base station failure Basestation v2 vibrating loudly

[jackfrost2013]

When I was setting up my base stations one of them is vibrating quite loudly compared to the other one.  This is a known issue as I have seen the other forum posts regarding this.  The problem is Vive expects me to pay for shipping to their repair center for a problem they caused.  What kind of customer service is this where I pay over $1,000 for a device and not only did you send me a broken device but you expect me to help pay for you to fix your mistake.  This is a really terrible way to treat your customers Vive.

 

@Synthesis

[TomCgcmfc]

Maybe try running it in for a day or two.  Could be a bit of plastic flashing and/or maybe it will re-seat itself.  A little bit of vibration is pretty normal.  Mine vib'd a bit from the start but seem to be getting smoother after ~ 1 months use.  Main thing for me is that this did not effect tracking so I do not worry about it.  Also, in SteamVR I enable BT, then got to device power options and select the base stations to go to sleep when I exit VR. 

[jackfrost2013]

I am having desync and other small tracking issues.  Vive support says this is a mechanical issue and that continuing to run it can lead to a premature mechanical failure of the device.  Either way it is very annoying to listen to compared to the other one which is almost silent.

[TomCgcmfc]

Ok, then pack it up and send it back to Vive.  Shipping for a single base station should not break the bank.  Hopefully you will be able to VR with one base station for a while, or just buy another 2.0 so you can further improve tracking with 3x base stations later.  Complaining about this is not going to help imho.  I think that the Vive support guys wear Teflon suits (= nothing sticks), lol!

Edited January 25, 2020 by TomCgcmfc

[jackfrost2013]

We will see what Vive says.  I appreciate your help but I bought a new device and I expect it to work perfectly out of the box.  If Vive is saving money on quality control they should at least be responsible for the costs associated when they ship defective devices.

[HackPerception]

@jackfrost2013, I'm sorry to hear your encountering an issue with your base-station. Unfortunately, the risk of mechanical issues are one of the potential trade-offs of the higher resolution tracking offered by external tracking over camera-based tracking.

Here's a high level rundown of how 2.0 RMA's work within our ecosystem:

• HTC is not licensed to manufacturer SteamVR 2.0 base-stations, only Valve manufactures 2.0 stations. We simply resell Valve's product in this case and we're not directly involved in their manufacturing process.
  • We purchase the units wholesale from Valve - there isn't any place in the manufacturing process where HTC is able to "save money" by cutting corners as we're purchase 2.0 stations as a fully assembled OEM product from Valve.
• All 2.0 stations are QA'ed by Valve before leaving their manufacturing line. They also receive a secondary QA by us before being boxed for resale in a kit. Replacing stations is a very expensive process; QA is much cheaper.
• In the types of situations like you're describing where a station is having issues out of the box, one potential source of the issue could any shocks/forces the kit received while in transit to you. Stations can definitely get damaged during shipping and handling - it's ultimately very hard to isolate this as being the source of the problem by virtue of how complex modern shipping is.
• You're 100% going to want to RMA that base-station and get a replacement unit from us. If it's making noises, it's a good indication that a lens has become detached or that a rotor has a fault. In any case, since the rotor spins around about 200,000+ times an hour, it's going going to deteriorate without repair or replacement.
• I'm sorry you're being asked to pay for the return shipping for the device. Reverse logistics and repair processing are by far the most expensive processes involved with selling hardware nowadays. In these types of scenarios, HTC actually pays quite a bit to process the swap/repair, and re-dispatch a functioning device to you. As such, in many scenarios we only cover shipping of the repaired device back to you after a repair or swap has been completed.
  • The device will also be under warranty
• The length of Vive's warranty on base-stations that ship with Vive Pro full kit are 2 years in many regions and in some cases actually exceed the warranty you'd get from Valve by a full year.

[jackfrost2013]

@VibrantNebula  Failure to properly package the device against the loads that it may be subjected to during shipping sounds like a major oversight on the part of HTC.  Most shipping carriers have specifications or guidelines as to what loads your product may encounter during shipping.  Also if you are losing so much money on returning devices I would hope that would motivate you to A) Design your packaging better or B) Tell Valve to build a more durable product.  Either way it isn't my responsibility to fix an issue you directly or indirectly caused.

Also note:The hard drive industry has been shipping hardware that spins at 5000 to 7000 RPM which is 300,000 to 420,000+ times an hour.  Hard drives rarely have major defects and they spin for years.

[jackfrost2013]

To @TomCgcmfc and anyone else that has this issue.  My issues were resolved and I never had to pay a single cent.  The moral of the story is don't let corporations give you crap or try to gaslight you when they are at fault.