TFT default radio volume R1250RT '23

Hello everyone! I did an archive search but got nowhere with this question:

Just got my new RT a week ago and one annoyance is that the radio volume (thru the speakers) always starts at 1/2 scale when first turning on the radio (so WAY too loud). Is there a way to reprogram this thing so that it starts at minimum volume or at least picks up the previous volume level before engine shutdown last time (like every car does)?

Another observation is that if you don't put your phone in the holster with inductive charging, the automatic bluetooth connection really drains the phone battery (like 30% of battery capacity in a 20 min ride). With my Android phone, the Connected app starts automatically even if I don't want it to connect. Have to disable BT on the phone first if you don't want it to connect, but who has patience for that?

Ain't technology wonderful? Brought to you by Luddites International.

AT times - no....

PGlaves said:

Ain't technology wonderful? Brought to you by Luddites International.

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Technology that is well thought out, well engineered, and well executed is indeed wonderful. Technology that fails in any of those three areas creates a miserable and frustrating experience. That’s especially true when there’s no diagnostic and repair information available to help sort the technology.


Best,
DeVern

I’m curious if you happen to be on the far end of cell service. Phones use more power when trying to maintain a weak connection.
This can be tested by setting your phone to use your secure WiFi connection at your home.

A quick look shows some battery/Bluetooth battery use information-

https://www.androidauthority.com/does-bluetooth-drain-battery-1145853/

Battery health (possible to check on with an iPhone) may be available with your phone along with the age of your phone are all factors involved in battery usage.

Another test would be to use another phone and make a comparison.
OM

Omega Man said:

I’m curious if you happen to be on the far end of cell service. Phones use more power when trying to maintain a weak connection.
This can be tested by setting your phone to use your secure WiFi connection at your home.

A quick look shows some battery/Bluetooth battery use information-

https://www.androidauthority.com/does-bluetooth-drain-battery-1145853/

Battery health (possible to check on with an iPhone) may be available with your phone along with the age of your phone are all factors involved in battery usage.

Another test would be to use another phone and make a comparison.
OM

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Really doubt that's the issue. This is in the South Bay area of LA, and cell service is not an issue here. Also, I can have that same phone connected via BT to each of my cars and there's no untoward battery drain. What I think causes the drain is the mapping function within the BMW-C app, even if the map is not being displayed on the TFT. The battery drain rate is consistent with using the phone to give turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps, for example. I'll have to remind myself to check how much data the BMW-C app is using after a month.

hgerhardt said:

.........Another observation is that if you don't put your phone in the holster with inductive charging, the automatic bluetooth connection really drains the phone battery (like 30% of battery capacity in a 20 min ride). With my Android phone, the Connected app starts automatically even if I don't want it to connect. Have to disable BT on the phone first if you don't want it to connect, but who has patience for that?

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And I learned today that the on-board inductive charging can't even keep up with the drain from the BMW-C app...

Did a 1.5 hour ride today and as an experiment started off with the phone at 30% charge and finished with it at 16%. I made sure that the inductive charging was actually working by a check of the green light before closing the fairing door.

hgerhardt said:

And I learned today that the on-board inductive charging can't even keep up with the drain from the BMW-C app...

Did a 1.5 hour ride today and as an experiment started off with the phone at 30% charge and finished with it at 16%. I made sure that the inductive charging was actually working by a check of the green light before closing the fairing door.

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It's possible the inductive charger might stop providing a charge or the phone accepting a charge if the supply voltage drops below a certain level or the phone gets too warm or too cold. I have a inductive RAM Ball mounted cell phone mount which I attach to USB converter attached to my fairing socket. I can see what's going on a bit better with it all out in the open Most of the time, the phone will get charged while it is in the mount. But there are times when it does not charge at all, because the phone is getting too hot or cold, or the USB converter stops outputting as source voltage was too low from me using too much power for other things. Few phones are designed to take the heat extremes or vibration that they can be subjected to when mounted in or on a motorbike. After damaging the camera on my prior phone from road vibrations and not knowing reliably when the phone will actually charge or not over the last couple of years of mounting on the Ram mount, I've gone back to stashing my phone in a jacket pocket and using a power brick if it needs a charge while I'm on the go.

I wonder if the wireless charge is effected by the phones case? It still may be able to charge but at slower rate.

There's no case or bumper on the phone at all. Looking at the LT forum just now, it looks like I might get better charging results by inserting the phone "feet first", which I haven't tried yet.

