My Scala Rider G4, has really bad FM reception, and I've contacted the company by e-mail and they told me to change the way I had the speaker wire run in my helmet, I had it run around the back of head, he told me that I had to run it over the top of the helmet, I tried that NO help, also the wire is too short. has any body had the same problem that I'm having, if so how did you fix yours. My friend has the Q2 and his works great. I sure could use some help. WRB08 :exhappysmiley:
Scala Rider G4
- Thread starter WRB08
- Start date
Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:
maddad
Well-known member
FM radio sucks. No other answer. Rest of it I love.
Barry 07 FJR1300AE
Well-known member
jeremyr62
Well-known member
One of the reasons I bought the G4 was for the FM radio. The RDS feature made me think it might actually work OK. Big mistake. It's absolute rubbish. I even tried extending the aerial by soldering a wire onto the speaker connections and making this quite a bit longer and running it down my back (as an experiment). Made very little difference. I just think it's a crap radio. Having said all of that I have tried other radios and all seem limited by the aerial. I now have a flexible rubber type aerial attached to the rear of the bike and this feeds into a decent FM portable with an external aerial socket. I then output this by wire into the 3.5mm input on the base unit of the G4. Works a lot better. Surprised the Q2 is better than the G4. You really sure about that seeing as they have the same short aerial?
08FJR4ME
-WYNPRO-
One of the main reasons I bought the G4 and your right it "SUCKS" Last night I went on the computer and preprogrammed all my local stations that I listen too. Well in the house only 2 of them out of the six I get fair reception. I didn't know about running the wires on top of the helmet. You would think that they would mention that in the book somewhere. Geeeeez. I did talk to someone at EOM and he said his worked fine just like his car. Not sure but if it doesn't work any better they will be hearing from me also.
Dave
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RaYzerman19
Go Wings!
The FM sucks unless you are really close to the station. Better option is to make some mp3 playlists and either play them through an mp3 player with a cord to the headset or via bluetooth from the Zumo GPS. There aren't any good FM stations anyway...
jeremyr62
Well-known member
There are some really good National(BBC/RTE) FM radio stations in the UK and Ireland. They do change frequency as you travel around though which is what the AF (alternative frequency) function of RDS is supposed to help with. However the G4 radio is so bad it is a totally redundant feature.
airportcop
Well-known member
I've never been able to pick up an FM signal even in a large city! But, that is not what I bought it for. Mainly communication for bike to bike and mp3 through the cell phone. I am having trouble with the cell phone modes since I got a new one (Samsung Flight).
08FJR4ME
-WYNPRO-
Well confirmation confirmed. :angry: TOTALLY USELESS FOR FM RECEPTION. For the life of me I don't understand how they can even advertise it as such.
Bastages,
Edit: I went and posted a complaint on the Cardo systems, inc. website and hope others will do the same. Linky
Dave
Bastages,
Edit: I went and posted a complaint on the Cardo systems, inc. website and hope others will do the same. Linky
Dave
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08FJR4ME
-WYNPRO-
"Response from Cardo Systems"
Thank you for contacting Cardo Systems Support Center regarding our
products.
To help with locating stations you will want to reposition the right
speaker wire within the helmet and extend it as it is the antenna. When
placing the speakers in the helmet you do not want to have the right
speaker wire over lapping or curled-up, as this will limit your radio
reception. You can mount the wire across the top of your helmet and
create an S bend in the wire if it is too long and you will receive
better reception.
When saving the radio station, you must first select the preset channel
you want to add a station to then locate the station and within 20
seconds press the M/C button to save the station. When you add the next
station you must first press the M/C button to switch to the next preset
channel or you will just save over your last station you had saved.
"Not sure why this was mentioned since I preprogrammed the stations on the PC prior."
Please feel free to contact us if we can assist you with any other
questions.
Best Regards,
Robert Wargo
Technical Support
Cardo Systems, Inc.
Phone: +1 412.788.4533
Fax: +1 412.788.0270
Toll Free: +1 800.488.0363
International: +49.894.503.6819
[email protected]
www.cardosystems.com
Thank you for contacting Cardo Systems Support Center regarding our
products.
To help with locating stations you will want to reposition the right
speaker wire within the helmet and extend it as it is the antenna. When
placing the speakers in the helmet you do not want to have the right
speaker wire over lapping or curled-up, as this will limit your radio
reception. You can mount the wire across the top of your helmet and
create an S bend in the wire if it is too long and you will receive
better reception.
When saving the radio station, you must first select the preset channel
you want to add a station to then locate the station and within 20
seconds press the M/C button to save the station. When you add the next
station you must first press the M/C button to switch to the next preset
channel or you will just save over your last station you had saved.
"Not sure why this was mentioned since I preprogrammed the stations on the PC prior."
Please feel free to contact us if we can assist you with any other
questions.
Best Regards,
Robert Wargo
Technical Support
Cardo Systems, Inc.
Phone: +1 412.788.4533
Fax: +1 412.788.0270
Toll Free: +1 800.488.0363
International: +49.894.503.6819
[email protected]
www.cardosystems.com
Not sure where you have the unit mounted but it works great for me with the unit mounted on left side of helmet and the short wired speaker in left ear pocket. I ran the right speaker wire across the top and pushed it to the front of NY helmet just above the forehead pad and mounted right speaker in RT ear hole. I have all 6 preset stations working well. Now when you leave a metro area it's going to eventually lose the stations but my scan usually gets a couple of stations. I've got a Bell Star helmet, FYI.
spike747
Well-known member
08FJR4ME
-WYNPRO-
I did do the software upgrade and preprogrammed the stations in at the same time on the computor. I live between Boston MA and Providence RI. There is no lack of radio stations to listen to. Once I reroute the wires I will report back with the results. If I have time I will try that tonight or by the end of the weekend.
Dave
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Barry 07 FJR1300AE
Well-known member
Dave you and I talked at EOM about the G4. Programming the stations help, my wire is run over the top. I do not live in a city but not as rural as EOM. Never the less, I get good reception. Stations my broadcast with more power outside big cities. I am in NO WAY saying the G4 is perfect, but its the best on the market I feel. BTW I was streaming music thru iPhone 3GS, recently I switched to the new Samsung Galaxy S2, wow what a difference in sound quality and volume that made!
jeremyr62
Well-known member
I think part of the problem is we are used to the almost perfect reception you can get from FM in cars these days. Of course these have higly optimised aerials. I do think Cardo missed an opportunity to somehow attach an external antenna to the unit. A short wire running inside the top of the helmet is never going to work well. I am currently trying a DAB radio (digital radio here in Ireland) made for cars that uses a 12V powered DAB aerial. This unit has a wireless transmitter and rebroadcasts the DAB station in FM, so I hope the close proximity of the G4 will be good enough. There's a line out too if the wireless part fails. The advantage of DAB is you don't have to retune as you move around. So in theory I should be able to set the DAB radio to receive say BBC Radio 4 in Wales and this should stay tuned as I approach the channel tunnel in Kent.
