viper001 Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 OK, I think I may have found a new bug. And this one is really easy to reproduce. For the record my car is running 2.7 software. So I'm traveling this past weekend with friends so I have the audio system turned "Off". This is confirmed with the screen saying the system is Off. I'm still using the Nav, and occasionally switching between that and the Travellink screens. Each time I would switch between those systems it would turn my audio system back on! No lies. Sometimes it would come on to my USB stick, other times it would come on with the last radio station I was listening to. Each time I would hit the power button in the middle of the volume knob to turn it back off, but it was kind of embarrassing, especially when I was trying to show off to begin with. So has anyone else seen this one? Or am I doing something wrong? I can't imagine the later would be the case, why would switching from nav to the weather map require turning the radio on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 OK, I think I may have found a new bug. And this one is really easy to reproduce. For the record my car is running 2.7 software. So I'm traveling this past weekend with friends so I have the audio system turned "Off". This is confirmed with the screen saying the system is Off. I'm still using the Nav, and occasionally switching between that and the Travellink screens. Each time I would switch between those systems it would turn my audio system back on! No lies. Sometimes it would come on to my USB stick, other times it would come on with the last radio station I was listening to. Each time I would hit the power button in the middle of the volume knob to turn it back off, but it was kind of embarrassing, especially when I was trying to show off to begin with. So has anyone else seen this one? Or am I doing something wrong? I can't imagine the later would be the case, why would switching from nav to the weather map require turning the radio on? Does the radio need to be on to get voice commands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 Does the radio need to be on to get voice commands? I never considered that. Admittedly when I think back, some of the time I was doing voice commands, and some of the time I was pressing the screen. It seems like I can recall it doing this (turning the radio on) even when I was just pressing the screen but maybe it was only happening during voice changes. I'll experiment a little on the way home and report back. Even if it is only happening for voice commands it still seems kind of odd to me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 11, 2011 Report Share Posted April 11, 2011 I never considered that. Admittedly when I think back, some of the time I was doing voice commands, and some of the time I was pressing the screen. It seems like I can recall it doing this (turning the radio on) even when I was just pressing the screen but maybe it was only happening during voice changes. I'll experiment a little on the way home and report back. Even if it is only happening for voice commands it still seems kind of odd to me... Sorry - I meant for the system to give YOU voice commands. It would see that the head unit would have to be on for the speakers to work. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Sorry - I meant for the system to give YOU voice commands. It would see that the head unit would have to be on for the speakers to work. Just a thought. So I'm not sure if this is indeed a bug or not, but it's really easy to reproduce from what I found out last night in the driveway. Basically, turn off the audio system, press the voice button, do ANY voice related command successfully, and when that command is completed the radio will have turned itself back on in the process. That doesn't seem correct to me as I'm not sure why the radio state would change just because I issued a navigation or Travellink command, but there you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 So I'm not sure if this is indeed a bug or not, but it's really easy to reproduce from what I found out last night in the driveway. Basically, turn off the audio system, press the voice button, do ANY voice related command successfully, and when that command is completed the radio will have turned itself back on in the process. That doesn't seem correct to me as I'm not sure why the radio state would change just because I issued a navigation or Travellink command, but there you go. Doesn't the system give you verbal feedback in that case? What does it do if the radio is off and you go into navigation mode and get verbal nav directions. Does that cause the radio to turn on? It could be a bug or it could just be that it needs the radio on to activate the speakers for responses to your commands and to give you instructions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 12, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Doesn't the system give you verbal feedback in that case? What does it do if the radio is off and you go into navigation mode and get verbal nav directions. Does that cause the radio to turn on? It could be a bug or it could just be that it needs the radio on to activate the speakers for responses to your commands and to give you instructions. The navigation system was running and giving directions the whole trip. That didn't seem to turn the radio on. I could also make a hands-free call on my phone and there was no radio turned on afterwards. So those would seem to be two