Today I went for a short ride with the phone (galaxy S8) at 80% at start and 60% at finish. So, it seems the inductive charging really doesn't do much, if anything. I made sure the green light came on too.

Which brings up a perfect opportunity to rant: why in the F couldn't BMW simply add a few GB's of flash memory (SD card) and have the map database onboard?? This relying on the phone for that is ridiculous. This issue plus the default radio volume starting at 1/2 scale with every startup is just so...half-baked. It's even worse than the original 1st-gen BMW iDrive on the cars.

hgerhardt said:

There's no case or bumper on the phone at all. Looking at the LT forum just now, it looks like I might get better charging results by inserting the phone "feet first", which I haven't tried yet.

Today I went for a short ride with the phone (galaxy S8) at 80% at start and 60% at finish. So, it seems the inductive charging really doesn't do much, if anything. I made sure the green light came on too.

Which brings up a perfect opportunity to rant: why in the F couldn't BMW simply add a few GB's of flash memory (SD card) and have the map database onboard?? This relying on the phone for that is ridiculous. This issue plus the default radio volume starting at 1/2 scale with every startup is just so...half-baked. It's even worse than the original 1st-gen BMW iDrive on the cars.

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Once I figured out how the phone needed to be positioned in the pocket, it charges at the same rate as the bike drains, so it comes out after a ride with the same level charge as it went in.

What BMW said at the launch was they wanted the ability to update the maps as part of the normal mobile phone update process. I think this was a good decision as I always thought having to bring my Garmin into the house and connect to a computer to update the maps was clunky.

Most of the issues I've had with navigation arise in large part from the vagaries of the mobile phone operating system and the myriad of configuration options Apple has introduced that makes the iPhone insanely complicated. I spent forty years in engineering and am regularly baffled by how the complex the iPhone has become with little effort put into making it easier for the end user to configure.

An update: if I install the phone "feet first", it charges at a slightly higher rate than discharge, so problem solved for that.

But my main gripe about relying on the phone for mapping is what happens when there's no cellular service? Plus, the BMW-C app doesn't leverage Google Maps' real-time traffic updates and suggested re-routing, so I really see no benefit to using the phone for the mapping data vs having it on flash memory in the bike. Sure, you'd have to update the bike's database every few years, but road layout doesn't change that much over the years. Updating could be done via an SD card slot in the phone cubby.

And an added wrinkle to the radio issue; I can lower the volume to an acceptable level via the multi-controller (the ring on the handlebar), only for it to immediately shoot back up to 1/2-scale on its own (where it started). Hopefully the dealer can sort this.

hgerhardt said:

An update: if I install the phone "feet first", it charges at a slightly higher rate than discharge, so problem solved for that.

But my main gripe about relying on the phone for mapping is what happens when there's no cellular service? Plus, the BMW-C app doesn't leverage Google Maps' real-time traffic updates and suggested re-routing, so I really see no benefit to using the phone for the mapping data vs having it on flash memory in the bike. Sure, you'd have to update the bike's database every few years, but road layout doesn't change that much over the years. Updating could be done via an SD card slot in the phone cubby.

And an added wrinkle to the radio issue; I can lower the volume to an acceptable level via the multi-controller (the ring on the handlebar), only for it to immediately shoot back up to 1/2-scale on its own (where it started). Hopefully the dealer can sort this.

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You should download the maps, no need for cellular service. In the BMW Motorrad Connected App click on the 3 dots at the bottom right, scroll down to download maps You need the phone for navigation if you use the TFT, no BMW Motorrad Connected app open on phone and connected to the bike, no navigation.

Let your dealer know about your volume issues, hopefully an update will fix that.

hgerhardt said:

An update: if I install the phone "feet first", it charges at a slightly higher rate than discharge, so problem solved for that.

But my main gripe about relying on the phone for mapping is what happens when there's no cellular service? Plus, the BMW-C app doesn't leverage Google Maps' real-time traffic updates and suggested re-routing, so I really see no benefit to using the phone for the mapping data vs having it on flash memory in the bike. Sure, you'd have to update the bike's database every few years, but road layout doesn't change that much over the years. Updating could be done via an SD card slot in the phone cubby.

And an added wrinkle to the radio issue; I can lower the volume to an acceptable level via the multi-controller (the ring on the handlebar), only for it to immediately shoot back up to 1/2-scale on its own (where it started). Hopefully the dealer can sort this.

