Vive tracker 2018 won't turn on

[4GD]

Hi,

 

Recently my tracker 2018's will sometimes refuse to turn on, no matter how long I hold the button for. I have found I can force them to work by plugging them into charging cable until the charging light shows up then unplugging and pressing on button. So I can make them work but it is quite annoying having to do that everytime. Anyone else had this issue?

 

I've had this problem with at least 3 of 4 trackers I have. They're all on latest firmware and it happens regardless of charge level.

[AndyV]

I'm having this problem, too. It's the firmware update. Our setup was working with 8 trackers and no power button issues until I updated the firmware just now. Our pipeline depends on these dang trackers and they're already super finicky to begin with. But, thanks to this update, getting all the trackers to pair is practically impossible. I've spent the last hour and a half screwing with them with no end in sight. Half of them won't turn on unless I trick them in to it by plugging them directly in to the USB cable. Plus I'm having all kinds of problems getting them all to pair again. I can usually get 7 to pair but then the 8th one refuses. So I have to unplug all the dongles and start again from scratch. It's like playing Whack-A-Mole and it's driving me nuts! 

 

I tried rolling back to the previous verion of the tracker firmware but now the Manage Trackers utility in Steam VR no longer works :(

[4GD]

Argh! That sounds like a nightmare. I've been having enough trouble and I'm only using three at the moment.

 

I did notice after posting my message however that I can actually turn them on without power cable tricking them. If you just press the on button as opposed to holding it then let go and leave it they do come on after a delay. Seems I was holding the button for too long. Or double pressing it when the light didn't come on when I thought it should.

 

I'm sure it wasn't like this before but yeah. Won't help with your pairing issues but at least you might be able to turn them on.

[AndyV]

Well, I let them sit over the weekend. I don't know what happened. Maybe some reflection and asking themselves the tough questions, but the trackers all turned on with out the cable trick today. Like so many things with this setup I don't know why it works again but now that it does I'll just do what I was doing before: Crossing my fingers and praying for the best. 

[4GD]

 

 

I've had the opposite. I thought that what I posted above about just single clicking the on button and waiting patiently for them to turn on was the answer. But yesterday I couldn't get one of the trackers to turn on no matter how long or short I pressed the button. Had to resort to the cable trick again.

[Tyriss]

I had this happen to me awhile ago and was really upset thinking that it was broken. However I was able to fix it and get it to turn on simply by plugging it into the PC with the usb micro cable. Not sure why this fixed it but it did for me. With any luck it will work for you guys too. Fingers crossed, good luck.

[PlushVive]

I am having the exact same problem with the 2018 trackers.

 

1)sometimes a vive tracker would refuse to turn on.(This is not a hardware button problem)

2)If I supply power(via PC or charger) through micro USB, it temporarily 'resumes' the ability to turn on when button is pressed.

3)after a tracker is left out without any charging for around 30min-1hr, it will resume the same symptom as 1), even if it is fully charged!

4)This symptom can happen to random trackers(there might be patterns). Ones that are affected can sometimes work fine someday, and the same symptom can appear on other trackers.(Even new ones!) I've had at least four trackers on two different PCs kind of randomly being affected by this software turning on issue.

 

This is a recent development that has been plaguing me for around 2wks.

I'm suspecting the newer steamVR update & firmware update as accountable.

 

1)SteamVR update reintroduced an old error : https://forum.unity.com/threads/steamvr-update-no-controllers-in-unity-games-error-bindings-for-unity-exe-was-not-set.534336/

-This false-alarm no binding message gets to pop up everytime I try to run an application, and has to be manually turned off by the controller

 

2)Firmware update or SteamVR Update introduced the new 'vive tracker not-turning-on' problem.

-This 'tracker-strike' issue can affect every tracker for the right circumstances.

-Possibly re-wiring your tracker to your PC directly and re-pairing them seems to be helpful.

 

The devs should provide a solution to this problem soon enough. Recent updates introduced so many unforeseen errors that developing with Vive nowadays is becoming riskier. Not to mention that I kind of started to fear any updates on SteamVR and hardwares, even if they are stable versions!

 

[AndyV]

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 wrote:

Not to mention that I kind of started to fear any updates on SteamVR and hardwares, even if they are stable versions!

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Yes, this exactly. Hy heart sinks everytime I see there's available updates. It usually means I lose about a half day of production or more troubleshooting and trying to get everything back to how it was working before. It's awful. 

[Horus]

I'm having the same problem.  Tracker is fully charged, but holding down the power button (for any length of time) does not cause the tracker to turn on.  The USB cable trick (as described by the other posters) does work for me, although it's not a practical solution for my work.

I noticed another strange behavior, which led to a solution for me.  SteamVR was open, and my tracker was powered on and being tracked by SteamVR.  Then I closed SteamVR, and this automatically powered off my tracker.  Then I opened SteamVR again, and I saw that its tracker icon was fully blue (indicating that my tracker was being tracked); yet my tracker was powered off.  After less than one second, my tracker's light flashed red once, and then the tracker icon in SteamVR went dark.  After this, my tracker would not power on, except by using the USB cable trick.

This makes me believe that SteamVR is sending some erroneous commands to my tracker, either when SteamVR closes or when it opens.

My solution: in SteamVR Settings --> Startup / Shutdown --> set "Turn off controllers after" to NEVER, and set "Turn off controllers when exiting SteamVR" to OFF.  Yes, that means you will need to manually turn off your tracker every time, but it's better than having to trick it into starting.