The Valve Index Gets The iFixit Teardown Treatment!
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- Опубликовано: 19 июн 2024
- We had so much fun tearing down the Meta Quest Pro that we decided to take a closer look at another popular VR headset - the Valve Index. The Index was released all the way back in 2019, so it’s not quite cutting edge tech - but now that VR and AR are part of the mainstream tech landscape, we thought it would be good to see how different companies find solutions to the complexities of VR.
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:20 Disclaimer
00:34 The Valve Index Lighthouse
01:07 Breaking the Valve Index Lighthouse
01:32 Valve Index Controller Disassembly
02:05 Breaking the Valve Index controller
02:30 Valve Index Controller tracking ring disassembly
02:50 Removing the Valve Index Controller mainboard
03:06 Removing the Valve Index Controller battery
03:24 Valve Index Headset repair guide
03:40 X-Rays of the Valve Index Headset
03:51 Removing the Valve Index head straps
04:28 Remove the Valve Index front Face
04:39 Removing the Valve Index Motherboard
04:43 Removing the Valve Index Lenses and Display
05:40 Final Thoughts
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1:01
The VR headset knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation.
Never knew that the Valve Index didn't get a teardown video.
To be fair it the kind of stuff that parts are totally unfoundable because the market is so tiny
@@N1ko0L and even if you're experienced doing a repair on a VR headset atm is a pain, plus all the sellers will just let you RMA it anyway
I did.
It's a shame this device is not very repairable given how good the Steam Deck is. I would like to see more VR headset teardowns from iFixit, maybe the HP Reverb G2?
Valve was kinda new to hardware designing, and I see that they are learning from their previous attempts
Hope their next device is way cooler and more repairable
@@aleksei5195 agree, the presenter gave them some slack and I agree with him, they have another chance to try to fix the problems with this one and prove themselves
Also, the lighthouse was more of a Vive design than actually steam.
@@SukoSeiti the 2.0 base stations was a joint from HTC and valve
@@grandadduane with valve doing the software part and htc doing the hardware part mostly
The Basestations are not easily openable for the same reason hard disk drives are: They are way to fragile bearings and dust in the air could damage them.
And the lazer radion is nothing to play arund with
@@speedybaby well just dont point it in your eyes while its on and you'll be fine
dude, HHDS are vacuum sealed and filled with hydrogen, and even a speck of dust would ruin them. They're made in clean rooms. The reason they're not user serviceable, has nothing to do with bearings.
i have opened hard drives before. they survived. this all sounds like bullshit excuses to me.
@@manitoba-op4jx Now do it 99 more times and see how many hard drives survive for another few months, so you can draw a success rate percentage.
2:49 this is actually not time of flight (ToF). Lighthouse is a different technology. It relies entirely on triangular positioning as you suggested earlier.
It IS time of flight, though. The lighthouse is spinning and modulating frequency rapidly so the controller can tell the time of flight by the difference between the frequency-encoded timestamp and the time it was received for every point on the tracker. Combine that with other sensors on the tracker--each reporting a slightly different time of flight--and you can triangulate the position of the base station relative to the headset and thus the headset to a known fixed point (the base station) encoded when you completed setup. You don't even need multiple base stations to do this; it works with just one. The second is to handle occlusion.
@@Demmrir it ISN'T time of flight because at no point is the time for photons to travel from the lighthouse to the controller measured. The electronics can (and probably do) assume the speed of light to be infinite.
Instead, what they are measuring is the time between receiving light pulses and this provides sufficient information.
You mention 'frequency encoded' information. There is some misconception surrounding the 2.0 lighthouses but, if you look at the datasheet for the receiver, it's clear that they aren't transmitting any stream of data. All the lighthouses can do is select a carrier frequency which it appears is used so that pulses multiple lighthouses operating in the same area can be distinguished by the receivers.
You are actually able to replace the battery in the controllers without a full disassembly. You can remove the finger tracking plate (You don't even need to disconnect it fully) and simply undo the screws. There is a hidden T9 Torx screw on the circular part on the top of the controller, which keeps the two halves of the body together. Removing that allows you to move the two halves apart enough to remove the battery without a full disassembly and avoiding the nightmare of the IR sensor ring.
Not posting links to avoid issues but there are two easy to find videos by SneakyJoe that guides you through this process. Both with and without a sodering kit. (If you want to use a different type of battery.)
I highly suggest watching both videos.
I did this just the other day, my battery was no longer charging and upon removing it I discovered it was swollen to almost double the size of a replacement battery I got from a broken controller.
I'm surprised it didn't explode.
I swapped them out and disposed of the old battery safely. :)
Yeah to my knowledge there the glue in the controller is a stop gap measure.
So this made the controller actually more reliable in the long run. I'm sure the next controllers will be taking into account everything learned with the index.
But I have no explanation for the Lighthouse V2s. I only can imagine they bunkered it down since they are VERY sensitive equipment.
I can't stress this enough, treat them with care! They are a marvel of modern technology and are pure high tech. Just exposing the rotor to the room will mess with the tracking.
