So I've finally got the comms setup on my bike working really well with no interference from the engine at all. What I found was that the area around the fuse box creates loads of electrical noise, but siting the crucial cables over the other side works wonders. Here are a few notes and pictures which you may find helpful.
1. Put the Bluetooth module alongside the battery as shown in picture 1. It picks up the least amount of electrical noise there.
2. For music from the Zumo, run the isolated music lead down the right hand side of the bike (same side as the Bluetooth module) and tuck the isolation block where indicated in pic 1, this is also a very electrically quiet area.
3. The Autocom Bluetooth module goes into the "Riders Phone" socket and the isolated music lead goes into the "Stereo music in" socket on the Autocom.
4. As discussed elsewhere, the Bluetooth chip in the Zumo 660 is shite. You cannot successfully pair your phone through the Zumo and expect to be heard by the other party (the 550 is fine). Therefore, if you have a 660, you must pair your phone directly with the Autocom Bluetooth module. To make this a good solution, you need to then mount your phone on the bike somewhere accessible in a waterproof case (Pic 2). For making calls, you can press and hold the home button to activate SIRI (if you have an iPhone) or the voice dial button on your phone. Siri works really well, even on the motorway I was able to voice dial people with complete accuracy. If you hear a text message come in, press the home button and ask Siri to read it to you, that works great too. If you get a call, you have three rings before the Autocom Bluetooth module will auto-answer for you. In that time, if you see it's a call you don't want to take, you can press the "power" button on the phone and it'll send the call to answerphone.
The whole thing works very well and is great quality, the only problem being that if you call someone and get their answerphone, there is no easy way to hang up
. I'm working on a solution for that and have a few ideas in mind which I'll post once I've tried them.
5. If you have a bike-bike radio, an external antenna is a must for any kind of range. If you ever ride with a pillion, you must have a PTT button else you'll broadcast your entire conversation with your pillion to everyone else with a radio (this has happened! :}). Mounting the PTT button is easy (Pic 3), again try and keep the cables on the right for least interference.
6. Finally, something that most people get wrong with these systems: It's really important that you have the volume on the Autocom set as low as possible. This is because the audio source from your iPhone or Zumo is already amplified and the Autocom will amplify it again along with any electrical noise it has picked up on the journey between the device and your Autocom. So, to start with, set your phone and Zumo volumes to maximum and the Autocom volume to minimum, then slowly turn up the volume on the Autocom until it's as loud as you'll ever reasonably need it. Leave the Autocom set at that volume, then back off the volume on your device a little (say to 90%). This gives you the best possible quality of audio with a little extra volume available from the Zumo or phone if you really need it.
HTH
1. Put the Bluetooth module alongside the battery as shown in picture 1. It picks up the least amount of electrical noise there.
2. For music from the Zumo, run the isolated music lead down the right hand side of the bike (same side as the Bluetooth module) and tuck the isolation block where indicated in pic 1, this is also a very electrically quiet area.
3. The Autocom Bluetooth module goes into the "Riders Phone" socket and the isolated music lead goes into the "Stereo music in" socket on the Autocom.
4. As discussed elsewhere, the Bluetooth chip in the Zumo 660 is shite. You cannot successfully pair your phone through the Zumo and expect to be heard by the other party (the 550 is fine). Therefore, if you have a 660, you must pair your phone directly with the Autocom Bluetooth module. To make this a good solution, you need to then mount your phone on the bike somewhere accessible in a waterproof case (Pic 2). For making calls, you can press and hold the home button to activate SIRI (if you have an iPhone) or the voice dial button on your phone. Siri works really well, even on the motorway I was able to voice dial people with complete accuracy. If you hear a text message come in, press the home button and ask Siri to read it to you, that works great too. If you get a call, you have three rings before the Autocom Bluetooth module will auto-answer for you. In that time, if you see it's a call you don't want to take, you can press the "power" button on the phone and it'll send the call to answerphone.
The whole thing works very well and is great quality, the only problem being that if you call someone and get their answerphone, there is no easy way to hang up
. I'm working on a solution for that and have a few ideas in mind which I'll post once I've tried them.5. If you have a bike-bike radio, an external antenna is a must for any kind of range. If you ever ride with a pillion, you must have a PTT button else you'll broadcast your entire conversation with your pillion to everyone else with a radio (this has happened! :}). Mounting the PTT button is easy (Pic 3), again try and keep the cables on the right for least interference.
6. Finally, something that most people get wrong with these systems: It's really important that you have the volume on the Autocom set as low as possible. This is because the audio source from your iPhone or Zumo is already amplified and the Autocom will amplify it again along with any electrical noise it has picked up on the journey between the device and your Autocom. So, to start with, set your phone and Zumo volumes to maximum and the Autocom volume to minimum, then slowly turn up the volume on the Autocom until it's as loud as you'll ever reasonably need it. Leave the Autocom set at that volume, then back off the volume on your device a little (say to 90%). This gives you the best possible quality of audio with a little extra volume available from the Zumo or phone if you really need it.
HTH
