Sena SM10 Transmitter & SMH10 Bluetooth

[tomas65]

Does the Sena SM10 allow complete use of the Goldwings infotainment system minus the cb? Want to be able to listen to radio, cd player & communication between rider & passenger. Ive read that it does support the intercom system while videos show it does not support the intercom. Need clarification please

[thrasherg]

The thing you need to be aware of is that it only pairs with 1 headset, so for the intercom your passenger either needs to be plugged into the goldwing intercom by a cable, or you need a second Freewire to pair with the passenger helmet, then you both have access to all the goldwing systems and intercom. Hope that makes sense. If you have only one Freewire then whoever is paired with it will have access to all the goldwing features except will NOT be able to talk with a passenger unless that passenger uses a cable to plug into the passenger intercom plug or you add a second Freewire which you plug into the passenger intercom plug and then pair with the passenger helmet!! It gets very expensive very quickly, $500 for two Freewire units and another $500 for two Bluetooth headsets, but for $1000 you and your passenger will be wireless and have all the capabilities that would have cost you $200 for two Honda wired headsets!! The SM10 claims to link to 2 headsets, so seems a better bet, but not sure what capabilities you give up compared to the Freewire.

Gary

[tomas65]

The sm10 transmitter is a dual version & I already have 2 smh10 helmet headsets. So I have to have 2 of the transmitters if I want to communicate back and forth wireless with passenger?

[thrasherg]

My Bad, I thought the SM10 was the same thing as a Freewire (updated my post to change reference to Freewire), my comments are correct for Freewire, but it looks like SM10 is a better option. I wonder if they will upgrade the Freewire to connect to 2 headsets? The SM10 seems like a better bet than the Freewire, but it's not clear to me what features you lose on a goldwing if you use the SM10 instead of the Freewire.

Gary

[raven41951]

I am/was confused. I have SM20S. They are basically the same as the 10s, but they are already paired with each other and I think they allow for more paired users.

In order to communicate with the Goldwing audio system, you need the Sena Freewire for EACH SM10, at $250 a pop. Like wise, I need two Freewires for my SM20s. This allows for complete communications with the rider and up to 8 other devices (SM20, I am not sure about that number for the SM10) which includes the bikes audio, cellphone, back seat rider, and other riders (in a group). The second Freewaire allows the back seater to listen to the bikes audio (including CB) as well.

If you choose only one Freewire, then you can listen to the bikes audio output and communicate with your passenger, but your passenger cannot listen to the bikes audio. They can however pair with a Bluetooth device and have their own audio (mp3, phone).

[thrasherg]

I am/was confused. I have SM20S. They are basically the same as the 10s, but they are already paired with each other and I think they allow for more paired users.

In order to communicate with the Goldwing audio system, you need the Sena Freewire for EACH SM10, at $250 a pop. Like wise, I need two Freewires for my SM20s. This allows for complete communications with the rider and up to 8 other devices (SM20, I am not sure about that number for the SM10) which includes the bikes audio, cellphone, back seat rider, and other riders (in a group). The second Freewaire allows the back seater to listen to the bikes audio (including CB) as well.

If you choose only one Freewire, then you can listen to the bikes audio output and communicate with your passenger (Only if you have an SM20, SM10 can either be paired with the Freewire or in intercom mode, but not both at the same time!), but your passenger cannot listen to the bikes audio. They can however pair with a Bluetooth device and have their own audio (mp3, phone). Only if they have a sena 20S headset, the sena10's dont allow you to listen to music from one bluetooth device and also be in an intercom session at the same time!!

I just upgraded all my sena 10 units (3 of them) to Sena20's for this very reason!! The Sena20s work very well and as stated above if both roider and passenger have 20S then the rider with a Freewire can listen to the onboard music/CB and talk to the passenger (at the same time) but the passenger can unly use the intercom, not able to hear the onboard music, unless you buy a second freewire. Now the SM10 transmitter states it pairs with 2 headsets and has the audio input so I cant see why that cannot be connected to the goldwing intercom system (as the Freewire does) and then with that one unit, both rider and passenger could listen to the music and talk together at the same time. The SM10 seems like a good choice, I am struggling to understand what you give up if you go from a Freewire to an SM10 on a goldwing!!