instances where the car could "talk" to me without also turning the radio on. But pressing the talk button and issuing a navigation, climate, or Travellink command would definetly turn the radio on when that command was finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 The navigation system was running and giving directions the whole trip. That didn't seem to turn the radio on. I could also make a hands-free call on my phone and there was no radio turned on afterwards. So those would seem to be two instances where the car could "talk" to me without also turning the radio on. But pressing the talk button and issuing a navigation, climate, or Travellink command would definetly turn the radio on when that command was finished. Still could be "normal" - there might be some internal reason to turn on the radio to receive voice commands. Maybe the voice recognition module is actually in the head unit. Probably never know for sure. Instead of turning the radio off, just turn the volume all the way down and leave it on. Then you'll never notice it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 Still could be "normal" - there might be some internal reason to turn on the radio to receive voice commands. Maybe the voice recognition module is actually in the head unit. Probably never know for sure. Instead of turning the radio off, just turn the volume all the way down and leave it on. Then you'll never notice it. The "audio" section does not need to be on to get voice command nor issue them. But the "audio" is always ready. You can take "106.7 FM" and it will tune if the radio is off. Turning the volume down is a viable workaround, but should not be considered SOP. OP indicated that it will sometimes turn the USB back on and play it. This doesn't seem like the most efficient use of resources (CPU RAM BUS etc). What viper001 is coming up with seems like a reproducible "bug" I haven't had this exact issue, but I have had one where the audio just would not turn off even though the confirmation beep occurred. I had to drive half a mile to let it sort itself out, but eventually it did. I'm going to try to reproduce this behavior you found on my lunch break today and will report back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted April 12, 2011 Report Share Posted April 12, 2011 The "audio" section does not need to be on to get voice command nor issue them. But the "audio" is always ready. You can take "106.7 FM" and it will tune if the radio is off. Turning the volume down is a viable workaround, but should not be considered SOP. OP indicated that it will sometimes turn the USB back on and play it. This doesn't seem like the most efficient use of resources (CPU RAM BUS etc). What viper001 is coming up with seems like a reproducible "bug" I haven't had this exact issue, but I have had one where the audio just would not turn off even though the confirmation beep occurred. I had to drive half a mile to let it sort itself out, but eventually it did. I'm going to try to reproduce this behavior you found on my lunch break today and will report back. I can recreate the situation. Did it at lunch just now. But I'm not sure I would classify it as a "bug", but more of a design flaw. There is absolutely no reason (from a consumer's standpoint) that the "audio" aka "radio" should turn on every time a voice command is issued. It is just ludicrous and inefficient. I will make sure to bring this up during my call to Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 I can recreate the situation. Did it at lunch just now. But I'm not sure I would classify it as a "bug", but more of a design flaw. There is absolutely no reason (from a consumer's standpoint) that the "audio" aka "radio" should turn on every time a voice command is issued. It is just ludicrous and inefficient. I will make sure to bring this up during my call to Ford. Could be just a bug but it could also be an unintended side effect - e.g. the voice input needs power but it's not directly accessible so turning on the radio is the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem. The reason may just not be obvious to the end user. Or it's just a simple bug. No way for us to really know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 13, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 Could be just a bug but it could also be an unintended side effect - e.g. the voice input needs power but it's not directly accessible so turning on the radio is the quickest and easiest way to solve the problem. The reason may just not be obvious to the end user. Or it's just a simple bug. No way for us to really know. You are probably right in your assessment as to why it gets turned on. But even if the audio system needs to be turned on to perform a voice command it could also be systematically turned back off when the command is completed. I can't see any reason for the original state of the audio to be opposite when the voice event is finished. I think this is a bug any way you slice it. Admittedly, with some of the other bugs some are experiencing this is probably not a high priortity issue, but at least from the programmers perspective it is really easy to reproduce when they do decide to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted April 13, 2011 Report Share Posted April 13, 2011 You are probably right in your assessment as to why it gets turned on. But even if the audio system needs to be turned on to perform a voice command it could also be systematically turned back off when the command is completed. I