Experience with BMW's Bluetooth Communication System.

[Cleverbee]

Yes, I understand that you can't get the full pairing with the second lid, however, silence is golden, oh yes - the occasional punch to the rib cage comms system still works!
:alas:

[frogman]

Hi. This is my first time on the forum. I just purchased a 2014 R1200RT and I am trying to Bluetooth a pair of Sena 10 's to the audio system. Helmet 1 connected easily but when I try to connect my wifes the audio system on the bike sais "NOT POSSIBLE".
Does anyone have experience , suggestions on what to do? Will only the BMW communication system connect 2 helmets?

Thx
Kermit

[guest2360]

You are correct . Only the BMW system will connect to both.  You will find lots of option on here for alternative methods.  My choice has always been to hard wire to the Alpine unit.  Then everything works all the time and both of you get everything including GPS prompts. 

[beemerboy9]

Hi. This is my first time on the forum. I just purchased a 2014 R1200RT and I am trying to Bluetooth a pair of Sena 10 's to the audio system. Helmet 1 connected easily but when I try to connect my wifes the audio system on the bike sais "NOT POSSIBLE".
Does anyone have experience , suggestions on what to do? Will only the BMW communication system connect 2 helmets?

Thx
Kermit

If your units have "song sharing" you will be able to connect to the audio system and let your partner listen via your helmet. I know Interphones have this facility but don't know about Sena.


Hope this helps a bit.

[Banzib]

I have put the BMW com headset in a Shoei GT air and a an RF 1100 it does take cutting out some foam in the helmet. My K1600 com system was terrible always cutting out. My RT com system works much better (SO FAR)! I also have the Sena 10C and 20S and they work pretty good always and any bike but you just don't have the handle bar controls. I mainly use on GS but sometimes connect to RT com system if I want to use camera on 10C. 

[Oscar Nelsen]

Try setting Loudness to Off in the Audio menu. Makes a large improvement to Bluetooth quality, especially with my flash drive. After shutting Loudness off I changed my treble & bass from -4 to +4. Prior to that, any bass setting above -4 would start adding distortion.

[octatonic]

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[timminator]

Bumping this thread after my experiments- it will probably just confirm what others have found.


Like a few people here I've had problems with lousy bluetooth quality from a 2016 RT with Navigator V to a 3rd party bluetooth headset.
In my case the bluetooth headset is a Cardo Sho1.
Pairing the phone directly to the headset and everything sounds pretty good- I've used this for the last 3 years with other bikes and it has been excellent.


Pairing the phone to the bike & the Nav 5 and the headset to the bike results in greatly reduced audio quality, particularly with busier music.
Cymbals and guitars sound very crunchy and unpleasant.


Consequently I've been avoiding using the bikes stereo, which seems like a waste of £1000.


I borrowed a helmet with BMW's communicator headset and the quality of the audio greatly improved- none of the crunchiness or distortion.


Spoke to the local dealer about this and their response was pretty much 'yeah that is typical BMW for you'.
He didn't directly say that BMW were disadvantaging non BMW bluetooth headsets but rather wryly said that BMW have probably 'optimised' the RT to work with the Communicator.
When I pointed out that this was an interesting interpretation of the situation he didn't have much of a response.


So, I had to decide whether to purchase a new communicator that I don't really don't want and a new helmet to put it in that I don't really need or stick with that I have and essentially be wasting £1000 worth of audio system.
I've ordered the helmet and communicator, which is irritating to have to do and I'nm a bit annoyed with the need to spend another £600 in order to fix a problem that shouldn't exist.

Could not agree more.

[guest2360]

Spend half the cost of just one BMW helmet and headset on a wired system and get perfect quality stereo from the audio unit.

[smileymiley]

Spend half the cost of just one BMW helmet and headset on a wired system and get perfect quality stereo from the audio unit.

I agree, used an Autocom system on 4 different bikes & had outstanding performance with each.

[octatonic]

...

[guest2360]

I use an Autocom Logic.  You can get them for rider only or for two.  Difference is an extra headset and cable.  These would cost you more bought separately.  The audio unit is connected directly to the Autocom unit with a cable Pt number 2273.  If you want to connect your phone to the system you will need their dongle BTM-02A.
The system gives you volume control on the wheel with all music showing on the dash and full control over it.  .  All of course is bike powered.  Mine is now on its third bike .

[Paggers]

I use an Autocom Logic.  You can get them for rider only or for two.  Difference is an extra headset and cable.  These would cost you more bought separately.  The audio unit is connected directly to the Autocom unit with a cable Pt number 2273.  If you want to connect your phone to the system you will need their dongle BTM-02A.
The system gives you volume control on the wheel with all music showing on the dash and full control over it.  .  All of course is bike powered.  Mine is now on its third bike .

My 2013 GS is fitted with the Starcom1 system from Autocom but due to the absence of any wired option I actually have to use the Bluetooth dongle to connect between the Nav5 and the intercom, then a wired connection into the helmet. With my new RT (due in around 3 weeks) I understood that there is again no straightforward way to fit in a wired connection so I had decided that rather than use BT from the bike to the intercom and wired into the helmet I may as well go BT straight to the helmet and lose the wires. To that end I have bought myself a Scala Q3. Obviously I am hoping that the Q3 is going to work fine with the RT audio system but if it doesn't then the option of falling back onto the wired system is appealing if I can get direct wired audio out from the stereo. To that end, would you mind explaining how the intercom is wired into the bike?

Thanks.

[octatonic]

...

[guest2360]

If you have a search here at Autocom on 2014 RT.  there are photos of its location under the seat.  As you have an audio unit it needs to be fitted further back but it's not a problem.
Your worry about connecting cables etc soon goes away and it's nothing compared with all the charging, pairing and quality issues you can get with BT.  Trick with the Nav volume is turn the volume right down in the unit if you use it with BT.  Not sure if your audio unit will disable the function though.