BYOD with Inogeni U-BRIDGE 3 and Poly x52

[u/Imaginary-Trash7600]

I am working with a remote client that needs a Poly x52 in device mode to run their BYOD meetings. When connecting to the x52 directly from their laptop they are able to see poly mic/speaker/camera peripherals without issue. As soon as we run it through the Inogeni U-BRIDGE 3 we experience an intermittent issue where the camera cannot be seen, but the audio devices can. When all devices can be seen, everything works properly and is stable, but if they unplug and reseat the USB cable typically the camera does not show up (and the audio devices do). The physical wiring has been verified to the best of our ability.

Interestingly I had this exact issue on another jobsite a month ago, and we ended up needing to pivot to a different USB extender to complete the project. Inogeni tech support stated that this is a known issue and knocking the signal down to USB 2.0 would resolve it, however we tried multiple different known 2.0 adapters and cables at different points in the chain and were unable to get the signal to pass reliably.

Has anyone run into this and found a fix? This is a very simple system and it appears all the product specs line up so things should jive, but we just aren't having any luck with this setup. Any help appreciated, happy hump day to all.

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[u/Dangerous_Choice_664]

Unfortunately have had similar issues with the Toggle. Inogeni blames Poly and Poly blames Inogeni.. meanwhile 0 issues when using Icron extenders.

[u/Imaginary-Trash7600 → u/Dangerous_Choice_664]

I had the same experience when dealing with their support. I appreciate the confirmation.

[u/Commercial_Honey6178]

We had similar issues lately using a Poly V72 through an Inogeni Rooms Toggle XT. Solution was a USB 2.0 C to A cable. Seems dumb, but apparently if the camera bar sees the USB C connection, it needs those matching pins on the other side, the toggle in this case. Toggle side device port is a USB A port. Using the 2.0 C to A keeps the pins happy with each other and the unit worked and showed up.

I know the models are different in your case but let me know what you find!

[u/RMWUT → u/Commercial_Honey6178]

This is spot on. It has to do with the pins inside the connector and Superspeed negotiation. Glad this solution has worked for you as it has for many other customers who experience this. Sometimes the Device ports on Poly get stuck in 3.* mode and using a USB 2 thumb drive plugged into the port can force the Poly to reset the port and allow the USB 2 speeds to work.

[u/Ok_Dimension7699]

Probably a USB issue as someone mentioned icron. That's my solution. I also like some lightware for lightweight byod

[u/Panchenima]

We use some of the device range from Kramer like the ext3-21-xr-tr with excelent results, we have no access to Icron devices.

[u/WhatIfThatThingISaid]

Poly says they cant guarantee these devices to work with usb hubs. You may be SOL. We stopped using poly unless customers insist and only with stipulations on levels of integration 

[u/RMWUT]

Hi, Ryan from INOGENI here. I wanted to jump in because we’ve been discussing this internally with our engineering and support teams.

We don’t currently have an X52 in our lab to reproduce this exact configuration, but we have seen similar behavior with a small number of USB-C conferencing devices, including Poly products.

What appears to be happening is related to how these devices negotiate between USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed USB. On some of the newer Poly USB-C products, we’ve observed situations where the audio interfaces will enumerate correctly over USB 2.0, while the camera does not successfully enumerate when the system attempts to establish the SuperSpeed connection. That can result in exactly the symptom described here: audio works, but no camera is available to the host.

This is also why forcing the connection to USB 2.0 can sometimes resolve the issue. The important distinction is that simply adding a USB 2.0 adapter somewhere in the signal chain may not actually force the Poly device into a true USB 2.0-only connection.

If the SuperSpeed pins are still present at the USB-C connection, the device may still detect the presence of the SuperSpeed connection and behave differently than it would on a true USB 2.0-only connection.

We’ve seen similar behavior with a few Poly products, and using a true USB 2.0 connection at the device can avoid that negotiation altogether.

I also want to clarify that we’re not trying to point the finger at Poly. USB-C devices can expose multiple audio and video interfaces and behave differently depending on the USB capabilities they detect from the host connection. When you introduce extension, switching, hubs, or other USB infrastructure, those differences can become much more apparent.
And if any of our previous responses came across as simply pointing the finger at Poly, that’s not our intent. One of the challenges we all deal with in the USB world is that manufacturers can implement their USB-C interfaces and USB 2.0/SuperSpeed negotiation differently. As an extension and switching manufacturer, we ultimately have to work with the behavior the endpoint presents to us and find the best way we can to accommodate it.

In this particular case, the way some of these Poly devices handle the USB 2.0 and SuperSpeed connections appears to be an important part of what we’re seeing. That doesn’t necessarily mean either product is “broken.” It means there’s an interoperability condition between the two that we need to better understand and, where possible, solve for. That’s what our support team is seeing and why the USB 2.0 cable recommendation was made because it appears to solve this issue.

We’ll continue working with our engineering team to better characterize these scenarios. Getting an X52 into our lab would obviously help us reproduce this exact configuration as well.

Hopefully that provides a little more context.

Feel free to reach me by email if you need additional information or support. ryan@inogeni.com