Click to expand...

Like strataj says, you should be downloading the maps to the phone - and honestly I didn't think you could use the app's routing feature without downloading the maps. Once the maps are loaded, the navigation system doesn't "need" cellular service. However it _does_ have real time traffic information when there is a cellular connection - I've been warned about and re-routed around accidents with traffic tie-ups a number of times. According to Tom Tom's website - it uses the same data sources as Google Maps.

jono said:

..........honestly I didn't think you could use the app's routing feature without downloading the maps. Once the maps are loaded, the navigation system doesn't "need" cellular service.

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You don't have to download maps to get turn-by-turn nav. I did this last week and never knew about having to download the map first. Maybe the app did this in the background without needing my input.

.........However it _does_ have real time traffic information when there is a cellular connection - I've been warned about and re-routed around accidents with traffic tie-ups a number of times. According to Tom Tom's website - it uses the same data sources as Google Maps.

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Well, that's interesting (and positive!). I haven't had the bike long enough to have seen that in action.

strataj said:

............no BMW Motorrad Connected app open on phone and connected to the bike, no navigation..............

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Actually, the bike will cause Android phones to start up the Connected app automatically without user intervention (at least my old Galaxy 8 does). Only iPhones need to have the app manually opened.

A few weeks ago when the bike was new, I went for a ride and parked for a few minutes. While parked, I forced the app closed and left the phone in my pocket. As soon as I started the bike, the app reopened itself....and since I had the phone in my pocket, drained 30% of the battery life. Only way to NOT have the phone connect automatically is to turn off bluetooth.

The app uses' both wifi AND bluetooth when connecting to your phone. Wifi connection is used to transfer map data to the bike. The bluetooth connection is for routing music and phone calls between your phone, bike. and user headset. I believe that if your not using the BMW helmet comm unit you will have limited function of wonder wheel and volume controls, but I havent confirmed this. The phone does NOT NEED to be tied to a cellular network to provide routing data with downloaded maps, most all cell phones have full capability gps onboard same as any standalone gps unit. Downloading all the maps for CONUS only took me 15 minutes with a crappy LTE connection, those of you with 5g will have them in less time. I believe with cellular service there is limited data available for the navigation system if you haven't downloaded the maps, ie. minimal written on screen instruction, but no maps. For best performance the maps should be downloaded.

I've had issue with charging but its mostly heat related, I've found that plugging in the phone keeps pace but won't take me to full level if using calls and navigation.

I've noticed after my last software update the volume is half way as well, I don't know of any fix for this, please share any news you get from BMW.

I like the concept, single device utilizing its many functions, saving user from purchasing another expensive piece of gear. In practice its been a steep learning curve, I've had difficulty with voice connectivity of the nav system after phone calls we will see how this works this year after latest update. I'm also somewhat disappointed that the app and screen don't sync map data faster after stopping, some times I'm down the road a minute or two before map and nav data pop back up but that's really small annoyance.

jandhumphreyme said:

... I believe that if your not using the BMW helmet comm unit you will have limited function of wonder wheel and volume controls, but I havent confirmed this.

... I've had issue with charging but its mostly heat related, I've found that plugging in the phone keeps pace but won't take me to full level if using calls and navigation.

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My Sena 50S and Schuberth SC2 (made by Sena) both respond to wonderwheel volume controls after recent firmware updates from Sena.

Plugging in is more reliable than wireless charging, especially when it starts to get warmer. My phone would stop charging wireless during the hot months, but would charge fine if plugged in.

irtax said:

My Sena 50S and Schuberth SC2 (made by Sena) both respond to wonderwheel volume controls after recent firmware updates from Sena.

Plugging in is more reliable than wireless charging, especially when it starts to get warmer. My phone would stop charging wireless during the hot months, but would charge fine if plugged in.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, I'll check my Sena and make sure its up to date.

irtax said:

My Sena 50S and Schuberth SC2 (made by Sena) both respond to wonderwheel volume controls after recent firmware updates from Sena.

Plugging in is more reliable than wireless charging, especially when it starts to get warmer. My phone would stop charging wireless during the hot months, but would charge fine if plugged in.

Click to expand...

I have to add a note about the Schuberth SC2, the volume won't turn up load enough at speed. The Sena 50S had a software update that has Audio Boost. Sorry to rant but I'm not happy with Schuberth slow response to this issue, the software update in the Sena 50S has been out since September 2022. At this time I won't buy the SC2 again.