SCALA G4 Communicator - Bluetooth

[Mike Kelly]

So this past Friday was the first time I have ridden my bike any appreciable distance since my crash back in November. We had unseasonably warm weather here in Northern Virginia, so I was able to ride the 160miles round trip to and from my client sites. This gave me time to truly give the Scala G4 a real workout on my Scorpian EXO700 helmet. My only reason for buying this bluetooth equipped device is that it eliminates the cords I had to use with ear buds and allows me to talk to my wife when she rides with me... Before anyone jumps on the "You shouldn't listen to music while riding" box, no, you shouldn't. I've been listening to music while riding for 28 years. I will do so until I cannot ride anymore. Anyway, back to the review. What I liked about this system was that I could hear it while riding with real ear plugs in, and it has buttons that are big enough for me to operate even with gloves on. It syncs to my iPhone4 just fine and the volume increases with wind noise. Can't say enough GOOD about the sound quality with the helmet mounted speakers.

Now for the "other" side of the unit. It does receive and make phone calls from your smart phone thru either the phone or via voice prompting. I did not plan to use this function. However, On my ride home, my wife called me, forgetting that I had ridden in on the cycle. The call just came on... Maybe I missed some audible notice of incoming call, maybe I didn't. I'll have to check the manual. Anyway, the call came thru and I found myself talking with my wife, who thought I was in the cage commuting. She actually couldn't tell that I was speaking thru the boom mike stuffed inside the helmet. Crystal clear phone operation. Now that said, I found it distracting enough that if I was on a two lane twisty road, I would NOT want to receive a call. I'll have to figure that piece of the puzzle out. However, I was on 4 lane roads with no appreciable curves and minimal traffic, so it wasn't a problem to focus on riding and holding a conversation. Still, not something I'd do regularly... So when I stopped for fuel, I called my assistant and got caught up on what was going on in the office, and again, she had no clue that I had stopped for fuel, restarted my motorcycle, or was riding it. Sound was again reported as better than thru the system in my BMW. So that is a very impressive vote of confidence for the sound quality of the phone portion of the G4, which I won't use much if at all...

These units can be had in single or Multipack setups. I bought the multiset for me and the wife, which drove the price up. I found one in an "open" package deal for $279, so I jumped on it. That said, I've told my two consistant riding buddies what I like and don't like, so they can decide what to buy. If you get the same systems, you can sync them up so you can talk amoung up to four different units. This will come in handy on our annual trip down the blue ridge parkway when we get scattered out and need to make "collective" stops.

Hope this review helps...

Mike

 

[JamesK]

Mike, thanks for the review. Do you happen to know what the battery life is and whether the battery can be swapped out (with a second, charged battery) for charging or can be charged while in use, I realize that means a hardwire connection but even the really nice units like the Sena only offer about 7-8 hours of use before needing charging, and unfortunately for me, most of the time that's just about enough time to get warmed up for a real ride.

 

[Mike Kelly]

James, they claim one week of standby and 10 hours of talk time. It comes with their USB proprietary cable, meaning it has a non-standard USB connection to the device and a standard USB connection to any PLUG. I haven't tested it on my auxilery 12 volt connector/ cigar lighter plug and iphone charger yet, but I will try that when it warms up and get back to you. Doesn't look like the batteries are removable. Looks "sealed". From the manual, there is no mention of charging from a 12 volt system, but there is mention of charging from your laptop... My guess is you could connect the USB cable to an iPHONE mobile charger.

Here's a link to the owner's Manual download from Cardo Systems...

https://www.cardosystems.com/us/download/manuals

Mike

 

[drjfjr]

I have the G4 also and have been using it for 9 months. It is a mini USB connection and I have found them on cig lighter adapters in the electronics store. I purchased one and it works well. It does not have a removable battery. I ride 40 minutes a day with the FM radio going and charge it every two weeks. That equals about 400 minutes and it was not drained yet. It pairs with my Garmin 550 nicely but there is an issue with pairing with an old scala rider that I have had for 4 years. When paired with old Scala and Garmin my Garmin thinks the G4 is a phone instead of a headset. When I disable the old Scala rider then all goes back to normal and all is good. I talked to Garmin and Scala rider and so far there is no fix yet.

 

[ionbeam]

...there is an issue with pairing with an old scala rider...Garmin thinks the G4 is a phone instead of a headset...there is no fix yet.

Perhaps there is an issue with the sequence in which you pair the devices. Have you tried changing the order in which you pair them?

 

[drjfjr]

I have tried several different sequences and went to the Scala Tech in Indy during the Motogp last fall and he was also unsuccessful in pairing all together. It seems like a Scala issue but Garmin had this issue previously based on communicating with them about this problem. Garmin said this problem disappeared after they updated firmware but had seen this before. I have the latest firmware on all units except Scala rider which is not upgradable. Does not seem to affect the Scala teamset or the G4 set.

