Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

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typegrim1
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Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by typegrim1 »

Hi there,

I have a Garmin Zumo 660, and wondered if it's possible to pair it to two bluetooth headsets at once.

My wife rides pillion, and it would also be handy at times for her to hear the commands from the Garmin.

Is there a way to do this?

I did wonder if it's possible to pair the Garmin to the headset as a phone, and then try to music share.

Or purchase a bluetooth splitter and pair the Garmin to the splitter, then the splitter to the two headsets.

Any advice would be much appeciated.

Best wishes,

Graham
jfheath
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Re: Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by jfheath »

I'm sorry - I cannot give the response that you are looking for.

It has been years since I stopped using the 660 - it was a brilliant bit of kit, but slow compared to more recent devices. I never used BT - I had an autocom wired setup at the time.

But I can respond with related stuff.

Even if the 660 could pair to two headsets (I suspect that it cannot route the instructions to both simultaneously), it is unlikely that the pillion headset can pair to your headset and to the 660. So you may lose rider - pillion communication. ***

I don't know anything about BT splitters, but you may need to ensure that they worked in two directions in order to retain phone capability.

Later BT headsets have the facility to relay music / sound coming from on source to the rider headset - eg the GPS - to the second headset. I've never used it but the documentation for my Cardo Edge provides this facility. There is a small but significant delay in the BT channels so a double delay is possible if the sound is relayed. Not a problem for music or instructions, but for speech it could be problematic.

If you wanted to take that route I could experiment - but I have only the 595 and XT zumos to play with. Cardo Edge Duo is not cheap, but they have been good so far for us.
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
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Peobody
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Re: Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by Peobody »

My experience with connecting two Cardo Packtalk Bold headsets to my XT is that I was able to do it but the second headset connection was dropped after a few minutes. That happened to work out fine for me because a few minutes was all it took for my wife to decide she didn't like hearing the XT.
I don't know about the 660, but with the XT and my Cardo, there is no way to give preference to intercom. The voice navigation from the XT is so disruptive to intercomm communications that I now ride with voice nav disabled whenever riding with an intercom connection.
2008 Honda GL1800 Goldwing
1995 Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours
zūmo XT linked to Cardo Packtalk Bold and iPhone SE.
jfheath
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Re: Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by jfheath »

Edited post. I don't know if @typegrim1 is still tuning in to this thread. He only made this one post a month ago. I was just trawling the unanswered posts ... !

@Peobody See here for the way I set up the Packtalk Edge and the XT / Phone. It works perfectly - but uses the mesh connection for rider/pillion. BT for the XT as a second phone. First phone channel is left for programming the headset, and deleted afterwards.

The Bold is very similar in many respects.

Download the pdf

viewtopic.php?p=16102#p16102
Attachments
PackTalk Edge XT Android.pdf
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Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC
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Peobody
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Re: Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by Peobody »

jfheath wrote: 29 Oct 2023 15:45 Download the pdf

viewtopic.php?p=16102#p16102
We identified that the option to disable phone calls in the bluetooth settings of the phone only exists in the Android OS. That one option allows yours (Android) to work and mine (Apple) not to.
2008 Honda GL1800 Goldwing
1995 Kawasaki ZG1000 Concours
zūmo XT linked to Cardo Packtalk Bold and iPhone SE.
jfheath
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Re: Garmin 660 to two bluetooth headsets at once

Post by jfheath »

Yes we did - but that wasn't quite the same thing - you were talking about one particular feature of the phone.

In this particular case I am telling BT to forget the Cardo Edge completely. To unpair it and not to couple up with it again unless I want it to.
Thats why I leave the first phone channel free on the Edge. I use the XT on the second phone channel, so that I don't accidentally delete it.
In normal use, my edge has NO BT connectivity with the phone. Only with the XT.

This gives me rider / pillion coms via the mesh system. BT to my XT for satnav guidance / music. Phone calls via the XT which is linked to the phone.

This seems to be what the OP (@typegrim1) wanted ?

In theory, the phone can hear everything I am saying - through the XT. But in practice the phone is locked. I haven't unlocked it to test whether this route allows the cardo intercom to control the phone. WHether the XT shuts the voice to the phone down when it is not in a call, I don't know.
But I don't want that. My curiosity only extends so far !!
Have owned Zumo 550, 660 == Now have Zumo XT2, XT, 595, 590, Headache
Use Basecamp (mainly), MyRouteApp (sometimes), Competent with Tread for XT2, Can use Explore for XT - but it offers nothing that I want !

Links: Zumo 590/5 & BC . . . Zumo XT & BC