HackPerception

@EvanU5 - The base-station issue that's most feasible to self-repair is re-gluing a detached lens from the laser aperture - you can usually hear that lens floating about the device. Most other types of repairs require specialized equipment and usually requires the station to undergo a precision re-calibration process. @TomCgcmfc - That "fix" isn't really a fix. It simply reverts the firmware of the station back to an earlier version that lacks self-diagnostics and internal error reporting features. The issue will still be be present - it just doesn't get reported. In some failure states, this "fix" will an allow a rotor to emit bad sweep data rather than cutting power to the affected rotor/diode which can more negatively impact tracking than if only one of the rotors was outputting sweeps. The Valve employee who initially shared that procedure has publicly posted about regretting that they shared that procedure due to how much confusion it's caused on the care side. Most people who are using this "fix" still actually have an issue with their station but it certainly can help in some cases where firmware becomes corrupted or an update fails.

@TomCgcmfc You're partially correct here - I am typoing w to v. The requirement is 21w for Cosmos, 17w for Pro/Vive. Thank you for pointing out my error. That said, you're also partially incorrect - 5v is the standard potential for the USB standard - QC3.0 is a proprietary USB fork. QC charge devices dynamically vary the supply voltage based on a real-time negotiation that occurs between the host and the device. You can't use other rapid charge technologies with the Vive Wireless Adapter because it's specifically based of Qualcomm's technology and the device and the host need to be able to handshake, authenticate, and intelligently negotiate the supply voltage.

@SimonBritto - Reflections are the top cause for grey screens which usually indicate a tracking issue so you'll first you'll want to rule them out. To do so, generate a system report via SteamVR -> Generate System Report. Save it as a .txt, then open the document in notepad (or SteamVR's system report viewer) and search for the following term "back-facing". Here's what a reflection problem looks like in a system report: Sun Jun 26 2016 23:02.:09.676 - lighthouse: LHR-4E8EF209 H: Dropped 32312 back-facing hits, 2069 non-clustered hits during the previous tracking session You'll also be able to scan through and look for other tracking error messages - if something's wrong, you'll usually see the message repeated a bunch indicating it's a problem. If that doesn't shed light on anything, you'll want to look at where your antenna is pointed. It should be at least 3 feet off of the ground and pointed toward your playspace. It has a 150x150 degree FOV and a range of ~6m. You'll also want to check to see if the basestations are going into standby. Sometimes the stations will go into power management mode and shut off leading to a grey screen. If you plug in the linkbox's power and connect it via USB to the PC (without the HMDI/DP) you'll enable SteamVR to communicate with your basestations via bluetooth in wireless mode for station management. You can try going into the task manager and seeing if your CPU/GPU constrained when the grey screens occur - you'll be able to tell by the utilization being over 96%. @TomCgcmfc - is right about overclocking and voltage control, it is known to increase instability with VR hardware, specifically the wireless PCI-E card.

@EvanU5 - Basestations are high-precision mechanical devices that spin around at high-speeds. Each rotor in a basestation rotates at ~3600 rpm (~216,000 rotations per hour) so depending on your usage and a handful of other factors, they can eventually encounter wear and tear and other mechanical issues which can only be fixed by physically servicing them. It's simply a trade-off of being a mechanically based tracking system (with the benefit being higher fidelity tracking than other consumer systems). The newer 2.0 basestations are mechanical devices and thus share very similar constraints - issues just report under a different error code (usually a flashing red light) and there is one rotor rather than two. This is actually why we went with optical tracking as the default tracking mechanism for Vive Cosmos. Although optical tracking currently not as precise as basestation tracking, it doesn't rely on expensive mechanical devices such as base stations and offers an overall lower barrier of entry and maintenance than current externally tracked solutions Warranties very by country so I can't speak to your specific case. I'll PM you an address you can email for a second opinion.

@Kerouwhack - It really depends on what you're developing and your business model. Generally speaking, if you're developing an HMD-proper, past a certain point you'll need to use the SteamVR HDK and become a SteamVR licensee so you'll adhere to Valve's legal framework for SteamVR usage. You're more than welcome to PM me with some info about your use case and your business - I can assess it and give you a better idea of what if any resources may be available.

