Forum Discussion
MicrosoftPlease share your experience with tethered cellular
We've recently added a new docs page to include more information on connecting HoloLens to cellular networks. You can find it at https://aka.ms/HL5G. While hotspot / WiFi is sufficient for most use cases, there are still times when tethering provides some benefit (for example ultra low latency or Azure Remote Rendering).
Though we're unable to provide a curated list of cellular devices that are compatible with HoloLens 2, we're hoping folks in our community can share your own experience with the devices that have worked for you.
Thanks in advance for sharing, and thank you for being part of the community!
I usually use my Samsung Galaxy S20+ 5G with mobile hotspot for off-site meetings where the HoloLens 2 is connected over Wi-Fi to the phone's hotspot. I just tried it with USB tethering and it seems to be working as well. USB Tethering can be great to avoid more Wi-Fi inference in certain environments with lots of signals around but keep in mind that the phone will be charged using the HoloLens 2 battery if you connect it with USB. Would be good if this can be turned off.
- Interesting, I am seeing similar behaviour across a range of devices. I have new USB dongles arriving this week and a few more handsets to try including the latest Motorola Evolve.
- Hey Jared, Just reporting that we have successfully tested with a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 mobile phone with a USB-C tethering To HoloLens 2.
- so is this 5G and with a double screen with full AR capabilities in the Remote Assist app? This is what i was aiming for with the Surface Duo but then there was no 5G and no ARCore support 🙂
- can confirm Surface Duo working fine too as a USB tethered internet connection (4G), but no ARCore support so basic functionality in Remote Assist mobile app only
- hey Jared, we've tested successfully with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 mobile phone, plus collaborated with Netgear to test with their Nighthawk M1 (up to 1Gbps) and M2 (up to 2Gbps) mobile internet routers. We suggest the Netgear devices, as opposed to mobile phones, to our clients for a few reasons:
- avoid any risk of damage/drain of battery of a mobile phone, which may be needed for more important reasons later, e.g. emergency calling or location tracking
- not all users may have a suitable mobile phone (including appropriate data SIM) issued to them or that they're willing to use, whereas a dedicated mobile internet router and SIM is purposely there for its need then and can be shared between other users, especially if the HL2 is shared
- they're cheaper than most mobile phones
KEY THING TO NOTE: due to the USB-C standard, the HoloLens 2 will always try and charge the tethered device, which obviously has an impact on the battery life. We reported this to engineering a while back and unfortunately there's no way to get around it. For this reason, we also advise customers to consider something like the Belkin 'BOOSTCHARGE' 20K power bank (we collaborated with Belkin to find a suitable product for HL2) to enable remote workers to have easy access to mobile charging (even whilst using the HL2 if they're not using the USB-C port for anything else). I've also got a Galaxy S20+ and Microsoft Surface Duo phone here currently that i can test if that's any use?- jbienz
Thank you wez_p, JR_Celona and Rene Schulte. Really appreciate the details shared. Feedback heard on the charging part. I've asked if there's anything we can do but haven't heard back yet. Not sure if that's even something that can be addressed in the firmware. It looks like there are some USB-C hubs that claim to do pass-through power delivery. I wonder if you could use one of those to charge and do data at the same time. Understand of course that would be a bit bulky.
I have an unlocked Samsung S10 I am attempting to connect to HL2 via USB-C. It has not showed up as a connection as yet, can you share your specific Note 10 settings?
I am also currently testing the following devices with a goal of connecting HL2 to CBRS LTE networks;
Inseego Mifi 8000 - Can select USB Tether mode when HL2 connects but it does not show as available interface.
AMIT IDG120 - Not detected, tried both Windows Moe and Chromebook Mode
Sercomm Wingle - Not detected even though it is an RNDIS compatible device.
I'll share any progress as I work with the various vendors to develop a working solution.Thanks all!
JR
- I have confirmed the Sercomm USB Wingle uses RNDIS driver on two Win10 devices, a desktop and a Zebra Tablet. I saw Ethernet appear for a fraction of a second but then immediately went to 'No Internet' status. No Ethernet interfaces showed up in settings.
- Hi,
May I ask, how did you connect your Nighthawk M2 to the Hololens 2? Was it through USB tethering? we would like to use the same setup to get high speed 5G on our Hololens 2.
Thanks!