Gary

[thrasherg]

I am/was confused. I have SM20S. They are basically the same as the 10s, but they are already paired with each other and I think they allow for more paired users.

In order to communicate with the Goldwing audio system, you need the Sena Freewire for EACH SM10, at $250 a pop. Like wise, I need two Freewires for my SM20s. This allows for complete communications with the rider and up to 8 other devices (SM20, I am not sure about that number for the SM10) which includes the bikes audio, cellphone, back seat rider, and other riders (in a group). The second Freewaire allows the back seater to listen to the bikes audio (including CB) as well.

If you choose only one Freewire, then you can listen to the bikes audio output and communicate with your passenger (Only if you have a Sena20 headset, Sena10 headsets can either be paired with the Freewire or in intercom mode with another Headset, but not both at the same time!), but your passenger cannot listen to the bikes audio. They can however pair with a Bluetooth device and have their own audio (mp3, phone). Only if they have a Sena20 headset, the Sena10 headsets dont allow you to listen to music from one bluetooth device and also be in an intercom session at the same time!!

I just upgraded all my Sena10 units (3 of them) to Sena20's for this very reason!! The Sena20 headsets work very well and as stated above if both rider and passenger have 20S then the rider with a Freewire can listen to the onboard music/CB and talk to the passenger (at the same time) but the passenger can only use the intercom, passenger cannot hear the onboard music, unless you buy a second freewire to pair with the passenger headset.

Now the SM10 transmitter states it pairs with 2 headsets and has the audio inputs of a Freewire, so I cant see why you cannot be connected to the goldwing intercom system (as the Freewire does) and then with that one unit, both rider and passenger could listen to the music and talk together at the same time. The SM10 seems like a good choice, I am struggling to understand what you give up if you go from a Freewire to an SM10 on a goldwing!!

Gary

[raven41951]

The freewire provides an interface with the headset to the Honda audio system along with peripheral devices such as GPS, mp3, etc., all in a one-stop-shop.

I do not have the freewire yet, but I do have a whole bunch of gizmos that can do everything the freewire does, just not at the same time. It will be nice to consolidate three or so pieces to one. I am still learning and experimenting with the SM20 and when I am done I should have the funds put aside for the freewire. I have several items ahead of the freewire (SoCal driving/fog lights, aero flip-out highway pegs and a few other items including a toy hauler/camper) but it will arrive some time this year,

[waituntilthebeep]

I just purchased a Sena20s and a Freewire simply to integrate all of my audio and Bluetooth stuff together. I'd like to be able to use my phone, have Bluetooth audio from my phone as well, and also have the connectivity to satellite radio on the Goldwing altogether in one nice neat package. Up until now I have used a Harley Din adapter to plug my Bose audio earbuds into and I'm tired of being cabled or tethered to my motorcycle. I figured it's time to upgrade to Bluetooth connectivity and it seemed that Sena is the Best option to do that. It is a lot of money but I think will be good in the long run. I have heard the audio from the headphone pucks is pretty decent and that is what I have been looking for and why I have used my earbuds and was wired to the bike... For good audio quality. They both should arrive in an Amazon locker tomorrow afternoon and I can start playing with them. I don't ride with other riders that use helmet communication systems so I had no need for additional headsets. I also don't ride two up. It's all just so I can entertain myself while riding.

