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2016 R1200 GSA, Nav VI, iPhone 6, Sena 20S EVO - What can I expect?

E

eikelben

New member
After reading pages upon pages of posts on this and other forums, I'm not sure what to expect. I have the setup listed above and just purchased a Sena 20S EVO. Based on what I've read, I'm afraid to open the box as MANY people seem to not be getting the experience that was advertised – music not working, dropped/unreliable bluetooth connections, etc. Here's what I expect to be able to do:

  • receive notifications on the Nav VI of text messages received by my phone; dictate texts to be sent
  • utilize Siri to perform functions on iPhone
  • receive notification on the Nav VI of incoming phone calls; answer incoming calls
  • play music stored on iPhone (iTunes music app)
  • converse with pillion
  • receive GPS prompts
  • share music with pillion
  • allow pillion rider to play their own music from their own bluetooth connected iPhone
  • utilize Nav VI screen to browse music on iPhone; browse playlists;
  • view currently-playing track on Nav VI screen
  • utilize controls on Nav VI to skip tracks, etc.

There very-well may be things I will be able to do with the setup that I wasn't expecting –*This is my first GPS and first bluetooth comm system so it's all new to me. Just want to make sure my expectations are fair before opening a $550 nonreturnable item. Any info specific to this setup would be appreciated (as I assume it's a fairly typical setup).
 
I hope you have a better experience than I have had. If you decide to keep it, I'd say lower your expectations. I have the R1200GS, Nav VI, iPhone 7, and Sent 20S. It's rare that these things work well together. I often just turn off the Sena while riding instead of dealing with the hassle of getting them to work right.

Nav VI - forget about streaming music from your phone. This feature which was widely touted by BMW when they introduced the Nav VI does not work. I think you will find many reports online of this problem with details. Garmin and BMW are aware of the problem. I'm waiting on a firmware update, but so far, nothing, including any kind of communication from either about it. To listen to music from the Nav VI, you need to buy a memory card and install in on the Nav VI, then play music to the Sena with the Nav VI as the source instead of your phone. This generally works, except the music on occasion will get garbled when the GPS first starts, is recalculating route, etc. The Nav VI screen is bright / beautiful, but other than that, save your $ and get a used Nav V. Amazing to me that BMW would release something that is beta / clearly not ready... makes me question their abilities with their new flat panel display for the '18 GS (I would definitely give them a year to work out the bugs).

Sena 20S - I could write a book about how terrible this device is, and how randomly it operates, and how laughably bad their customer service is. It will generally work as advertised, for basic functions, but get ready for lots of random problems. I only have and use this device because the group I ride with decided to standardize on it for intercom. The sound quality of the intercom in a group is horrible. If you just have just 2 people in a group (e.g. just you and your pillion), it's generally pretty good for intercom. I do get all kinds of random clicks, static, etc. Beeping. And more beeping. And then even more beeping, until I get sick of it and shut it off. It randomly turns itself off, which is a feature I've learned to love! Forget about making and receiving phone calls. Sound quality for you and whomever you are talking to is generally so bad as to be useless. I admit that I can't remember all the instructions on how to use all the functions. I have heard that it can be paired with Siri, and work with text messages, etc. But I am not using it for this so cannot report on it.

Eventually, someone is going to improve on how these work. I noticed that Sena just introduced a new Sena 30 something-or-other that has all kinds of improvements. The group I ride with has joked that we should all fork over $'s to upgrade, since Sena will probably just disregard firmware updates for the 20S.

Anyways, of course YMMV, and it probably will work at some level, but as I started with, IMO you need to dial down your expectations.
 
http://www.rka-luggage.com/A46 SENA/Video Instructional Page.html

This link to the RKA luggage website will answer your questions on how to pair your Sena 20s to your Nav Vl and your smart phone. You must do the pairing in a specific sequence or you will have problems.
1. You pair the 20s to your phone for music.
2. You then pair the 20s to your Nav Vl for navigation and phone calls.
3. You then pair your phone to the Nav Vl to receive and make calls.

Watch the video and take written notes. I watched without taking notes at least 10 times and still didn't get it right. I finally got so mad at myself for being such and idiot that I finally took written notes during the video and discovered one detail that I had missed that was the key to success. Pay particular attention to the first part of the video on how the phone is paired for music. It is different than how you pair the phone to the Nav Vl. You'll understand after watching the video and taking notes. I missed one small detail and it drove me crazy with the crappy performance of the 20s. Now I finally have everything working flawlessly!

