Bluetooth Woes

Discussion in 'Technical Help' started by David Downes, Feb 4, 2020.

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  1. I have it, I love it

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  2. I have it, I hate it

    26.8%
  3. I want it

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    43.9%
  1. Winglad

    Winglad Crème de la Crème

    Dec 21, 2016
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    Little sum up about the BT-struggle on the other side of the channel...

    Peter @heartlander happily picked up his Scrambler 1200 yesterday and we went straight to the petrol-station to fill her up.
    We also planned to spend a little quality time hooking up his iPhone (6?) to the bike.

    But first we were looking for a quiet spot to do this.
    I suggested a parking lot near our local golf course. (I use to munch my Burgers there, after picking them up at the King’s...)
    What I did not take into consideration (because I never, ever experienced it before) was the massive crowd of canine-owners, leading their doggies to the local daily dump and hump event...
    Most of the dogs began barking like crazy inside their SUVs when they saw us standing there with the motorcycle (see: it was NO GS!).
    When the hatch came up, they exploded out of their respective cars, trying to get killed by the next SUV on final approach. The owners tried all the well learned vocabulary such as ‘Bei Fuss’, ‘Sitz’, ‘Platz’ and the likes.
    To no avail.
    Well, it would have been less noisy at the petrol-station.

    What was this about? Ah, yes: Bluetooth.
    We got the Scrambler connected to the phone, and the app.
    First priority was the Satnav. After we gort it running, we went home and Peter said that it worked pretty well.

    Let’s see, how the bike reacts (and connects) to the phone, the next time, Peter starts it up.

    To be continued...

    (P.S.: I LOVE dogs. But prefer the ones, that have been trained to behave...)

    :yum
     
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  2. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
    198
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    Essex
    Good that the sat nav worked OK.

    Do you know if he also tried using siri, or to make/receive a call with an intercom?

    I spoke again to Triumph HQ (after not hearing anything for just over a week), and I got told (by 'Peter') that the guy who'd really know ('John') is in Portugal, and that he was going out to meet him and would discuss it. He (Peter) will be back next week, and will hopefully contact me with some form of answer.

    Broadly he did use the old "It's hard to make it work with EVERY device". Being a software guy myself, I appreciate it must be hard, and admitted as such ... but on the other hand, I said that I don't have a brand new model of some obscure brand of phone, with cut-price dodgy electronics ... I have an iPhone 11 Pro (and my wife an iPhone 8), and it's probably not unreasonable to expect the bluetooth module to work with iPhones, given that they still command around 50% of the uk phone market. He agreed with that - phew!

    I wonder if it's an iOS version thing, I'm running the latest version, which I think is 13. The Mrs has the same. So perhaps if @heartlander has an earlier version, and everything works, then that could potentially explain it.
     
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  3. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    Hello David,
    I have the iPhone SE and the IOS 13.3.1. This must be the actual one.
    Cheers Peter
     
  4. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    Winglad and Heartlander braining about Bluetooth!

    23D3B081-CE3A-438D-960F-0002D7AB81CA.jpeg

    C9C4625C-B1CF-4A6B-B1F3-1BB7F8CE6F99.jpeg
     
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  5. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    I actually have my old iPhone SE in a drawer somewhere, maybe I'll dig it out and give it a go. If you have no issues at all, and I still do, then I guess that means that my unit is actually faulty ... which would be something of a releif.
     
  6. Winglad

    Winglad Crème de la Crème

    Dec 21, 2016
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    Yes, and I think Peter did not yet try the communication option yet; he only has Airpods and those would not activate Siri or be able to pick up voice via the mic under the helmet...

    But the Triumph dealer admitted that they have quite some trouble with the new connectivity stuff.
    He said that Triumph always tries to implement new technology over the whole brand’s range, which basically is an economical thing to do.
    But since the displays of the Scrambler and the new Tiger are totally different in their UI-layout and also depiction, the thing is no easy match.

    I am pretty positive, that they will sort this out. We just have to bear with them...

    Cheers!
     
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  7. Winglad

    Winglad Crème de la Crème

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    #27 Winglad, Feb 22, 2020
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2020
    :grinning: You almost see the smoke rising above my head... ;)

    THERE ARE NO DOGS IN THE PICTURE! WTF :scream:
     
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  8. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    My son took the picture. He knows about my „love“ to dogs!!
     
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  9. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
    198
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    OK, so after waiting on Triumph to come back to me for several weeks, I was told to email my issues in, and someone would get back to me asap. I did (copying most of the details from my initial post) and I got a response same day.

    Here it is:
    Hi David

    Your query has been reviewed by the design team.

    Unfortunately they have come back and confirmed thatthe devices you have mentioned and tried to pair, unfortunately none of these devices are on the list of compatible device list that Triumph have released.

    Some of the issues that you have experienced have been investigated and fixes for these are due in an App update which is due in late March.
    This app update should fix the delayed Navigational prompts and it will also incorporate the What Three Words functionality.

    Regarding the other issues mentioned such as call audio problems, device connectivity problems and Siri operating issues this could be due to these devices not having this functionality tested at present.

    We cannot guarantee that the new app update will resolve all of the compatibility issues that this you are experiencing here.
    From the information we have from yourself, they feel that this does not lend itself to being a fault with the bluetooth module but external device incompatibility issues.

    You can either wait until the update to see if this resolves some of your isses or if you no longer wish to wait or continue with the bluetooth, they I will be able to accept a claim to refund you for the costs of the unit and labour to fit and remove it.