[thrasherg]

I have been very happy with my Freewire and Sena20S setup, the units communicate well together and have been very reliable. I do use ear plugs and find the Sena20S is only just capable of going loud enough to be heard at 80MPH on my goldwing with foam ear plugs (no issue at all if you don't use ear plugs). I think you will be happy with the solution, but financially it's a bit hard to swallow! $1000 to go wireless is expensive ($500 for 2 Sena 20S and $500 for 2 Freewires) just to have rider and passenger listen to music and talk to each other!! Two J&M wired headsets would have given the same capabilites (but with a wire between the human and the bike) for less than $300!! But it is great having no wires, just don't forget to recharge the Sena 20S every now and then!! My ride to work and back is an hour each day (30 minutes each way) and my 20S runs for 2 weeks before it needs a recharge, so I have got into the habit of putting it on charge every Friday evening and have had no issues.
The Freewire manual is not very clear but there is an on/off switch on the unit that you need to use if you use the internal battery, but if you wire the supplied USB/cigarette-lighter plug into your bikes electrics (switched to go on and off with the ignition) and connect it to the Freewire, you can leave the Freewire on/off switch permanently in the off position and the Freewire will power up and pair with the 20S when you turn the bike ignition on, and will power off when you turn the ignition off, so no messing about with on/off switches etc..

Gary

[dtrider]

Several years ago on a previous bike my wife and I bought a pair of Cardo G9 headsets. These headsets were advertised as allowing us to talk to each other, use our cellphones, and listen to music from our Bluetooth connected audio sources. What I didn't understand at the time was that we would not be able to listen to the same audio source at the same time. Since we like to listen to audio books while we travel, this was a problem. To solve that, I picked up a Sena SM10. Connected the output of the audio player (Garmin Zumo 550) and paired the SM10 with both of our headsets and we were mostly OK.

Still had one other problem though: while we could talk over the intercom and we could listen to the audio, we couldn't do both at the same time. The G9s only had a single Bluetooth tranceiver, so it could only handle one function at a time and it took a few seconds to switch from one function to another. Much less than ideal. While I liked the G9s in every other aspect, this one was disappointing. On looking around at other options though it looked like all the Bluetooth headsets that were available at the time had the same limitation.

Move forward a bit and I bought the Goldwing with it's integrated audio system. Picked up a second-hand set of J&M headsets and we were almost golden (silver?). With the Honda audio system we could talk to each other while listening to music and we could listen to the same audio source at the same time, plus there were many more audio options available. The downside was that we had to be wired to the bike, and we lost access to our cellphones. Nothing earth shattering, but minor annoyances.

Then Sena came out with the 20S. This is almost the perfect system for our needs. It would allow us to communicate with each other and listen to our audio sources, truely at the same time. I dug out the SM10 that I had saved when I sold the old bike and connected it to the driver's headset jack. Paired it with our headsets and we can both listen to music or audio books coming from the bike's audio system while we use the intercom built into the headsets. There are still some downsides of course.

First you do have to charge the batteries in the headsets (something that is not needed with wired systems). But a fully charged headset will easily last all day, so as long as I have access to a power source at the end of the day, it only takes a couple of hours to get a full charge again. One thing I do wish they would change is the low battery warning. When the battery does go out, you get the female voice advising you of "Battery Low", then about thirty seconds later it just goes dead. A little more advance warning would be nice. I have a Plantronics headset for my phone that on power-up will tell me how much time I have left. Sena should look at doing that.

No CB. The SM10 is a transmitter only, so there is no way for me to talk over the CB with it. I suppose I could listen to the CB if others are talking, but nobody in the group that we ride with has a CB this has not been much of a loss.

When I first got the 20s I had some problems with it constantly dropping the connection to the SM10. When first powered on I would hear "Phone connected", then "Media connected" and I would hear the music from the bike. Then some time later the music would stop and I could see that I had lost the connection to the SM10. I would hit the button on the SM10 to connect again, and everything would be good for a while, and then it would drop out again. I contacted Sena and they were just as confused as I was. They were thinking that maybe the SM10 was going bad. However on poking around on the settings on everything, I finally noticed that my phone had the option to turn off Bluetooth multimedia for a given connection. Turned off that option for the 20S connection and everything was good. Apparently the SM10 and my phone were fighting for control of the multimedia.

So I highly recommend the combination of Sena 20S headset with the SM10 dual transmitter. If you can live without being able to talk on the CB, it's a great way to go.

