Navigation » Navigator VI + Sena 20S + iPhone X connection method

Though I’d write a guide how I have connected my Navigator VI to my Sena 20S and my iPhone X. At first I didn’t get the three units to connect properly so I did a lot of online searching and I think that I have found a way that is working.

First I’ll describe in what sequence I did the pairing and connection the first time, secondly in what sequence I connect the units before I start to ride and thirdly I’ll tell you what my experience have been so far, but I’ll get back to that in the end

Pairing and connection the first time
Step 1
Make sure your Navigator VI doesn’t have any Bluetooth devices paired e.g. if you already have a phone or headset paired, go to Settings/Bluetooth and select the device and unpair it, do that for all paired devices so that the Bluetooth device menu is empty.
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Step 2
Go to your iPhone and Bluetooth settings, make sure that you do not have an old Navigator VI paired in the list if you do, then press “Forget This Device”, do the same if you have your Sena 20S paired as well.

Step 3
Turn on your Sena 20S by holding the jog dial and phone button, wait for the “Hello”. Press and hold the phone button for 5 seconds until the LED flashes red and blue and you hear multiple beeps and a voice prompt saying “Phone pairing”.

Step 4
Press “Scan for Devices” in the settings/Bluetooth menu on the Navigator VI,
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press “OK” in the next pop-up dialog.
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Once you see you Sena 20S in the “Nearby Bluetooth Devices” select it and press "OK" then press ”OK” in the next dialog and then”YES” in the next.
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Your Sena 20S should now be connected in the Navigator VI Bluetooth menu and you should see a blue “headset” and a blue “music note”. If you press on the Sena 20S line you should see that all three tick boxes (Sena 20S, Phone, Navigation and Media) are green and connected.
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Step 5
Go to your iPhone and Bluetooth settings, make sure that your phone is “discover mode”.

Step 6
Again press “Scan for Devices” in the settings/Bluetooth menu on the Navigator VI, press “OK” in the next pop-up dialog.
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Once you see you iPhone in the “Nearby Bluetooth Devices” select it and press "OK" then press ”OK” in the next dialog and then”YES” in the next.
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Look at your iPhone screen and select “Pair” in the dialog box (sorry for the Swedish language).
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Your iPhone should now be connected in the Navigator VI Bluetooth menu and you should see a blue “phone” and a blue “antenna”. If you press on the iPhone line you should see that all four tick boxes (iPhone, Phone calls, Smartphone Link and Media) are green and connected.
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That is it, you can now go back to the main screen on the Navigator VI and you should now see that all four buttons in the bottom are blue (Phone, Volume, Apps and Settings).
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The Navigator VI allows you to both call and receive phone calls (if someone calls you you get a pop-up dialog, where you can accept or refuse the call), also I got Spotify to work, including album art. What doesn’t work is searching for playlists, albums, etc. but if you start a playlist on the phone you can then, play, pause, skip forward and skip backward on the Navigator VI.
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Connecting once pairing is already done

Step 1
Turn on your Sena 20S by holding the jog dial and phone button, wait for the “Hello”.

Step 2
Turn on the ignition on your bike

That is it, you should now hear “Media connected”

User Experience

If you turn on the ignition before you turn on your Sena 20S the connections will fail, meaning the Sena 20S have to be turned before you turn on the ignition

Or if you have already connected to a second Sena 20S headset before the ignition is turned on the connections will again fail. E.g. once you hear “Media connected” and all buttons are blue and tick boxes green, only then should you connect to a second Sena 20S headset.

Also if you are connected to a second Sena 20S headset and you have navigation prompt and/or speed cameras warnings enabled then the second Sena 20S headset will be temporarily disconnected/paused once the navigation prompt and/or speed cameras warning is played. The communication between the two headsets will automatically resume a few seconds after the prompt, but during the prompt, you will not be able to talk or listen to other person. The same happens if you ride solo and are listening to music, once the navigation prompt is played the music is disconnected/paused but will resume automatically after the prompt. Maybe someone else knows an even better method to pair these devices that allows navigation prompts and communication with a second Sena 20S with full duplex.

I’m by no means an expert in Bluetooth connections, I just happened to find a way that worked for me, which I hope will help others as it seems to be a jungle out there in regards to different devices and how to connect them. And neither BMW nor Garmin seem to have full understanding how their systems work together or can explain this in their user manuals.

Here are the versions I'm running:
iPhone X - V 11.4
Navigator VI - V 4.70
Sena 20S - V 1.7.7

Kizomba!

Thank you for that, your timing is perfect as I am now collecting hardware for the imminent delivery of my R1200RS so of course have a few questions

I have collected the Nav VI from the dealer and have just received a Sena 20S Evo dual pack, my phone is an HTC One M8.

I do not have music on my phone and would prefer to store music on a Micro SD card in the NAV but have only looked at the quick start guide so not sure how possible this is. Can anyone confirm this?

Fugs, I can confirm. Go to a photo store and get a microSD card, it will fit underneath the battery in the Nav VI. I have a Mac, so I got a microSD card with the SD adapter so it will fit into the SD card slot on the Mac. I found it better (for me) to manipulate all the files on the computer/card and then install it into the Nav VI. You can also install the card into the Nav VI and then plug it into your computer with the charging cable. Found the latter more clunky for me.

Thanks for that Bill.

I've read somewhere that music must be in the Garmin/Music folder but presumably that doesn't mean copying the files off the Micro SD card into the internal memory (as that defeats the point of the memory card) so how do you tie the files on the memory card to the Garmin/Music folder?

You only need one music file on the Garmin drive all other files can be in a music folder on the SD card. Now get them to play smoothly is another matter, I've had two Garmin's and both have been poor at play back, sometimes it would be faultless, you can read all about this on the Garmin forums. I've since gave up and now just use my iPhone for music.

i dont have a problem with music on the sd card in the nav 6 however I still think you have to have then a mp3 files rather than anything more modern. sure people will confirm or not if this is still the case

Graham

Zitat von Fugly im Beitrag #5

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Thanks for that Bill.

I've read somewhere that music must be in the Garmin/Music folder but presumably that doesn't mean copying the files off the Micro SD card into the internal memory (as that defeats the point of the memory card) so how do you tie the files on the memory card to the Garmin/Music folder?

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Zitat von bill the cat im Beitrag #4

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Fugs, I can confirm. Go to a photo store and get a microSD card, it will fit underneath the battery in the Nav VI. I have a Mac, so I got a microSD card with the SD adapter so it will fit into the SD card slot on the Mac. I found it better (for me) to manipulate all the files on the computer/card and then install it into the Nav VI. You can also install the card into the Nav VI and then plug it into your computer with the charging cable. Found the latter more clunky for me.

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Bonzo, I know you can add/delete songs from the *playlists* but don't think this deletes the MP3 file itself from the SD card. I'll take a look tonight. I have a 32GB SD card, and I have a goodly amount of music on it with space to spare.

I'm more interested in if I have to take the card out, or if I can do it in situ via the pc

I would of thought that from the PC you should be able to navigate to the SD card/music folder and delete from there and converserly drag and drop new files into the folder

You can on the nav V, when plugged into the pc you can see the SD card, just drag and drop your music onto there.

Cheers guys, I'll give that a whirl

Yup, when I plug the NAV6 into my mac, it shows the SD card and the Garmin as separate mounted drives. I can add/delete MP3 files to the SD card. Take note that the playlists are listed separately on the Garmin "drive" (not the SD card) under the MP3 folder in a separate folder named "playlists" and in a separate format. I looked into the "voice" folder and deleted the voice files from Japan, Taiwan, Turkey and a few more.