[FalconFour]

I'm just getting started with the LiveWire. The LW offers Bluetooth connectivity for various neat things, but I've never been able to get it to work - in fact, my experience is so bad as to call it fully unusable (1 on a 1-10 scale).

Pairing always works fine, but nothing works after that, and it both can't be connected from the phone (no ability to "connect" is offered in the BT menu, nor is any "connect" option offered in the H-D app), nor from the bike itself (no "connect" option in the menus for the paired device). It seems to be a totally passive system, as a result, left to the whims of software.

And in my case, those whims never play out. When pairing, the bike screen stays on the "here's how to pair, here's my name" screen, and on the phone, it pairs, but doesn't show connected. The Bluetooth indicator on the dash stays grey. A few seconds later, while my finger had just hovered over the "forget" button to try again, it turns blue and connects... but only for a few seconds, then goes grey again. Maybe it'll turn blue again in another few seconds, but usually not.

It seems to work well an iPhone (6S); it stayed connected (blue) and all the features seem to work, but I don't want to use a phone that breaks if I drop it on concrete a few times a month, so I stick with my indestructible Moto Z2 Force, in turn stuck on Android 8.0.

The dash runs 1.02.00-02 which is the latest.

From what I can tell, there's an issue with the way the Android app handles BLE, as it also hangs/corrupts the Bluetooth state for other apps. Trying to get some help from the developers, but... slow going. Curious if anyone else has a similar experience with Android for the other half of the people in the world that don't like a one-size-fits-all phone

 

[tcypher]

so far the biggest challenge with the bike and a *droid is the bike refuses to connect if anything else is connected... and will be intermittent at best if something else is.

For example... a watch connected to your phone will absolutely prevent it (I've stopped wearing any of my BT watches when riding)
My helmet connected to my phone, is "mostly reliable, but not always" but preferred over the dash info
I have to always make sure to set things up in one of these two ways (while putting my gear on to save time):

1. turn on the bike
2. make sure it's had a moment to setup the BT radio (30secs to a min)
3. turn on your phones BT (if it's not already on) - wait for it to be active
4. open the HD app (it must be able to run in the background if you don't have the screen on and the program active/in the foreground)
*note that the APP can take a REALLY long time (sometimes a minute) to sync with HD connect FIRST
*make sure the screen updates it's details (indicating it has synced)

If all else fails, swap steps 1/2 with 3/4 (this one works best on my pixel3a)
1. turn on your phones BT (if it's not already on) - wait for it to be active
2. open the HD app (it must be able to run in the background if you don't have the screen on and the program active/in the foreground)
*note that the APP can take a REALLY long time (sometimes a minute) to sync with HD connect FIRST
*make sure the screen updates it's details (indicating it has synced)
3. turn on the bike
* it may take a moment for the bike's BT radio to setup (30secs to a min)

I've noticed diff *droids behave differently (I've tested, an ASUS, Samsung, S6/s8 and 10, Nexus 5 and pixel 3a

In the end, I'm finding that I'm relying more on hearing accurate directions in my helmet vs expecting the BT connection to be reliable.
This is all primarily due to the fact that I don't want to wait for the phone and bike to do all its handshaking and then setup my directions, only to have the app crash or bike/app disconnect ... it's just a PITA - as you well know.


Hope that helps

 

[CaliforniaKiwi]

I have a Huawei. I can connect 100% of the time, but have to follow a similar process.

1) turn on the bike,
2) open HD app,
3) open Bluetooth on my phone, connect to the bike, (it says it fails, I ignore it),
4) wait about 30 seconds, it connected.

At the same time, I will have a watch connected and my sena headset.

Like you said, we all have our rituals. Maybe this will help someone else.

 

[FalconFour]

How do you "connect to the bike"? There's no way to connect from the phone to the bike - tapping the bike's line item in the BT page doesn't do anything on any version of Android on devices I've tried. Like, it not only doesn't try connecting, but tapping it is completely inert - tap tap tap tap just makes me look like a big ole' dumb.

Seems like that should be the way it... might be intended to work (because that works on iOS), but not Android. 🤔 What version of Android is it, maybe?

 

[tcypher]

How do you "connect to the bike"? There's no way to connect from the phone to the bike - tapping the bike's line item in the BT page doesn't do anything on any version of Android on devices I've tried. Like, it not only doesn't try connecting, but tapping it is completely inert - tap tap tap tap just makes me look like a big ole' dumb.

Seems like that should be the way it... might be intended to work (because that works on iOS), but not Android. 🤔 What version of Android is it, maybe?

It's a passive connection. It does connect once (should even ask if you want to share contacts) 'less it's totally broken.

After the initial one, it sits as if it's not connected, despite the bike eventually showing the icon Blue instead of grey.

It is a weird function though.

I experience that exact situation more with low power BT devices.

 

[tcypher]

It's a passive connection. It does connect once (should even ask if you want to share contacts) 'less it's totally broken.

After the initial one, it sits as if it's not connected, despite the bike eventually showing the icon Blue instead of grey.

It is a weird function though.

I experience that exact situation more with low power BT devices.

*Edit, the instrument is surrounded by an aluminum case which is a signal inhibitor... meaning most of the BT really only passes"well" through the top glass. Not an ideal case if you ask me.

I get needing a tough exterior shell in case a rock hits it at 70, but there must be something that passes radio signals better. I mean, they make carbon fiber parts for this bike.