/model of Droid are you using? Thanks.

dog5235, would be interested in results of range between bikes after you've tried yours out.

CAJW,

The wife and I just got back from 3 days of riding and the Sena is the first comm unit we have tried. They worked well for our bike to bike talk. The distance is good but line of sight makes a difference. Once out of sight the signal is virtually lost. For us they work well and are easy to use. We will continue to use them on all of our rides, for safety and convience.

dog5235

 

[raitchison]

I've had a Sena unit for ~6 months now.

I only have a single unit and have never used the intercom function, only used the phone function a couple times. I use it 95% for listening to music (from my T-Mobile G2) and occasionally for navigation.

When using navigation I rely strictly on the voice guidance as the phone is in my pocket.

Only gripes with the Sena unit are that it doesn't charge with a standard Micro-USB connector, it has a USB cable for charging but the business end of that is semi-proprietary. Also there is next to no warning (less than a few minutes) before the battery dies.

Here is my Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/review/R3AWBRUUY9HLEK/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B0030EEA1I&nodeID=&tag=&linkCode=

 

[Harald]

Only gripes with the Sena unit are that it doesn't charge with a standard Micro-USB connector, it has a USB cable for charging but the business end of that is semi-proprietary. Also there is next to no warning (less than a few minutes) before the battery dies.

Sena just updated their units to charge with standard micro usb connection (and also allow for future software upgrades). Those of us with first gen units can do a trade-in/upgrade for $49.

 

[innateone]

OK. I am thinking of buying a Sena after reading these posts. So if you have several bluetooths on at once, they will all work through the set?

I have a droid also. How do you get voice directions while listening to music? Mine doesn't seem to work. Only getting one or the other.

 

[ozfjr]

Im using a Droid Thunderbolt with my sena smh10 in a Scorpion EXO 1000 helmet and it works GREAT! Very user friendly interface and the wind noise was never an issue even with the visor cracked open and the chinbar vent open. When i receive calls and tell people im riding the freak out first and then wonder why they dont hear the bike or wind at all.

I do suggest that if you are having voice command issues to play with the location of the mic. Mine actually sits away from my mouth and rotated towards it..( so mic up and triangle facing towards the center of helmet) Several names are really hard for it to understand too so im trying to figure that out, perhaps renaming...

 

[Warpdrv]

Im using a Droid Thunderbolt with my sena smh10 in a Scorpion EXO 1000 helmet and it works GREAT! Very user friendly interface and the wind noise was never an issue even with the visor cracked open and the chinbar vent open. When i receive calls and tell people im riding the freak out first and then wonder why they dont hear the bike or wind at all.

I do suggest that if you are having voice command issues to play with the location of the mic. Mine actually sits away from my mouth and rotated towards it..( so mic up and triangle facing towards the center of helmet) Several names are really hard for it to understand too so im trying to figure that out, perhaps renaming...

OZ, did you mount your phone on the bike or is it just chillin in your pocket....?

Still working on the best method for a mount for the Thunderbolt....

 

[ozfjr]

its just chilling in my pocket.... hadn't really considered mounting it but i guess for using the navi it would make sense to mount it (normally i just listen to the directions anyway). That side charger port does make it a bit awkward to mount though.

 

[Warpdrv]

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-Feet-Micro-USB-Cable/dp/B001AR4NC8

https://www.cyclenutz.com/All-Weather-USB-Hardwire-Kit_p_475.html.

A few good ideas have been tossed around in my thread about the mounting idea...