@TomCgcmfc - The delay was completely unrelated to Cosmos. Cosmos should definitely be supported - I tested the build on Cosmos several times during pre-release and will validate on the production release. @hamez88 - Infinity is an opt-in subscription model - in this case, we couldn't reach a deal with Cloudhead for inclusion into Infinity as it doesn't currently fit their business model and long term plan for Pistol Whip. Another way to think about it is that by purchasing Pistol Whip for their asking price, you're supporting their studio and making future game development sustainable for the studio; most VR developers like Cloudhead are still indie developers so every purchase matters to their bottom line. There are hundreds of other titles available in Infinity to select from, many of which are over $15 msrp - if you keep track of what you play you'd likely track a decent amount of savings that outweigh the subscription cost.

@DomnikBritto - Our official support stance is that only the stock battery pack is supported as we can't QA other OEM's battery packs and assure them to not have a risk of causing damage to the HMD/wireless adapter. The requirements for the battery pack are as follows: The battery pack needs to be QC 3.0/4.0 enabled. If it does not carry an official Qualcom Quick Charge certification it will not work at all. If using a Vive or Vive Pro, it needs to be able to deliver 17w, if using Cosmos it needs to support 21w. Note that bigger power packs will be much bulkier and heavier and may take upto a full day to fully charge if you're not charging it with a QC - certified charger. The stock battery pack is the best trade off between capacity, size, weight, and recharge time when it specifically comes to VR applications - you'll definitely notice a heavier batter in longer play sessions. Reputable brands are Anker and Ravpower although I can't point to a specific model for the reasons mentioned above.

@SaltySpice It's worth mentioning that gaming performance is better across the board with Win 10. The amount of perf win will hardware dependent but you'll see at least a marginal boost across all gaming applications including VR.

While there are slightly different design changes in the linkboxes, I'm not not really sure what the practical differences are in terms of day to day usage are and I use them interchangeably in my lab so I'd be curious to have a firmer answer on this myself. I'd also note that wireless is hot swappable with wired. If you plug in a linkbox with a display cable attached, you'll tell the tech stack to look for a wired HMD rather than a wireless one. For my setups, I keep a linkbox plugged in with USB and power only so I can use the basestation management tools and when I switch to wired, I just plug in the display cable to the linkbox. I often leave the HMD side wireless adapter on the HMD when doing short tests with wired but realistically you can fully switch between wireless and tethered in 2-3 minutes with some practice. I'm not sure what happens if you try to use a 21v pack with the Pro. A safe response would be to only use accessories for the devices they're intended for - I'm not sure what the real-world risk of damage is.

@SaltySpice I've never tested this firsthand because Win 8.1 is super old at this point but I think the installer will not proceed due to an OS mismatch. There are Windows 10 specific dependencies for the Cosmos runtime for instance with how DirectX works different on Win 10. @stvnxu May be able to track down more specific info.

@Anrock, I'll reach out and ask for more info on this. It has very limited availability so it's not something we're familiar with in the US. @stvnxu

@David_Xuefeng, You drive the Vive Focus via the WaveSDK. You can download the SDK's here: https://developer.vive.com/resources/knowledgebase/wave-sdk/ Here's the WaveSDK's documentation: https://hub.vive.com/storage/docs/en-us/ You'd basically integrate the WaveSDK onto your build and then sideload it on the Focus to execute the APK. @Tony PH Lin

@Thoradin - Hmm - that's a tricky one then... The HMD isn't constructed in such a way that there are any major internal components behind the OLEDs that should cause a linear burn. Here's what the back of the panel looks like via iFixIt's guide; there's just a flex cable on the backside. The panels are separated from the main PCB by a plastic mid-frame and all of the components are either square shaped or have EMI shields so I'd imagine any sort of failed component to cause a more rectangular or radial damage pattern rather than a linear one (and would likely brick the HMD). In any case, the damage does appear to be pretty substantial and localized to that panel 😕 It's the type of thing that probably couldn't be isolated further without a physical inspection.