[waituntilthebeep]

I received my Sena 20s and the Freewire units. I used the Amazon locker p/u option this time around which is AWESOME I have to say... but that is another topic entirely. I was using my break times at work to do the configuration and what not for the gear and I will warn you... The overall setup is not a 5 minute thing if you have never used one. Leave yourself some time. I still have not completely dialed it all in but that will come in time. I do have to say that I am totally impressed with the 20s and the phone call clarity. I was blasting down the freeway at 75mph with the shield open and the receiving party said it sounded like I was sitting in their living room with them and there was virtually no noise. That is super impressive! I am also impressed by the audio quality and volume that the little speaker pucks put out. Not a lot of bass but pretty clear and lots more overall volume than I expected from such a small electronic device.

I pulled the 2 units out of their boxes and downloaded the firmware updater software and made sure both units were updated. The app for the 20s worked great and was really easy to work with since you pair your phone and it automatically connects to the app as well. I got everything all confused as to in what position (phone, media) the stuff is supposed to connect to and need to sort out how to switch between inputs and all that jazz still but initial impressions are that this thing is way smarter than I am and it is going to be a joy to use.

[Oybie]

dtrider wrote: They were thinking that maybe the SM10 was going bad. However on poking around on the settings on everything, I finally noticed that my phone had the option to turn off Bluetooth multimedia for a given connection. Turned off that option for the 20S connection and everything was good. Apparently the SM10 and my phone were fighting for control of the multimedia.

Man! The things you can learn here! I was having the same problem when using both headsets (two up). I now know what to do. Thanks to dtrider.

[manutd]

Does the Sena SM10 allow complete use of the Goldwings infotainment system minus the cb? Want to be able to listen to radio, cd player & communication between rider & passenger. Ive read that it does support the intercom system while videos show it does not support the intercom. Need clarification please

Yes it does.
I use it with the Sena SMH10 headsets.
My wife and I can talk, listen to the bike audio or an MP3 source, the GPS and use the cellphone if we need too.
In order to use the bike audio, you need a connection from your bike plug in to the SM10. Here is what I use: https://fortnine.ca/en/sena-3-5mm-stere ... a-goldwing
I plug my GPS /MP3 player in to the aux jack on the bike which allows it to play through the bike audio system, which in turn is plugged into the SM10 via the headset cord.
You use the AUX button on the bike to listen to the GPS/MP3 and the headset/speaker buttons on the bike to switch between the SM10 and the external speakers.

[sjlibra]

Thanks to all who posted information about using the Sena SM10s/SMH10s and Sena 20S, etc etc etc. I purchased the Freewire and Sena 20S and it took me 2 weeks to understand why I could not use the 20S. It was not made to be compatible with a 2008 GL 1800. There is nothing in any of the Sena advertising that says what the 20S is compatible with for a GL 1800. Obviously it has to be a newer bike. I love the 20S system and my brother is traveling across country using the20S and Freewire setup. It seems to work extrememly well. What is my best bet to use to be able to access my installed infotainment system (as it is referred to) through my helmet? The SM10 and SMH10? I will probably keep the Freewire unless the SM sets work with Iphones. (I gather they do).

thanks

[Overbyte]

Hi sjlibra,
I feel you pain.
The problem is to convert Gold Wing audio to Bluetooth.
I have a pair of Sena 20s headsets, they work great.
I also have a pair of Chatterbox headsets, they work OK, but neither can connect to the Gold Wing audio system.
I bought a Bluetooth transmitter (they come as single or dual output). Next I bought a 5 pin DIN to 3.5mm adapter wire.
The adapter wire will connect the GW 5 pin (helmet connection) to the BT transmitter. Now the the GW audio will transmit via BT.
The BT transmitter has limited battery life so I installed 12v outlet (cigarette lighter) in the left fairing pocket.
I plugged in a 12v USB adapter and connected my BT transmitter to the USB power--
Viola, GW audio to my headset for about 50 bucks! The headsets retain intercom capability.
Good luck,
Overbyte

[sjlibra]

Thanks for the reply.

It sounds like I need a Bluetooth transmitter (SM10) and a 5 pin DIN to 3.5mm adapter wire. Will also need a replacement for the 20S BT headsets i have. They will not work with my 2008 system.

Thanks Again