Bluetooth disconnecting

[Budweiserfrogie]

Hi all, my first post here.
I've a Zumo 595, a Samsung A5 & a Sena 10R.
If i connect all 3 with Zumo as the central hub like instructed i get constant disconnects.
I sometimes cannot get sound on calls and sometimes cannot connect to spotify.
On first turning on all 3 devices and they all make their connections, i can hear routing guidance, and hear spotify music but not always phonecalls.
Within a couple minutes all bluetooth connection is lost and won't come back on without a Zumo reboot.
I can connect Zumo to either my smartphone or my Sena headset one at a time without issue.
It's only when all 3 connect that i get banged out.
All 3 devices are fully up to date with their firmware updates.
Garmin are extremely slow with email responses but so far no help.
Can any1 shed any light on this for me?
Or tell me if their Zumo works fine with a Samsung A5(2017) or a Sena 10R?

[Moose]

if you have not already try connecting them in a different sequence until one sticks

[dave726]

Remove all pairings from the Zumo. Delete all pairings on the Sena.

Try the sequence:
1. power on both Sena and Zumo.
2. Set Zumo to pairing mode.
3. Set Sena to pairing phone.
4. Try playing music, then test an A2DP action (push and turn Sena dial to change songs.

5. Pair phone.
6. Test actions of phone.

This mostly works on my Z665, but I find myself going through the same setup the next time I go to use it.

The Z665 uses both the A2DP and the HFP protocols. I've not seen details that describe how the Z595 uses BT.

Check the Sena website or call them for support. They have phone support in the US, but I don't know if that's international.

[Budweiserfrogie]

Ive tried pairing in every sequence i can think of, and every way i can find in online suggestions.
Always same problem.
If i pair just sena and zumo i cant play my music as its through spotify on my phone.
It plays for first minute or so just fine.
But as this needs 3 way connection it bombs out pretty quickly.

[rbentnail]

I'm a regular at a few different sport touring sites and at every one this topic comes up. The general consensus is that the 595 is horrible at Bluetooth. What some folks have said:

- Figuring out how to get all your bluetooth stuff to get along (my solution: the 595 is not the bluetooth device hub; it simply receives data from the phone, that's it. Sena connects to phone only)

"works", but under no circumstance will it play music consistently. It stops and starts (mostly stops). It will not reliably (or semi-reliably, or even semi-semi-reliably) play music from an iPhone, from Spotify, from Pandora, or from music stored local to the GPS, on a sim card. It always plays nav comms, but despite the 595, phones, and helmet comms all being current, all being certified compatible by Garmin, they won't work for long. Regardless of setup, regardless of order of pairing or what's turned on in what order, live alerts (or whatever it's called where texts and alerts from your phone are supposed to show up on your 595) never work properly. Same for music. I've had a couple of rides where music worked almost the whole commute. But I've had over hundred rides, literally, that, despite rolling down the driveway with everything working, I couldn't make it to the end of my street with out music stopping and starting, and then stopping completely. After months of this (and more fiddling with the gps while I was riding, trying to make it work, than I'd like to admit), I finally cried uncle and went back to my iphones. Flawless. 595LM still rides on my dash as an ornament.

The connectivity improved after the phone got a new operating system. Before that it could be difficult to pair the phone to the 595. The bluetooth connection between the phone and 595 could be better. Audio is good between the helmet and gps.

I can put up with the audio prompts from the 595 in the car so long as its not Bluetooth. With Bluetooth on FJR the 595 believes it is owed priority over intercom or phone calls. When trying to tell another rider "turn ahead" the 595 won't let me get a word in edgewise. So I banned the 595's audio prompts.

Also, if by some miracle my audio music and podcasts are working, and lo and behold a phone call actually comes through or I try to place one, after the call is done music will not come back and less I turn off the device the phone reboot everything and sacrifice a fucking virgin. Even then - 20% chance the music comes back. I've actually now set the sumo to completely disable phone support.

And on and on. Very little good is ever said about the 595 comm setup and AFAIK no one has figured out how to what it is they want done. It gets kind of confusing after a while b/c everyone seems to want to do something different. Someone posted one time the specif order to pair things and said about 80% of the time it works flawlessly but fir the life of me I can't find that post.

[Budweiserfrogie]

Thanks for all that info. Even if it doesnt help much.
Because its difficult to see in direct sunlight, the only way i can navigate is if i hear prompts tru my sena.
So i need it connected to my sena.
The result is i must leave my phone disconnected from zumo and only connected to my sena's second channel.
I'm more than not happy with that as i bought it for its heavy traffic rerouting options.
And for its spotify streaming.
Both need phone connect so im screwed.
I wouldnt even like to sell it to any1 as i know its not a competent device.
Ive never really liked the tom tom rider but i might have to give their new 550 look. I think it has a few issues too but maybe what i want out of it works better than zumo.
Always been a garmin user but this thing is terrible.

