Pairing Sena Issues

[Laser Dude]

I went riding with some people today, and 3 of them had Sena 10R's I think. They were all paired up and I pushed intercom pairing on my 10u and it wouldn't join them, I suppose because no one was pairing. I had them all go into pairing again (they say they are pressing the minus button, I think). When they all paired again, it would only pair 3 of us. Now I was in, one of them was out. We tried about 5 times with no success to have all 4 paired.

At every stop, we would try again and we never could get it to work. We could get 2 and 2 or 3 of the 4.

I have the 10U which is interpreted into my helmet so my system is a little different on the menus and I can't help them.

Should we be using that, or maybe group intercom? My menu mentions group intercom, and the next menu option is intercom pairing, which we used.

We probably burned 30 minutes trying, which really irritates those with us who don't have communication systems.

Any tips or words of advice for pairing with people you don't normally ride with?

 

[MCRIDER007]

As I recall when you are pairing 4 together, A pairs to B, C pairs to A or B, and then D pairs to C. It's best for C to be in the 3 position and D in the fourth position or it's easy for the units to get out of range of each other. If A or B loses C then they also lose D.

 

[escapefjrtist]

Be interesting to hear all the different responses from folks.

We've had pretty good success following '007s method and IIRC, had five of us successfully paired and on-line at once. We always jokingly refer to "C" as the pivot man...

--G

 

[Mr_Canoehead]

In my experience, different versions of Senas don't play nice together. I own two SMH-10s and one SM-20. My riding friends mostly have SMH-10's. The 10's pair together pretty easily but the 10 and 20 pairing is hit and miss - it can take multiple attempts. Sometimes they refuse to connect partway through the day or the communication becomes one way only.

 

[Laser Dude]

Thanks guys, so let me see if I understand the process from a button pushing standpoint.

A hits Intercom Pairing

B hits Intercom Pairing

A and B are paired

Then B hits Intercom Pairing again

C hits Intercom Pairing

Now A,B, and C are paired.

Then C hits Intercom Pairing again

D hits Intercom Pairing

Now all 4 are paired.

When you are entering "Intercom Pairing" are you actually pushing any buttons when it's beeping? The manual on my 10U says to push the + button but I think the other 10R's, etc, press the - button. Are you guys pressing any buttons while it's beeping through it's searching process?

 

[Laser Dude]

Interesting ,Revzilla has a comparison chart for the Sena models and here's a link to it showing that you can only pair 3 people with the 10's.

https://www.revzilla.com/assets/0000/8424/sena_smh5_bluetooth_headset_dual_pack_wired_mic.pdf

 

[TomInPA]

Whatever happened to the good old days when we used to use GMRS radio that actually worked over long range and didn't care what brand of comm you used?

 

[MCRIDER007]

When you are entering "Intercom Pairing" are you actually pushing any buttons when it's beeping? The manual on my 10U says to push the + button but I think the other 10R's, etc, press the - button. Are you guys pressing any buttons while it's beeping through it's searching process?

I have the standard SMH10 and I just push the intercom button after the pairing lights flash and it usually pairs within a couple of seconds, if not try again.

However, my SMD10s will NOT pair if the units were previously paired together and one of the units still has the pairing information in its intercom memory. This leads to a lot of confusion during the pairing process (which doesn't work) and the result is that Unit 1 can initiate a intercom conversation with Unit 2 but Unit 2 cannot initiate a intercom conversation with Unit 1 (I currently have this problem with 2 other rider's SMD10s). This intercom memory overlap could be a real mess trying to set up 4 units together if some of the riders had previously paired their units with one another and the only solution may be to clear each unit before the ride and start over.

 

[Gnirtsnod]

When you are entering "Intercom Pairing" are you actually pushing any buttons when it's beeping? The manual on my 10U says to push the + button but I think the other 10R's, etc, press the - button. Are you guys pressing any buttons while it's beeping through it's searching process?

I have the standard SMH10 and I just push the intercom button after the pairing lights flash and it usually pairs within a couple of seconds, if not try again.

However, my SMD10s will NOT pair if the units were previously paired together and one of the units still has the pairing information in its intercom memory. This leads to a lot of confusion during the pairing process (which doesn't work) and the result is that Unit 1 can initiate a intercom conversation with Unit 2 but Unit 2 cannot initiate a intercom conversation with Unit 1 (I currently have this problem with 2 other rider's SMD10s). This intercom memory overlap could be a real mess trying to set up 4 units together if some of the riders had previously paired their units with one another and the only solution may be to clear each unit before the ride and start over.

A factory reset probably is in order to erase the store of connections/preferences in the '10. I currently use the '20 and don't recall the procedure, but first clearing out the old stuff then setting up the new works most of the time. Come to think of it, I don't remember the steps to clearing the '20 - whew, I'm getting old!

 

[Fred W]

Interesting ,Revzilla has a comparison chart for the Sena models and here's a link to it showing that you can only pair 3 people with the 10's.
https://www.revzilla.com/assets/0000/8424/sena_smh5_bluetooth_headset_dual_pack_wired_mic.pdf

No, what they are saying is that each headset can pair with (up to) three other headsets. So, technically, A could pair directly with B, C and D. But usually it's done in a daisy chain fashion to extend the effective range between the lead and trail riders.

correction: A can pair with three others (B, C and D) but that would only work for one at a time intercoms. To get the 3 way or 4 way conference it has to be done in the daisy chain configuration.

 

[its just rain]

I went riding with a friend the other day who has a scala G9 on his helmet. After I spent some time the night before reading up on how to connect to a non-Sena device from my 20S it took just a minute or so to pair them and we could hear each other better than the two G9s ever did.

 

[Laser Dude]

Just bringing this back up because I've been trying to get this nailed down prior to the riding season starting again so I could make a few instruction cards for the guys I ride with that have the 10R's.

I went to a show where Sena had a booth, stopped by to talk to them about it and the Sena guy said that for the 10R and the 10U, you can't have more than 3 (10R) and 4 (10U) connected. I asked him if you could daisy chain them together, making each one only technically connected to 2 other units and he said "No". He said that the most people you can communicate with is 3 people on the 10R and 4 people on the 10U, period. He did say if you used the Sena Communicator app, you could connect to as many people as you want to.

Once again, I'm getting conflicting stories about connecting. Some people say "Sure you can, done it many times" and the factory and all the dealers say "not possible at all". It'll be another month before I'm around enough people to try it, but it's quite frustrating to hear so many different stories.