My 20s has worked well for me. The weak link has been me!

Good luck
 
eikelben said:
After reading pages upon pages of posts on this and other forums, I'm not sure what to expect. I have the setup listed above and just purchased a Sena 20S EVO. Based on what I've read, I'm afraid to open the box as MANY people seem to not be getting the experience that was advertised – music not working, dropped/unreliable bluetooth connections, etc. Here's what I expect to be able to do:

  • receive notifications on the Nav VI of text messages received by my phone; dictate texts to be sent
  • utilize Siri to perform functions on iPhone
  • receive notification on the Nav VI of incoming phone calls; answer incoming calls
  • play music stored on iPhone (iTunes music app)
  • converse with pillion
  • receive GPS prompts
  • share music with pillion
  • allow pillion rider to play their own music from their own bluetooth connected iPhone
  • utilize Nav VI screen to browse music on iPhone; browse playlists;
  • view currently-playing track on Nav VI screen
  • utilize controls on Nav VI to skip tracks, etc.

There very-well may be things I will be able to do with the setup that I wasn't expecting –*This is my first GPS and first bluetooth comm system so it's all new to me. Just want to make sure my expectations are fair before opening a $550 nonreturnable item. Any info specific to this setup would be appreciated (as I assume it's a fairly typical setup).
Click to expand...


Wow! With all of that going on, will you have time to concentrate on riding?

Like packing for a trip, I like to keep it simple. I paired my Sena to the Nav V, and my phone to the Nav V. This allows me to make and receive phone calls (rarely), listen to music stored on the Nav V, get GPS instructions, and link the phone to the GPS via the Garmin Smartlink app to get real time weather info. My wife just links her Sena to her phone. Works perfectly, every time.
 
seanka106 said:
I hope you have a better experience than I have had. If you decide to keep it, I'd say lower your expectations. I have the R1200GS, Nav VI, iPhone 7, and Sent 20S. It's rare that these things work well together. I often just turn off the Sena while riding instead of dealing with the hassle of getting them to work right.

Nav VI - forget about streaming music from your phone. This feature which was widely touted by BMW when they introduced the Nav VI does not work. I think you will find many reports online of this problem with details. Garmin and BMW are aware of the problem. I'm waiting on a firmware update, but so far, nothing, including any kind of communication from either about it. To listen to music from the Nav VI, you need to buy a memory card and install in on the Nav VI, then play music to the Sena with the Nav VI as the source instead of your phone. This generally works, except the music on occasion will get garbled when the GPS first starts, is recalculating route, etc. The Nav VI screen is bright / beautiful, but other than that, save your $ and get a used Nav V. Amazing to me that BMW would release something that is beta / clearly not ready... makes me question their abilities with their new flat panel display for the '18 GS (I would definitely give them a year to work out the bugs).

Sena 20S - I could write a book about how terrible this device is, and how randomly it operates, and how laughably bad their customer service is. It will generally work as advertised, for basic functions, but get ready for lots of random problems. I only have and use this device because the group I ride with decided to standardize on it for intercom. The sound quality of the intercom in a group is horrible. If you just have just 2 people in a group (e.g. just you and your pillion), it's generally pretty good for intercom. I do get all kinds of random clicks, static, etc. Beeping. And more beeping. And then even more beeping, until I get sick of it and shut it off. It randomly turns itself off, which is a feature I've learned to love! Forget about making and receiving phone calls. Sound quality for you and whomever you are talking to is generally so bad as to be useless. I admit that I can't remember all the instructions on how to use all the functions. I have heard that it can be paired with Siri, and work with text messages, etc. But I am not using it for this so cannot report on it.

Eventually, someone is going to improve on how these work. I noticed that Sena just introduced a new Sena 30 something-or-other that has all kinds of improvements. The group I ride with has joked that we should all fork over $'s to upgrade, since Sena will probably just disregard firmware updates for the 20S.

Anyways, of course YMMV, and it probably will work at some level, but as I started with, IMO you need to dial down your expectations.
Click to expand...