    Kind regards

    Great they got back to me ... not so great about the answer.

    So don't buy one of these if you don't have a 'compatible device', which seems to NOT include an iPhone 8, or iPhone 11 Pro ... and I would therefore kinda assume "most, if not all, iPhones".

    I've written back to check whether or not he means that iPhones aren't supported, or if they think it might be my (multiple) intercoms that I'm trying to use.

    Dave
     
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  10. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    Just as I finished writing, I got a reply, here is the (in my humble opinion) laughable list of tested/compatible phones and intercoms.

    I don't know about anyone else, but that list of devices seems rather ad-hoc ... almost like what you might get if you walked around the office asking to borrow people's phones to test something :neutral:

    So yeah, if you don't have a phone AND an intercom from that list ... I'd forget about the bluetooth module. And even if you do, don't bother until April when they release an app update to fix the broken navigation.

    Yayyyy Triumph :(
     

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  11. Winglad

    Winglad Crème de la Crème

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    It’s a joke, right?
    I went through the hassle of downloading this list...
    It’s like saying: “This car is compatible for Bavarians, Texans and some Swiss....”
    Ridiculous :joy:
     
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  12. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    Yup, crazy.

    I geuninley unsure what to do to be honest. They've said they'll refund me the £300 I spent on the module and fitting, and pay for having it taken off.

    I'm very inclined to to get my money back since it doesn't bloody work ... but at the same time, if they're going to update in a couple weeks, then I might as well wait.

    I'm probably getting over-upset about it, but bluetooth was one of the 'killer features' of this bike, I don't actually want a refund, I want it to work! Not sure if I should hold out, or give up :pensive:
     
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  13. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    Did you try your old iPhone SE?
    Mine works pretty well!
    Cheers, Peter
     
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  14. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    I actually didn't, but I have it hear, I'll charge it up and give it a go. Although ... realistically, I'm not going to swap from my 11 pro to my SE, so is there much point? Urgh.

    It could be an iOS version thing, both mine and my Mrs's iPhone 8 are on iOS 13. Charging up my SE now, I can see it's on iOS 12. Maybe I'll test it out, then upgrade it to 13, and see if that breaks it.

    If it's iOS 13 that's the problem, as more people eventually upgrade to it and their bikes stop working, I'd imagine Triumph would have to do something.

    What iOS are you using @heartlander? Does everything work as expected? e.g. calls, Siri, and all that? And what intercom do you have?
     
  15. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    My IOS is 13.3.1 but I just tried the navigation, nothing else.
    I have to try the iPods but they belong to my son ....
     
  16. Wire-Wheels

    Wire-Wheels Elite Member

    Apr 26, 2019
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    Found a wonderful solution to my BT issues while riding...There is a button, on the left side of my BT equipped helmet. When I depress it and hold it a few seconds I hear a beep in my helmet. To the wife I say "I'll call you at my next stop. To my buddies riding with me, "What you just have to say can wait until we stop." My rides are MUCH more enjoyable now that I discovered that button on the left side of my helmet. Sorry I ever bought the dam BT ! ;) ...J.D.
     
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  17. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    For anyone still interested in this thread, I have the following (probably final) updates:
    1. I tried on my iPhone SE (running iOS 12), it DIDN'T work, correctly
    2. I updated my SE to the latest iOS, same deal
    3. I contacted Triumph direct, and was basically told that the module itself is likely NOT faulty, and it's my devices
    4. My bike went in for it's initial service, and I purposefully chose the loaner Rocket GT (with bluetooth module) so that I could test out another module to verify point 3 above. I encountered similar issues with that too.
    5. I got the module removed, and my £300 (parts + labour) refunded
    I am seriously frustrated that it doesn't work, and will probably never work frankly. The excuse being that "there's so many phones on the market, and so many software versions, that we can't test every combination" ... which I kinda get, but also disagree with. Bluetooth is an open protocol, devices conform to the standard and should therefore work. I've never had bluetooth module in a car stop working because I bought a new iPhone, or updated it's software. To make an analogy, it would be pretty stupid if buying an HDMI cable meant you had to check whether or not it had been specifically tested with your particular TV model and games console ... it's HDMI, it's a means of transferring information according to a protocol, they all work the same, and if it doesn't work, it's badly made. Grrrrr.

    On the upside, I've got my £300 back, but I shan't be getting back the 10's of hours I spent tinkering, trying to get it working. Nor will I have a feature that I wanted enough to lay out £300 to get installed.

    For now, it's back to a direct bluetooth connection between my intercom and phone, and a handlebar mount for when I need to use navigation.
     
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  18. heartlander

    heartlander Member

    Sorry to read that.
    We have now nice weather so I can try the navigation with the iPods.
    Cheers,
    Peter
     
  19. David Downes

    David Downes Well-Known Member

    Sep 4, 2016
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    I was told by Triumph HQ that the navigation will be improved with an app update sometime in March. So they did confirm the issues I had of delayed directions. Hopefully you'll either be able to manage, or not experience the problem at all.

    I was never too fussed about the nav (since I'd rather see a map, therefore mount the phone on the bars) when I'm using it anyway. You should try using Siri (to make calls, play/pause music, ask the time, whatever) and see if that works too.
     
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  20. Winglad

    Winglad Crème de la Crème

    Dec 21, 2016
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    For this, Peter (@heartlander) needs a microphone inside the helmet. Is not equipped for this yet...
     
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