Vive HMD/Base station stop transmitting

[HackPerception]

, 

 

We've simply never heard of a basestation becoming "shortsighted" - the optics don't work like that. They fire out lasers agnostically to any device within range. With 1.0 stations, the sync system is the limiting factor which limits the overall range to ~15-20 feet but the lasers travel much further.

a video that explains how they work in high detail.

 

It's either:

A) Environmental

B) PC-born (defintely try switching out USB ports in case it's your USB controller)

C) HMD-borne

 

The basestations are pretty binary - they either work or they don't work and they have self-diagnostic tools which will report and error if there is an error.

 

You are mounting them in a way that the stations are facing each other so the sync system can work, correct?

[Viperbane]

They sync, can see each other and as far as I can understand what lights they need to display all that works very well.

 

Having adjusted my rooms multiple times now I have started noticing a new "error".

It now keeps frequently asking me to have the HMD visible to the lighthouses, but it doesn't ever have to move from its location for them to lose it. (Thus my thinking that the base stations have gone "blind").

 

To reduce any artificial reflections in the room, I turned all lightsources off.

 

Experiment was sort of successful - I managed to load in to Elite Dangerous, look around inside my ship, even stresstest my head shaking around a bit, but then after a while i died out and the ms sync I can see in the lower left corner of the SteamVR settings screen all shot up to well above 25. Checking the Frame graph window it seems that it spikes up quite high.

 

I am wondering if it might be something with the graphics card not being able to keep up - I have however tested it with the Ultra settings in ARK: Survival Evolved and it has no issues displaying 4K @ roughly 55 FPS, so I guess cable and GPU should be good enough to not be the issue?

[Viperbane]

Having poured over the logs some more I have found what to me stands out a bit - It is clear that one of the Lighthouses is getting significantly more back-facing hits than the other.

 

LHR-FF6FBFC5	Dropped	664	back-facing	hitsLHR-CB158B63	Dropped	507877	back-facing	hits

I used a spreadsheet to add up the numbers.

 

Question, which one is which and any thoughts one why one gets so much more than the other?

[HackPerception]

, 

 

So those logs definitely indicate you have some reflections occurring. It's pretty difficult to mitigate IR reflections without specalized equipment as we don't see in IR.

is the best way to do it without specialized equipment - you can just use your cellphone's LED. 

[Viperbane]

While I will try that out, here is a video of how it looks like from inside the HMD and then me almost being able to time the "losing tracking" perfectly when I show what is on my TV. Clip is about 60 seconds long.

 

[Viperbane]

I have now consumed a lot of masking tape and any tiny little surface that could've caused a reflection issue has been addressed.

 

To that end, a new error started popping up - The tracking sensors in the HMD are not able to communicate.

 

Same issue as before, however after following the Steam forums resolution to that issue, I am now up to roughly 45 - 60 seconds before it cuts out, reboots, lose tracking, claims that HMD is not visible to base stations.

 

I've used the Room Overview feature in SteamVR and the lighthouses track perfectly and then without any reason just drop out - Both at the same time - You'd think that it would just be the one as the other was never really getting that much of the back-facing hits, yet both cut exactly at the same time (They are not linked other than visually).

 

So, there is at least some progress - I started this week with only being able to use my HTC Vive for 5 seconds at a time - We're now up to almost the full 1 minute mark. Can we try and get this up to at least one hour? Please?

[Viperbane]

Having played around even more trying to isolate the cause for the dropout of the basestations, I used some cardboard boxes, built a "lab" for one lighthouse and the HMD only, no light able to get in. The Lighthouse still loses tracking after some 40 seconds. The error messages varies between "Cannot see the HMD" and "HMD not tracking".

 

I'm starting to think that it is the HTC Vive that is broken, but cannot decide which part it is.

 

Please assist.

[Viperbane]

So before I decided to get some couple of hours of sleep, I went through a few resuce details that people all over the internet claimed fixed their issue.

 

Fireware reset the HMD - Worked perfectly

Attempted a third Fireware update for the Lighthouses - This time it did work, however the strangest thing happened - HMD got updated first, then due to me only having two hands I only updated one lighthouse firmware, but once that was done, the HMD was dead - It didn't even show that it had power on the little side LED so I had to redo the firmware for the HMD and then the second lighthouse (which didn't cause any issue with the HMD) - Now all devices report they have the latest firmware.

SteamVR completely wiped from the machine, uninstalled along with USB drivers (Done from inside SteamVR settings to do that before uninstall).

When machine was powered for after reinstall, all plugs (all plugs from any socket) relating to the Vive were disconnected (and once more inspected for damage). PC was started up and allowed several minutes in idle to allw any potential residual config or background job to fully compltete. Vive was then plugged back in with HMD cables to link box first, then 1) A/C to linkbox, 2) HDMI and lastly the USB (to the USB 2.0)

 

Windows bleeped a total of 6 times when it installed numerous drivers relating to HTC Vive. This went fairly quickly (less than a minute).

 

Lighthouses are still blind - They lose sight of the HMD, however I can now do a good 20 - 25 seconds worth of "gaming".

 

I've also moved the computer to a different location so it is more out of the way of the game area, however it didn't make a single bit of difference, the time for the lighthouses to go blind remain constant.

 

Things that have not been moved now are the gaming chair, the mouse/keyboard table, the TV and the lighthouses themselves. I will repeat I have managed to play several hours on end with the old setup.

 

Which leads me to the one thing I've started seeing in common across multiple threads where people advise they are experiencing the same issue - the graphics card - GTX 1080.

 

So having followed that route - I've changed any and all settings that are advised by the official forums that I need to have - Power management, high performance, latest drivers (oldest drivers (rollback)).

 

Things I've learned so far (and Vive denies this)

 

You cannot use any other bluetooth device while using Vive - My bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse from Logitech absolutely kills Vive - Me using the Bluetooth in my BOSE QC35 will kill the Vive and being outside the room using Beats wirelessly will also render the Vive unable to start up (Lighthouses goes blind).

 

The ViveSetup and VivePort will not install again once they've been uninstalled - I am pondering a 4th complete wipe of my computer this week to start completely from scratch again to see if that resolves the issue.

 

Vive - Please assist in fixing this - I have spent a significant amount of money getting your product (which is very amazing WHEN it works), but there should not have to be this much labour involved to setup just three components - It is a very high likelihood that the unit I have been sold is defective, but I am not giving up on it just yet - I still have time on the warranty as it was bought earlier this year.

[Synthesis]

 

 

If you really think there's something wrong with the device, we can have you bring it in for testing here and we can see if it works in a normal known-good play space. (Assuming you're in US or CA.)

Would you be willing to do that? If so, DM me and I'll get you the info you need.

Thank you,

-John C