XT and Sena 10U issue

[Fourbears]

Not sure if this is the right place to post/ask this but I’ve got a 10U in my Neotec helmet. Despite pairing my Garmin Zumo XT, as GPS, my iPhone 13 as phone and ensuring multi-tasking is enabled the 10U always cuts out music, intercom etc for sat nav directions - it stops it for about 2-3 secs before I hear any instructions and the same happens before the music or whatever comes back in. Is this a common problem or do I need to do something else?

[jfheath]

I wonder if you have everything paired to the XT ?

The XT should take care of everything if you pair the headset to the XT first and then pair the phone to the XT.
Normally it will cut music played through the XT if it has satnav instructions to put out through the speakers/headset. It will cut everything else out if there is a phone conversation going on.

I have an autocom - a rider-pillion device. That isn't relevant - but it will dim certain sounds coming from the Zumo if there is sound coming over the intercom.

What I am suggesting is that you may need to establish which device is cutting out the sound. You may find it useful to experiment without the Sena - in the car perhaps - letting the inbuilt speaker demonstrate what it is cutting. From that you can guess at what the Sena is controlling.

You may think that this is all un-necessary if the combination is working. But Sena assume that their unit to be at the centre of things. But with the XT, and many other Zumos, for it to work properly, the Zumo has to be at the centre. It is a lot more sophisticated than many other satnavs in this respect. Perhaps if two devices are trying to cut out sound when another device is issuing sound, they may be being over polite: - After you ! No, after you. No really its OK, you go first. No I insist, after you.

Check this out - I wrote it for someone else on another forum who was having problems with his Sena 10 and a Zumo 595. It worked for him. I don't have a Sena, but I have a cheap BT headset - and for purposes of demonstration this works perfectly well. Additional Sena features may be configured after the basic set up is complete.

download/file.php?id=250

[BrAtKo]

Hi. Regarding to the multitasking. Be aware of what is the source of music sending to the Sena. It cannot be XT because XT has no multitasking and that interruption happens in XT. I'm in process of experimenting now. On XT we can selective pairing (enabling/disabling) only HFP and exclude A2DP (this is possible in Sena). If it could be possible than music goes directly from phone to sena and multitasking should work.

And manual says:
Audio Multitasking allows you to hear the audio from two features simultaneously. When Audio Multitasking is enabled, phone calls, GPS instructions and intercom conversations can be overlaid with audio from the FM radio, music or GPS app instructions from a smartphone in the background with reduced volume. Increasing or decreasing the volume of the audio in the foreground will also increase or decrease the
volume of the overlaid audio in the background. The volume of the foreground audio can be adjusted using the headset. How much background audio that is heard can be adjusted using the Smartphone App.

[Oop North John]

Despite pairing my Garmin Zumo XT, as GPS, my iPhone 13 as phone and ensuring multi-tasking is enabled the 10U always cuts out music, intercom etc for sat nav directions - it stops it for about 2-3 secs before I hear any instructions and the same happens before the music or whatever comes back in.

That sounds very like the hierarchy for the 595 I had. Even more so if you had the key press tone selected, it killed off the intercom / music if you touched an icon etc.

[electro_handyman]

to the OP, the phrase "it all depends" is relevant here. If you could give a little more information about what audio signals you are expecting from what devices.
Are you getting music from your XT, phone, wired source? it all makes a difference to how the sena functions.
I also use a sena 10, though it's the older one, not the U series.
I hard wire my music to the sena and the one trait I don't care for is that by the time the sena interrupts the music to pass thru the gps message, the beginning of the message has been missed and I have to 'repeat' it to hear all of it.
If I want to hear the entire message without having to repeat it, I have to play my music thru the gps music player so that the gps link is open at all times.
I ride solo 99% of the time so I can't say how the intercom functions with external links like gps or phone.

In an ideal world, the sena would switch between signal sources a little bit quicker, and the gps or phones would add a "switch trigger" signal delay before sending any notification sounds or messages so nothing is lost.