can't see any reason for the original state of the audio to be opposite when the voice event is finished. I think this is a bug any way you slice it. Admittedly, with some of the other bugs some are experiencing this is probably not a high priortity issue, but at least from the programmers perspective it is really easy to reproduce when they do decide to fix it. Hopefully this is something they addressed in v2.8... I'm starting to hear about this update here and there. One person says his Sport is going to ship with 2.8 and then the website says updates are available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 I noticed a new twist with this issue in my car over the weekend. Once again I had the radio turned off as I was having a conversation with the passengers instead. My current phone will not do the SYNC texting functionality, but I still get the audible noise through the system when I received a new text message. After playing my "text notification" noise, that also turned my audio system back on (to static actually this time as I had had the radio off for a long time and was now out of range of the previous station). This *has* to be a bug, why in the world would people want their radio turning itself back on like this? I mentioned this issue to one of the SYNC chat techs a week or so ago when I was asking about something else. They told me this was normal behavior of the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted April 25, 2011 Report Share Posted April 25, 2011 I noticed a new twist with this issue in my car over the weekend. Once again I had the radio turned off as I was having a conversation with the passengers instead. My current phone will not do the SYNC texting functionality, but I still get the audible noise through the system when I received a new text message. After playing my "text notification" noise, that also turned my audio system back on (to static actually this time as I had had the radio off for a long time and was now out of range of the previous station). This *has* to be a bug, why in the world would people want their radio turning itself back on like this? I mentioned this issue to one of the SYNC chat techs a week or so ago when I was asking about something else. They told me this was normal behavior of the system. I guess retarded is normal to that guy. This needs to be addressed by Ford. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 I can't remember the last time I actually turned off the radio in my vehicle. I'll turn the volume down every once in a while but I never turn it off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choff1138 Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 I can't remember the last time I actually turned off the radio in my vehicle. I'll turn the volume down every once in a while but I never turn it off. drive thru... just because it is faster than turning it down... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 drive thru... just because it is faster than turning it down... I just hold the volume down button - it works so fast it's basically a mute feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 I just hold the volume down button - it works so fast it's basically a mute feature. The knob on the Sony HU is large and quite fast at attenuation, so I use it. But there are times when I'd like to just turn it off. If my daughter is in the car, I will turn it off completely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 The knob on the Sony HU is large and quite fast at attenuation, so I use it. But there are times when I'd like to just turn it off. If my daughter is in the car, I will turn it off completely. That same knob has a spot right in the middle that indicates "Off" which is what I use to turn off the radio. Pressing it momentarily causes the music to cease playing and the red screen corner says "Audio Off" which is what I would expect. Even the glass tubed 50 pound Ford radio in my 1951 F-1 pickup has a button that indicates Off and works pretty much the same way. If Ford is going to redesign the concept of turning off a radio I think there should be some kind of an educational supplement supplied in the owner's manual as I think the vast majority of consumers expect a radio to stay off when you press the Off button. I know I'm being a bit of a smart alec, but seeing this as a feature instead of the bug that it is is kidding ourselves. In the grand scheme of things it's a minor one with several workarounds, but it really should be fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viper001 Posted May 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 I had my 2011 Edge updated to SYNC version 2.8 last Friday and I can happily report that this issue has been fixed with that release of software. So progress is being made. I was able to perform any number of voice commands with the audio system set to off and the system made no attempts to turn it on automatically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cal3thousand Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 I had my 2011 Edge updated to SYNC version 2.8 last Friday and I can happily report that this issue has been fixed with that release of software. So progress is being made. I was able to perform any number of voice commands with the audio system set to off and the system made no attempts to turn it on automatically. Very nice. Looks like I'm going to make an appointment soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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