Poly Voyager 5200 UC - voice prompts not always working

[aquaxrunner]

Hello all,

I'm reaching out about another issue with my headset.  Please let me know if you have seen this issue.

I had a Plantronics 5200 from years back.  This was before the company was renamed to Poly.  Now I have a newer Poly 5200.  Both my old headset and my new headset had this same problem. 

The issue is voice prompts sometimes not working.  These are the voice prompts I am talking about:

Turn on/turn off:

When turning on, the voice says "Power On.  Talk time 6 hours.  PC Connected".  If I'm using the phone it will say Phone 1 connected instead of PC connected. Similarly, when turning off, the voice says "Power off."

Mute alert:
When press the mute button the voice says "mute on" or "mute off"

Mute reminder:

If I'm on mute, and I start talking, the voice will say "Muted."

These voice prompts are not working every time. 

It seems like when the headset is fully charged, these voice prompts stop working.  If the battery is less than 90% when I turn on the headset, then the voice prompts will work.  So if the headset is 100%, then I have to use it for a few minutes to decrease the battery level, power off/power on and then the voice prompts will start working again.

For example when turning on, the phone does connect, but there is no voice that says "power on".  And when I press the mute button it will mute, but there is no voice that says "mute on".  The functions are working, but there is no voice prompt.

Without the voice prompts, I am not sure of the status of the headset.  So if I power on and there is no voice prompt, then I have to check my phone or check my PC to make sure bluetooth is on and the headset is connected. 

Similarly, if I press the mute button but there is no voice prompt, then I have to say "can you hear me?" and wait for other parties on the call to respond.  If I am trying to unmute, I have to say "can you hear me?" and wait, and no one responds so I press the button again and say "can you hear me?" and wait for a response.  It's very disruptive on calls, especially when multiple parties are participating in a conversation.

From my experience it seems this issue only happens when the headset is charged to 100%.  So it's only an issue when I am using it initially after charging.  After the battery goes less than 90%, then if I power off and power on, the voice prompts will start working again.

This same issue was a problem with my old headset.  I thought maybe the headset was defective.  Now I have a new headset and the same problem is happening.  I think it might be a firmware issue.  But I always use the latest firmware update, and I cannot go back to a previous firmware version.

[aquaxrunner]

I have used Plantronics/Poly for so many years.  But this issue is really a deal breaker for me.  I am thinking about switching to another brand.

[aquaxrunner · Accepted solution]

After a lot of research and experimentation I think I found an explanation.  The cause of the issue seems to be with Smart Sensors feature.

If I turn on the headset and there is no voice prompt, then I can press and hold the Call button and Mute button simultaneously for 5 seconds.  This toggles Smart Sensors.  I will hear "Smart Sensors off", immediately followed by "Power on.  Battery high.  Phone 1 connected."  

It seems toggling Smart Sensors off immediately fixed the voice prompts.  

I don't need smart sensors so I turned off the setting in the Poly Lens app. 

So far it seems if I keep Smart Sensors feature disabled, then voice prompts will work as expected.