Maybe that's just me wanting perfection in an imperfect world.
I will give them credit, having 3 different devices from 3 different mfgr's across the world, communicating together is not bad, but could be improved.

[danham]

Not sure if this is the right place to post/ask this but I’ve got a 10U in my Neotec helmet. Despite pairing my Garmin Zumo XT, as GPS, my iPhone 13 as phone and ensuring multi-tasking is enabled the 10U always cuts out music, intercom etc for sat nav directions - it stops it for about 2-3 secs before I hear any instructions and the same happens before the music or whatever comes back in. Is this a common problem or do I need to do something else?

If I'm understanding correctly, your problem may be due to pairing the XT to your Sena as a GPS. As others have said, the XT has to be the middleman in this setup, so be sure your Sena is NOT paired to your phone but is paired to the XT as a phone. This works with my XT, iPhone SE and Sena SRL2.

In other words: phone to XT, XT to Sena as a phone, not GPS, and no connection between the phone and Sena.

-dan

[BrAtKo]

This multitasking combination table is the key:

Sena_Multi.jpg (24.11 KiB) Viewed 1823 times

* Two audio sources in the foreground can be heard simultaneously with the
same volume level.
** Only one background source can be heard at a time while listening to an
audio source in the foreground.
A. GPS instructions can be heard during phone calls and the volume level of
both audio sources can be adjusted using the headset.
B. GPS app directions will be heard in the background during intercom
conversations.
C. The FM radio will be heard in the background when GPS instructions are
heard.

I've been success in some scenarios to no interrupt the music - it was FM radio, this is only "music" background not interupted during instructions from XT (ie speed camera alert), Oc combination in the table.

P.S. XT is central hub I agree, but doesn't matter if iPhone is connected to Sena directly or not (I have iPhone paired and connected simult. do XT and Sena), same behaviour if I disconnect the iPhone from Sena (Schuberth SC1A)

[danham]

P.S. XT is central hub I agree, but doesn't matter if iPhone is connected to Sena directly or not (I have iPhone paired and connected simult. do XT and Sena), same behaviour if I disconnect the iPhone from Sena (Schuberth SC1A)

It does matter, perhaps not for your specific issue, but pairing a phone to both the XT and Sena has caused lots of problems for lots of people.

-dan

[BrAtKo]

Not problems here yet but I've crated this shortcut - change Bluetooth destination to iPhone. How to https://jasonmurray.org/posts/2021/audiooutputshortcut/

UPDATE:
OK guys I've figured out what is the behaviour and WHEN is multitasking available during your ride. Let's confirm mine pairings that realy works:

• iPhone <-> Sena as primary phone

• iPhone <-> XT as phone

• XT <-> Sena as GPS (device) after connect the "phone call" from audio mixer disappear

Explanations what the Sena's multitasking is, it is just simple mixing of the two audio sources to listen them in same time with different volume level (or same). The Garmin XT mixer is unable to mixing more audio sources.

According to the table from the Sena manual the device type phone has always TOP priority and it's always as foreground, only foreground in fact, you NEVER PAIR XT as phone device, always pair as GPS to get multitasking - I mean uninterrupted music in your ears. The combination the phone call and GPS should work as well (table Oa options), but this scenario I did not test.

I recommend firstly power-on Sena and XT after. Try turn the FM radio ON and let's test some camera speed alerts or smart notifications - it will be mixed into the radio (radio volume level can be set via phone application).

Let's describe how to listen the music from phone without interruption. Because the XT is not making mixing (multitasking) it is impossible (without chaning the XT firmware). See the multitasking combination table, we can mix GPS and music via Sena. Because the direct pairing of the iPhone to the Sena we get the better audio quality (comparing to GPS device profile confirmed by Sena's local distributor but I cannot hear difference) and we can play the music from the iPhone directly to the Sena as secondary audio source which will not be interrupted. Benefit: you can still control the tracks from XT's Music app. I do not use spoken nav. instructions, only alerts of cameras and POI and smart notifications.

[BrAtKo]

UPDATE of previous post