[rbentnail]

I feel for ya, thus far I'm not very impressed with the 595 and I don't even use Bluetooth! My old nuvi 780 is significantly better for my needs it's just not waterproof. I've tried all the stuff- boxes, baggies, etc. and was looking fwd to great things from the 595. I'm not ashamed to say I too think I may have made a very expensive mistake. It's not until now that I understand why so many used ones are for sale all the time.

On thing I do recommend is nushield.com. I use the Day Vu one. It's not perfect but it makes the screen 35-50% more readable in direct sunlight.

[paulk]

On various forums I have seen lots a folks seem to have bluetooth issues with the 590/595 Zumos. For the most part mine has been stable, so I thought I might pass along my own experience. I ride my cycle frequently for 5 or 6 hours with no issues at all. My unit started life as a Zumo 590 which I upgraded last year with the Zumo 595 firmware. (Most current firmware version is 4.4) Since that upgrade I have found the Bluetooth to work much better than with the original 590 firmware. My headset is an inexpensive Asian made unit with six unit connectivity, model EJEAS E6. (Bluetooth version 3) Typically when riding alone I use custom made phonac earphones plugged into the headset. The Zumo has MP3 files available for the media player loaded in an installed memory card. Until recently my phone was a Huawei Y6. (Bluetooth 4.1) I have had no issues listening to the MP3's loaded on the memory card or the phone. The Zumo sends directions and alerts pausing the music, which then starts up again every time. Songs can be skipped forward / back or stopped with the Garmin application on the Zumo screen. (Only stopped or forward on the map screen with media player sidebar) I have had no issues receiving traffic warnings and weather / radar with the smartlink application also running on the phone and updating the Zumo.

I recently changed phones to a Asus Zenphone 4. OS is Android 8 with bluetooth version 5. Surprisingly so far this settup also seems to be working fine. Bluetooth 5 is downward compatible with lower revisions. From my personal experience, I find listening to MP3's loaded in the zumo memory card to be the easiest most reliable. Almost all connections issues I have had have been resolved by recycling the Zumo bluetooth off and on. Occasionally the Zumo must be turned off, or the bluetooth connection on the phone has to recycled, or the headset power cycled.

I recently had an issue when I broke the connection while MP3's were playing from the phone. The zumo didn't like this. upon restarting, the media player forward and backward arrows were missing!. The zumo would still show a bluetooth connection to the phone, yet there was no way to start or stop play with the medai player app. Songs could be started and stopped on the phone, but this isn't possible while riding my bike. I found it very odd that the media player screen had changed. It finally occured to me that I should try a hard reset on the Zumo. Sure enough after the reset the forward/stop/backward arrows returned to the screen. With the zumo powered off, I held the power button for 12 seconds. All the routes and favorite places in memory were retained.

One peculiar thing I noticed after the reset was that I could not start playing MP3's though the phone/bluetooth. This was resolved when I changed the media player input to the zumo loaded MP3's. Started play. Stopped it, and then switched back to the phone/bluetooth connection. I haven't had to do this again on the following on and off cycles.

Bluetooth connectivity with the Zumo 590/595 seem to be common. My own recent experience suggests that some problems may be due to memory corruption of the operating system within the zumo.
The 590/595 zumos are on instantly when powered on. This can only be possible if the cpu is reading from stored local memory. This suggests to me that the cpu is in fact NOT rebooting on a power cycle. Its simply reusing a copy of the memory that was last used. If that copy of memory has become corrupt over time, nothing will be resolved and the same problem re-occur. A reset forces the cpu to reload the memory from the firmware file in ROM. In other words it has to read in a fresh copy of the operating system, similar to a reboot of any computer or laptop which reads from a harddrive or SSD.

To summarise what seems to work for me.

Headset bluetooth version 3
Y6 phone Android 5.1 bluetooth version 4.1
Zenphone 4 Android 8, bluetooth version 5.0
MP3's play from either zumo memory card, or phone via bluetooth.
Smartlink traffic and weather/radar functional.

Recycle Zumo bluetooth off/on first.
Recycle phone / headset off /on.
If problems persist, force a hard reset on the Zumo. Hold power on button for 12 seconds until unit reboots.

[Oop North John]

Hi and welcome. Had various Garmin GPSR's, starting with the Streepilot 3 a few years ago.

My 595 has just started the Bluetooth disconnetion problems. I have an Interphone F5MC and Samsung A5 (2017) usually connected. In the last week or so the 595 seems to be disconnecting the various paired bits randomly, sometimes reconnecting, but mostly not. It seemed to have stopped misbehaving, only for it to reappear. Have already de-paired the F5MC and phone and carried out a hard reset on the 595.

I'm wondering if the 396 is a viable alternative?

[Budweiserfrogie]

I jumped ship to a Tomtom Rider 550.
Absolutely sick of this zumo 595 connection issue.
Long time garmin user but ive had enough.
Returned it to the shop and was given full refund after my explanation of problems.
My guess is they've heard that story lotsa times before.
As for the Tomtom?
So far its not perfect either, but pretty stable with connections. Sometimes it loses voice directions to my sena but a quick on n off of the sena and its right back on quick nuff. Although I've not liked tomtom in the past, I'm very happy with the new 550.