Uclear 100 plus first impressions

[Coyote Chris]

I have to say I am impressed with my 100. Just came today. Installation was simple. The software update was hard.
I finally got the updating software loaded on my machine and got the computer to recognize the device after a frustrating hour.
After that, the computer and 100 ignored me and the instruction book and they updated the 100 from the 1.12 software to the new 2.07 version by themselves,
not needing all the complex instructions in the firmware update procedure PDF and Firmware release notes...

I then went through the instuctions to let the phone know I had the 100 and they were soon talking to one another. I played music, called my cell phone
with a land line and answered by using voice and button push, etc.

I then sat on the bike with the engine off and called my friend and uber techno geek Kirk, a long time state patrol radio tech and RF systems engineer. He was amazed at the voice quality.
I started the engine and rode away chatting with him with the face shield down on my open faced helmet and despite the crappy cell phone coverage where I live, he said it still sounded
great and I could hear him fine. I raised the face shield and he said I got a bit less clear but nothing that he couldn't hear through...but at 70 mph he heard me fine and I heard him fine.

The big thing is the bike to bike intercom capability between sena and uclear the the 2.07 firmware. Unencombered by the thought process, it looks to me reading the release notes PDF like they only let you use the
Bluetooth transmitter, which is short range, when you go across brands...but Frosty and I will check this out....worse case if the range is too short is we use the "last call dialed" feature and use our cell phone to talk while we are on the bikes
together.

There is absolutely a learning curve here....for instance, one phone I synched it to wanted me to change the music volume using the cell phone volume control in conjunction to the 100's volume control. The smarter phone I synched it to just wanted me to use the 100's volume control...
It would be tough to use the 100's up and down vol buttons with heavy gloves....

But getting rid of the boom mike on an open faced helmet is a big big plus for me, especially since most of my riding will be done without any talking...all there is to avoid hurting or getting in the way is the small main unit...

Right now, I would give this a one thumbs up...if you had two folk with 100s, I would bet it would get a two thumbs up....after we check out the "cross manufacturer" ability, we shall see about a true two thumbs up.

 

[charlie b]

Echos my views.

Let us know about the cross brand. My brother and I will be trying it the first of Aug (he has a SENA SMH-10).

 

[Coyote Chris]

If the river don't rise, Frosty and I will try ours tomarrow....

Echos my views.

Let us know about the cross brand. My brother and I will be trying it the first of Aug (he has a SENA SMH-10).

 

[Coyote Chris]

OK, part 2. Frosty and I met and basically followed the procedure for pairing the 100 and the Sena in the Firmware ver. 2.07 informational PDF.
We turned off our phones, put his Sena into "learn a phone" mode, and told my 100 to look for his headset. It worked eventually and we re-activated our phones and with the intercom
on, we rode away to see how the quality and range was. Although not quite as good as the phone operation, it was very good and useful. The range was
about 200 yards. Frosty could still hear me but he broke up after 200 yards in my headset. In the world of digital RF, and the cliff effect, either his transmitter wasn't as good as my
transmitter or my reciever was worse than his. No matter...this is not bad range using Bluetooth although I would like to know the real world range of a Sena talking to a Sena or a
100 to a 100. If we are reading the PDF right, we could theoretically ride with our cell phones activated and listen to music and then when I needed to talk to Frosty, I would hold my intercom button
down and our Bluetooth headsets would then link up and connect to each other, which take a number of seconds.....and cut off the phone connections. There does not appear to be a way that he could start an
intercom session with me unless he called me on his cell using the Bluetooth, and that of course if not using the intercom.
My opinion is that if you want to ride down the road with the two bluetooths connected and talk, this will work fine between a 100 and a Sena. Then one person can say "DEER!" and since the connection is established,
the cry will go through. But forget about music. If you want the Bluetooth connected to your phone, then you can listen to music, make phone calls...but you wont have instantaneous connection to the other person.
If there is cell phone coverage, you can call them on that....
True brand interoperability is still a ways off, it seems....I think the Sena may be a better device and if they ever got a unit without a boom mic, that would be the way to go. Untill then, I love the boomless mic.
(small aside. My semi dumb phone, when paired to my Bluetooth headset, can still change the music volume with ITS volume control as well as using the Bluetooth volume control. My semi smart, newer fancier phone, lets the
Bluetooth headset alone set the music volume)
Frosty, if I made any mistakes, please feel free to jump in)

 

[charlie b]

The sena to sena (smh10) range is about 1/4 mile sometimes almost 1/2 mile direct line of sight. So, yeah the cross brand is a limitation.

If you dont have the intercom active it takes about 3 seconds to hook up. We usually travel with the intercom active, which means no music, but phone calls will go through.

 

[charlie b]

No, valid question. But we frequently ride where service is spotty, so you would be constantly redialing. Where service is good it might be a decent technique.

 

[Coyote Chris]

Correct on all counts. But what I would like to know as a professional tube changer, retired, is, How does a Sena talk to a Sena 1/4 to 1/2 mile? (say 1300 ft-2600 ft) when a Bluetooth connection is lucky to go 600 ft? It is as if the Sena has a family frequency and power transmitter like you get in those cheep walkie talkies inside of it.....but of course that is not true as the family frequency spectrum is 450 MHz and these blue tooth devices operate at 2.5 gig. I think it must be magic....

The sena to sena (smh10) range is about 1/4 mile sometimes almost 1/2 mile direct line of sight. So, yeah the cross brand is a limitation.

If you dont have the intercom active it takes about 3 seconds to hook up. We usually travel with the intercom active, which means no music, but phone calls will go through.

 

[charlie b]

Dont know how they get the extra range. I suspect the unit to unit intercomm is on a different freq and that is why there is difficulty with cross brand use.

And yes, the feature I liked onthe scala was a built infm radio.

 

[Coyote Chris]

That is how I would have designed it for sure, but the spec sheet doesn't mention that....I should call up 1-800 help and see what they say....I also have heard that Sena has a forum.....I guess the FM radio would be a plus to a radio person but I would rather listen to POD casts of Cartalk.......

Dont know how they get the extra range. I suspect the unit to unit intercomm is on a different freq and that is why there is difficulty with cross brand use.

And yes, the feature I liked onthe scala was a built infm radio.