Parrot SK4000 vs TomTom 530

derryuk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 06, 2009 Posts: 9

I bought a Parrot SK4000 motorbike headset a while ago and after an initial play a round with it and my TT530 found some issues so put it away in it’s box until needed. I am about to go on a biking holiday and now need the Parrot and TT.

I could get the two paired but it was all a bit iffy (even with Hififix) and I was never 100% certain I knew what I was doing.

Deciding to go back to the beginning I did a hard reset on the TT. From then on I couldn’t get the TT to see the Parrot at all no matter what I did (Hififix included.) However I discovered the speaker preference option of ‘HiFi device’ and when enabled the SK400 and TT530 would connect every time with no input from me. Great.

Nearly. I went out for a ride and immediately the Parrot and TT lost contact. Back home I played around and discovered that if the TT said nowt for longer than 30 seconds the SK4000 reverted to ‘telephone’ even though it wasn’t paired with one (only the TT.) This is obviously a 'feature' in the SK4000 software to connect to a telephone that doesn't exist!

In this situation I had to switch back to Bluetooth audio on the Parrot every time with the remote. I soon discovered that if I set the TT to play mp3s (to get music interspersed with travel directions) then the two would remain locked together.

I don’t mind listening to music but I am not sure I want to the whole time on holiday. Sometimes I like silence (difficult to achieve on a motorbike but you know what I mean.) So I got a wav file and cut-out 500ms of audio using audacity, created a new wav file with 25 seconds of silence and added the short audio blip to it. Saved it as mp3 on my TT and set to repeat. Now the two will keep connection in almost silence. Hurrah!

OK, I now realise I should have bought a Scala Rider (the Parrot was cheap for a reason.)

Derry.

mikealder · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:23 pm Post subject:

As you have found a way to make it work the only improvement I can suggest is an mp3 track that is totally silent, you don't need a beep every 25 seconds or so. If the mp3 player is active it will keep the bluetooth channel active, it doesn't need any actual noise to do this - Mike

Andy_P · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 8:04 pm Post subject:

I just so happen to still have a totally silent mp3 track on my website, from the last time this cropped up.

If it's any use to you, you're welcome to it

(Right click and "save as...")
Silence is Golden.mp3

(If, in the future, the link stops working, just PM me for it)[/url]
_________________
"Settling in nicely" ;-)

derryuk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 06, 2009 Posts: 9

Thanks guys I'll give it a go.

Derry.

derryuk · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 06, 2009 Posts: 9

Didn't work for me. With just the silence file the Parrot reverted to 'Telephone'. It seems to need that little burst of noise every 25 seconds to prevent that. I say noise, with my file it is so brief its the merest burp.

Derry.

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