Ouch. That sounds miserable. I think you may have solved my question. I want the technology to "just work". Not too long ago I left an IT background and love not being tied to the rat race that is technology (and then I go out and buy a BMW... 🤦🏼*♂️)
 
Agree... that is exactly it. I am still in the IT industry... today people expect electronics to "just work." Reasonable or not, that is the standard. It is possible... I am often amazed at how well my iPhone works with various car OEM systems (in various rental cars, for example). For whatever reason (though I suspect it is relatively low production numbers, and universal pressure by OEMs to drive down engineering costs by outsourcing to inexperienced developers), BMW and Garmin, Sena, others, haven't yet gotten it right. I hope they do. In the meantime, and unfortunately, the bugs in these devices will lead to occasional frustration. Not that they can't be useful, but I'm afraid we have to reduce our expectations. Or just turn them off and enjoy the ride :) YMMV.
 
azgman said:
Wow! With all of that going on, will you have time to concentrate on riding?

Like packing for a trip, I like to keep it simple. I paired my Sena to the Nav V, and my phone to the Nav V. This allows me to make and receive phone calls (rarely), listen to music stored on the Nav V, get GPS instructions, and link the phone to the GPS via the Garmin Smartlink app to get real time weather info. My wife just links her Sena to her phone. Works perfectly, every time.
Click to expand...

+1
 
seanka106 said:
... For whatever reason (though I suspect it is relatively low production numbers, and universal pressure by OEMs to drive down engineering costs by outsourcing to inexperienced developers), BMW and Garmin, Sena, others, haven't yet gotten it right. I hope they do. In the meantime, and unfortunately, the bugs in these devices will lead to occasional frustration. Not that they can't be useful, but I'm afraid we have to reduce our expectations. Or just turn them off and enjoy the ride :) YMMV.
Click to expand...
I believe that this has already been identified as a BMW and iOS issue that has nothing to do with Garmin or Sena.

BMW is the one who insisted on their engineers developing that part of things for the Nav-VI. It is my understanding that this issue doesn't exist on other Garmin GPS units, I could be wrong, but that is what I understood from BMW Motorrad and Garmin.


azgman said:
Wow! With all of that going on, will you have time to concentrate on riding?

Like packing for a trip, I like to keep it simple. I paired my Sena to the Nav V, and my phone to the Nav V. This allows me to make and receive phone calls (rarely), listen to music stored on the Nav V, get GPS instructions, and link the phone to the GPS via the Garmin Smartlink app to get real time weather info. My wife just links her Sena to her phone. Works perfectly, every time.
Click to expand...
My thoughts as well.

I set my Nav-VI almost identical to you (I pair my phone to the Sena) and rarely have an issue with roughly 10,000 km per year and tons of GPS, phone, and intercomm useage plus a little music now and then. However, this is with Blackberry and Samsung android phones.

We have to remember that iOS only makes up 15% of the cell phone operating system market and Android makes up 85%. This was predicted a few years ago and it looks like it will continue with the periodic exceptions being when Apple introduce new phones and there is the normal temporary spike from people switching up, so don't expect the tail to wag the dog.
 
My 2 cents

I feel the need to turn this conversation around. Sena makes excellent products. I am on my third generation of communicators and rarely ride without them. Does the interface between my Nav V, RTW and Sean 20S work as well as my Android and Google Maps? Well, no it doesn't, but in my opinion the weak link is the BMW systems including the Nav V I have. When I ride my other bikes without any onboard systems, my Sena and Android work very well together.
 
Wow.

2015 RT, Nav V, iPhone 6, SENA 20S.

SENA paired to iPhone for music, Siri for calls/texts/general assistance while underway. SENA paired to Nav V for turn by turn navigation. SENA intercom for bike to bike comm.

Custom molded in-ears plugged in to SENA for audio quality/ear plugs.

All of this has worked like a charm since day one. Read the manuals. Followed the pairing instructions. Done.

It has never failed to work. Turn it on, and everything connects, just like it always has.
 
I have a Sena 20s unit, Zumo GPS and iPhone 6. Prior to getting the Sena 20s I didin't have a bit of problems, but with the 20s it will drop phone calls immediately. I had this problem with 2 20s units (my wife has one too), sent them both back for 2 different one and I still had the same problem. Sena told me there was nothing they could to fix the issue.

I can still listen to music from the Zumo and pair the iphone to the Sena (instead of directly to the Zumo) and I can get phone calls just fine, I just can't see the caller ID on the Zumo anymore, something I really miss. Oh, and there are a lot of folks with the same problem.
 