Zaidzaid_alsabbag yes we tested both USB-C tethering (cables should be no more than 1.8-2m in length and obviously support data transfer - we tested both Belkin and Targus cables for this) and also using the wi-fi hotspot. The M2 isn't 5G though, only 4G/LTE
dcanepaHello All,
By any chance has anybody managed to connect a device to a Stand Alone (SA) private 5G network and then used that device so the HoloLens could connect to? A customer got in touch that they want to do a PoC with HL and 5G but that the network is a private SA 5G network and not a public one. So far they haven't been able to find a device that connects to one of these networks. The 5G enabled mobile phones can't connect to it, thus they haven't been able to use that as a hotspot/tethering option.
- dcanepaJR_Celona,
Is there a place that I could contact you to ask you about the dongle/solution you mentioned here:
https://docs.celona.io/en/articles/5132236-microsoft-hololens-2-headset-on-celona
I'm wondering if this could help the customer that was asking about private 5G networks- Sure thing, PM sent .
- I can confirm that ZTE MF833V does NOT work with Hololens2 (via usb-c to usb-a adapter).
The HL2 powers up the ZTE and sees it plugged in, but does not get internet.
Will keep searching for "RNDIS" compatible 4G/5G dongle and post if I find any.We've got the Telit FN980 (5G) running with hololens now.
FN980 supports RNDIS driver.
You have to configure the RNDIS Mode only initialy with AT Commands over any computer.Enable RNDIS USB Mode:
- Check Current Mode: AT#USBCFG?
- Enable RNDIS Mode: AT#USBCFG=1Here ist a List with possible Modes:
0: RNDIS + DIAG + ADB + NMEA + MODEM + MODEM + AUX
1: DIAG + ADB + RmNet + NMEA + MODEM + MODEM + AUX
2: DIAG + ADB + MBIM +| NMEA + MODEM + MODEM + AUX
3: DIAG + ADB + ECM + NMEA + MODEM + MODEM + AUX
Now attach FN980 to hololens and it should appear as Ethernet Adapter.For auto connection to cellular networks the Autoconn feature of FN980 can be enabled after an APN was configured.
Enable Autoconn:
AT#ICMAUTOCONN=<apn-number>,<1: enable, 0:disable>Example:
AT#ICMAUTOCONN=1,1There is unhappily a problem with the power supply over usb. While transfering at high data rates (mainly upload), the power supply over Hololens USB-C Port is not enough. Transfering small data on low data rates is working without any additional power supply.
- jbienzWow, very detailed response dan1-m. Thank you so much for sharing. Have you found a way to provide additional power if needed? I'm aware of USB pigtales that split power, but that's usually for charging the host device while using another.
I can report that the HoloLens 2 works great tethered over USB-C to an AT&T Netgear Nighthawk mobile hotspot.
It does not work with an iPhone 11 Pro Max tethered over an apple certified USBC-Lightning cable. The iPhone draws power from the headset, and the headset doesn't show an ethernet indicator and a tethering prompt doesn't appear on the iPhone.- We tested the Huawei E3372h-320 on HL2 and it did not work - even though a Win10 desktop recognizes it as RNDIS device and it works without driver installation.
Maybe it has to be configured somehow that it works on HL2?- jbienz
retosan Unfortunately all RNDIS devices aren't created equal. Sometimes additional steps are necessary. We recommend using WiFi HotSpot as this works just fine for virtually all use cases. The only time when tethering really helps is in extreme low-latency scenarios like Azure Remote Rendierng.
If you can't use HotSpot, devices that appear to the HoloLens as a USB-C Ethernet adapter work best. If it's possible, please try one of those or try a different RNDIS device.
Lastly, if you need to use this exact RNDIS device, and if not being able to use this exact RNDIS device is blocking a large deployment of HoloLens 2, please let me know. I can't promise anything, but if we're talking about a large scale rollout we can investigate what might be needed to support that specific RNDIS device.
- Has anybody tried the 5G Dongle M210? Its documentation states that if the equipment with can act as RNDIS HOST, the 5G Dongle could be plugged in and used directly. Would it be compatible with the HL2 then?
https://www.hocell.com/productinfo/566002.html - Does anyone have update about the supported devices? I mean some USB Routers or something like this, I need something small to get attached to the HL2. Thank you guys!
- I have looked closely at 2 options - one is not yet in production, the other is the FN980 dan1-m mentioned earlier, but that one requires some work and more advanced knowledge.
No true 5G dongles are really available commercially yet in a USB form factor - your best bet is taking an M.2 and fitting it into an adapter. The SD X55 chipset is being widely in the US used so anything based off that has decent community support.
Power will likely be a big issue - I saw my HL drain about 17% in 10 minutes just keeping my dev kit for the FN980 powered. Haven't figured that out yet without building a custom PCB or adding on a splitter + battery pack.
