Bluetooth Woes

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.