AlanColes said:
I believe that this has already been identified as a BMW and iOS issue that has nothing to do with Garmin or Sena.
Click to expand...
Garmin is responsible for support for the Nav VI. I've had numerous interactions with them when I first purchased the Nav VI, have provided error log files for them, etc. Problems streaming music from the phone thru the Nav VI (as opposed to using music stored locally on the Nav VI) have been widely reported on other forums. Glad is working for you with whatever phone you are using. Ditto for Sena. If someone is considering a purchase, try a Google search for "Sena 20S Problems." It's really quite amazing the volume of users reporting various problems. Based on my experience, if someone is considering purchasing the Nav VI, and cares about streaming audio from an iPhone, using playlists on the iPhone, controlling forward/back tracks, etc., you might want to wait until Garmin issues a firmware update.
 
seanka106 said:
Garmin is responsible for support for the Nav VI. I've had numerous interactions with them when I first purchased the Nav VI, have provided error log files for them, etc. Problems streaming music from the phone thru the Nav VI (as opposed to using music stored locally on the Nav VI) have been widely reported on other forums. Glad is working for you with whatever phone you are using. Ditto for Sena. If someone is considering a purchase, try a Google search for "Sena 20S Problems." It's really quite amazing the volume of users reporting various problems. Based on my experience, if someone is considering purchasing the Nav VI, and cares about streaming audio from an iPhone, using playlists on the iPhone, controlling forward/back tracks, etc., you might want to wait until Garmin issues a firmware update.
Click to expand...

+1


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It would seem that the problem here is that people are trying to run the phone THROUGH the Nav V.

S20 paired to the phone.

THEN paired to the Nav V ONLY for navigation directions.

Flawless.
 
It would seem that the real problem here is that the OP asked about using a Nav VI, which has a known issue. It won't control music (start/stop/skip) if you pair it as it states in the manual. If you pair the S20 directly to the phone, you will have something that "mostly" works, "some" of the time. However, if you only use the NAV VI for navigation, you are missing some of the best features the unit has to offer, or at least the box states it should offer. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that, for the pretty penny you pay for a Nav VI, the unit would work as advertised. JMHO
 
cwilhelm said:
It would seem that the real problem here is that the OP asked about using a Nav VI, which has a known issue. It won't control music (start/stop/skip) if you pair it as it states in the manual. If you pair the S20 directly to the phone, you will have something that "mostly" works, "some" of the time. However, if you only use the NAV VI for navigation, you are missing some of the best features the unit has to offer, or at least the box states it should offer. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that, for the pretty penny you pay for a Nav VI, the unit would work as advertised. JMHO
Click to expand...

You are quite correct.
 
I have a Nav V, 20S, a Galaxy 5s, AND a Motorola BT GMRS. Not the same, I know but maybe you can give this a little thought and come up with something that works.

I do not use my phone for music, just as a phone. I don't pair the phone to the Sena either.
I pair the phone to the Nav V. I load my music on the Nav V. I'm pretty sure this saves on the cell battery too. My radio is paired to the Sena as a second phone.

So the heavy hauler in this system is the Nav V. Maps, music and phone control is all through the Nav V. I have both GMRS comms and although I do have the 20s BT comm, I don't use it. Why, IMO comms are for potty breaks, gas and emergency situations NOT for yakking.
 
seanka106 said:
Garmin is responsible for support for the Nav VI. I've had numerous interactions with them when I first purchased the Nav VI, have provided error log files for them, etc. Problems streaming music from the phone thru the Nav VI (as opposed to using music stored locally on the Nav VI) have been widely reported on other forums. Glad is working for you with whatever phone you are using. Ditto for Sena. If someone is considering a purchase, try a Google search for "Sena 20S Problems." It's really quite amazing the volume of users reporting various problems. Based on my experience, if someone is considering purchasing the Nav VI, and cares about streaming audio from an iPhone, using playlists on the iPhone, controlling forward/back tracks, etc., you might want to wait until Garmin issues a firmware update.
Click to expand...
Yes, Garmin is responsible for support, but it was BMW who insisted on writing the codes that are creating the problems, not Garmin. Both BMW and Garmin have stated this.

So it is a BMW created issue with the iOS software changes, not a Garmin or Sena issue. At least that is what I understood from the BMW and Garmin North America reps., when they addressed this issue during a seminar on the Nav-VI at the BMWMOA Rally in SLC.



Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk
 
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