Its not a big deal breaker since I was just going to give the Scala rider to my son as bike to bike when we ride together.

 

[wfooshee]

Your phone should have a setting for auto-answer with a headset. The G4 didn't answer the call, the phone did, because it thought it was supposed to.

Should be easy to turn off, but I couldn't tell you where on your phone.

And with that Scala Rider, you're gonna have to stay pretty close to him to keep bike-to-bike.

 

[RaYzerman19]

I've had the G4 for over a year now (Q2 before that), and paired up on various occasions with other Q2 and G4 users. I just kept on adding pairings as it is supposed to bump out old ones. After while, I was having issues of it shutting down prematurely, and the fix was to erase all pairings and redo. No biggie, works great. Paired with my Zumo 550 for music, GPS and phone, power usage is low. You will find battery life is more like two days if intercom is not used much. Heavy intercom use is what drains down the battery. Intercom range is line of sight up to half mile, maybe a tad more. The FM radio is rather short range and not all that useful.

 

[Mike Kelly]

Not to pick nits, but it isn't a standard Mini...

The SCALA G4 is on the bottom...

I thought my wife had thrown my cables out and tried to use a standard mini USB, and it didnt work for the reasons you see in the pics...Don't misplace those cables!

Mike

I have the G4 also and have been using it for 9 months. It is a mini USB connection and I have found them on cig lighter adapters in the electronics store. I purchased one and it works well. It does not have a removable battery. I ride 40 minutes a day with the FM radio going and charge it every two weeks. That equals about 400 minutes and it was not drained yet. It pairs with my Garmin 550 nicely but there is an issue with pairing with an old scala rider that I have had for 4 years. When paired with old Scala and Garmin my Garmin thinks the G4 is a phone instead of a headset. When I disable the old Scala rider then all goes back to normal and all is good. I talked to Garmin and Scala rider and so far there is no fix yet.

 

[rfulcher]

A mini USB will work with the Scala G4. USB comes in 2 sizes the older size and the new smaller "mini" USB. The picture shows the standard USB on top and mini USB on the bottom. Items in my home that use the mini USB:

•  
  
• My wife's Droid
  
• 2 Kindles, a big one and little one
  
• Scala G4's.
  

It is nice to be able to mix and match the cables, the white kindle cable is easy to spot and I tend to use it for all of the devices including the G4's.

Both cables shown below are USB, top is standard and the bottom one is the "new" mini USB.

EDIT for clarification: the big end is the same on both style of cables

Not to pick nits, but it isn't a standard Mini...

The SCALA G4 is on the bottom...

I thought my wife had thrown my cables out and tried to use a standard mini USB, and it didnt work for the reasons you see in the pics...Don't misplace those cables!

Mike

 

[Makuna]

USB comes in more than two sizes. USB Wikipedia

From the picture, the top one is "Mini" USB. The bottom is "Micro" USB.

My Garmin uses Mini, my cell phone and Bluetooth headset dongle uses Micro. Micro is becoming more common on small devices.

 

[drjfjr]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Yes that is the mini on the bottom and I have found several places with this connector on their chargers. As far as my issue with the old rider headset paired as a bike to bike, auto answer on a phone was not the problem since the phone was not even paired and i even removed the phone pairing with the Garmin to make sure this was not the issue. The garmin would see the G4 as a phone rather than a headset when ever the Scala rider was paired to the G4 as a bike to bike even when no phone was set up on the Garmin. It was as if the G4 once paired with the other headset sent to the garmin it was a phone rather than headset.

 

[wfooshee]

Not to pick nits, but the one on top is a mini, the one on bottom is a micro.

Lots of phones and point-and-shoot cameras are using the micro these days.

Hell, beat to it while I spell-checked.

 

[drjfjr]

you are right mini and micro. I always confuse the two :yahoo: Micro is the one I was talking about that I found new stuff for.

 

[Mike Kelly]

I don't have anything else that I've recently bought that has that cable, so I thought it was something proprietary they were using. Good to know, and I stand corrected...

Mike

 

[sportsguy]

+1 for the Scala Rider G4 - at least for calls and listenign to music over Bluetooth.

Keep your owner's manual handy to look up how to do stuff, though. It's not intuitive.

 

[Candyman]

+1 for the Scala Rider G4 - at least for calls and listenign to music over Bluetooth.

Keep your owner's manual handy to look up how to do stuff, though. It's not intuitive.

I have the teamset. Works great when the wife is riding wiht me. When I am solo i charge one headset while using the other. Then swap them out when the battery runs low. Wife wont ride 10 hour days anyhow so it works great for me.

 

[wfooshee]

You've got a different teamset than I have, then. I guess you have the Teamset PRO?

The set I have, the passenger headset cannot be paired with a phone, it only connects to the driver set. They are not interchangeable.

 

[DeweyIsgod]

I saw this car charger was available for the G4. I'm sure a lot of the chargers will fit and work fine. But for $15 bucks, you can get the official G4 version.

charger