@Thoradin This unfortunately looks very consistent with what you'd see if you left the HMD near a window and the sun (or a reflection from the sun) was able to be focused by the lenses onto the OLED panel. The lenses in HMDs can act as a magnifying glass when exposed to sunlight. As the sun traces across it's path in the sky, it burns a line across the panel. It's a pretty distinct pattern and this appears to match it.

@rocio, I've created a support ticket with the email address associated with your forum account. Please be on the lookout for that thread.

@hamez88, Cloudhead is still working on ironing out a few technical things for the Viveport release - there should be a formal update on the release very soon.

@viacom-wes The first thing that comes to mind is generational compatibility. There are two generations of trackers and two generations of basestations currently in circulation. Trackers with grey Vive logos can only be used with 1.0 basestations Trackers with blue Vive logos are the newer SKU (tracker 2018) and are compatible with both 1.0 and 2.0 basestations. I'd first recommend checking which generation gear you have as the behavior you described is most consistent with what you'd see with a generational mismatch.

@jawlingomes Are you adjusting eye relief at all? The lenses and optical chain are very similar to the OG Vive - it was actually one of the most common criticisms of that HMD - things like sweet spot should are optically very similar. Besides eye relief, the only other factor I think could impact your UX this much would be facial morphology. You don't wear the Pro's headstrap in the same way you wear the DAS - it sits higher on your head than the DAS.

@Lewis , It's a bit confusing: OpenVR is an SDK (aka SteamVR SDK) that allows you to drive images to the SteamVR Runtime (aka the SteamVR compositor). Your project needs the OpenVR SDK integrated either by downloading a Unity plugin, enabling the plugin in UE4, or by integrating the SDK's C++ native libs You need to have the SteamVR runtime running on the computer to facilitate I/O with the HMD. Vive desktop headsets will not work unless you have the SteamVR runtime installed and running (via Steam). It's a hard requirement to drive images to the HMD on the end-user side.

@PetterJhon - I'm confused. I'm seeing these listed as in-stock on our Australian/APAC store for $169 aud. Perhaps your browser is geo-locating to the wrong store? Try via this page: https://www.vive.com/au/vive-tracker/

@monodefuego Can you please PM me (or attach in this thread) a SteamVR system report? You can generate it via SteamVR -> Generate System Report & save it as a .txt. I can check it to see if there's anything that stands out

@SenltonGomes - WiGig is a pretty new technology - this is one of the first products on the market that utilize 60Ghz transmissions. The issue with adding extensions is that the extra cabling essentially acts as an antenna for background electromagnetic interference and it quickly gets to the point where the signal to noise ratio gets too low to be usuable which gets compounded by the extra latency and impudence that gets added to the system by the extra wiring. We've engineered the wireless adapter's PC side transceiver to have the maximum distance that can stably be supported given the technologies' current capabilities. The Trendnet 2M extension is the only aftermarket solution that will sort of work reliably but by no means does it have stability parity with the stock solution. It doesn't work for everyone (depending on their setup and RF environment) and it introduces some initialization issues which can only be solved by a reboot. I don't know of any other aftermarket option that comes close in stability to this cable but from a Vive prospective, it's an unsupported solution that introduces a bunch of room for error - we don't know of a truly stable "extension" and our official stance is that it can't be extended reliably. If you pick it up and have initialization issues - try rebooting the PC.

@Krogenit - It seems like you're on the beta branch of 1.8.20 - this is now the main stable branch of as Friday the 8th and it contains updates that specifically modify how base-station power management works and the distro contains firmware updates for the stations (release notes). The issue could be wrapped up in this update. I might suggest getting the public version of 1.8.20 and checking to see if all of the firmware is updated across the devices as a first step.

@hugh I've generated a Viveport support ticket under the email address associated with your forum account - that will be the best way to directly connect you to someone who can provide assistance. Please be on the lookout for updates to that email thread.

@outtorun - I'd recommend collecting the serial number from the back of the unit and emailing support.enterprise@htc.com to set up a repair RMA.