" I only can imagine they bunkered it down since they are VERY sensitive equipment. I can't stress this enough, treat them with care! They are a marvel of modern technology and are pure high tech. Just exposing the rotor to the room will mess with the tracking"
This.
The lightouses are modern marvels of engineering. The rotor position is calculated with the precision of a few nanometers and the lasers sweep across the 2mm wide sensors at Mach 5, transmitting their ID and current angle in that short time frame; all the while only emitting class 1 Laser emissions in a brightly lit room.
@@xXYannuschXx Yeah since V2 ditched the synch blink and the second rotor so they had to encode the ID into the beam.
V1 was already bonkers 2 just got better, more functionality and is easier to manufacture.
They are just bad ass and not appreciated enough.
Also viva la LibSurvive 🤣
@@DerSolinski I've only found one downside to them. They are way more sensitive to reflections than the 1.0s are.
@@thunderbolt10031 Makes sense, since there is no sync flash and the rotational data is encoded in the beam it is probably way harder to filter those reliable.
That said... who needs decorations or windows when you have VR 🤣
It will be interesting to see if the next VR system of Valve even use the LH method.
I wouldn't be surprised if they switch to a vision based approach.
If the rumored Deckard really is standalone a SLAM approach would be much more versatile.
I've smoked those rings against walls, my desk, and even a metal ladder and the rings have inexplicably held together. I always wondered what kind of engineering went into this ring to keep it from cracking or splitting in half. Now I understand why, they just half potted it with structural epoxy XD
The cement in the controllers is for when the controllers go through the dry wall in your house
The small size is probably the main reason valve did the controllers the way they are, tho using cement seems a bit much but understandable of how much abuse they see being punched again walls and stuff like that.
Can't count how many times I have hit them to some object and they are still working. onetime needed to use superglue because part of trigger drop of when clip broke (Dropped controller to floor).
Yeah, the joysticks break constantly and SHOULD be repairable if only they offered replacement parts but I've never seen the remainder of the controller break and the batteries last forever in my experience. I'd take away more points for the fact there are no replacement joysticks than the cement holding the battery in.
@@Demmrir There are replacement joysticks, but the issue is that none of them are durable, even the ones with a metal core, because the pots all have plastic bushings and those wear out. I have a wild theory that maybe you can superglue the shafts to the pots and that way the joystick assembly will last a very long time, but I'm fairly certain that if you do that you'd just ruin 9 sticks out of 10 at least, so yeah.
Love to see the insides of a device I've used for more than three years. And now it's acting up so maybe I will have to need these repair guides! Thanks for your efforts!
The VR headset knows where it is, because it knows where it isn’t…
kek
@@swagmessiah666 top kek
Great Video! I love these teardowns, they’re very informative and interesting to see how these things are put together!
Interesting way to connect speakers. Ty for tear-down.
2:50 I'm pretty sure the valve index doesn't use a time of flight sensor. If you look at the lighthouse 1.0, it actually does a horizontal, vertical sweep, and then sync pulse. The vertical sweep allows each sensor to get it's vertical angle relative to each lighthouse based on the time from last sync pulse, and the same with horizontal.
If you combine both, you can get a bunch of lines pointing from each sensor, to the lighthouse in question, which can be used to track the devices
Yeah I’m fairly sure the lighthouse sensors are doing all the positional tracking
Thanks for the coverage of VR gear 👍🏽
0:07 what do you mean? it was like only 3 years ago and Valve Index is still one of the best VR headsets
Mainly it lags behind in resolution, and many prefer Oculus quest style or newer pancake lenses due to the reduced glare and god rays, if valve improves these on their next headset, they have pretty much a perfect VR headset on their hands ( or heads rather :p )
Hey great video, can't wait for you guys to teardown pico 4.
If you haven't already it be neat to have teardown of Valves other pieces of hardware.
A stream controller one maybe
This is a super late comment, but you guys helped me fix my Index with this teardown. I had no audio in the left side rather suddenly, and I wondered if the cable was bad because I'd reattached the headphone a dozen times without fixing it, but it turned out it was just a loose t6 screw that secured the strap to the headset since that uses the same contacts as the headphone itself. It works just fine now and I didn't need a new headphone or cable after all. I would've never known there was a second set of contacts further down the connection between the headphone and the cable without this video.
About time we got a teardown video lol.
I also think that the glue in the controllers is to help them with smashing into things or dropping them. Taps and screw studs can easily break but the glue is a bit more resilient against impacts.
I cant wait to get my Index kit
Not really related to this video but I just wanted to say how great my iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit is. Thank you iFixit.
I hope valves next headset is really repairable, since the steam deck also is. They seem to be a even more open to that now than a few years ago when this headset was made
It's not that easy, The problem is that a lot of the positional tracking hadrware is super sensative and precise which makes desinging it in a way that is easy to replace really hard. But who knows maybe some kind the lieghtfield tech with the variable plarized light will loosen those restrictions a bit and be cheaper to produce.
1:02 “It know where it is because it knows where it wasn’t”
Absolutely incredible, you can buy any index part on I fix it.
The reason they use the cement glue in current index controllers is to alleviate the early issues of users banging their controllers against objects, walls, and ceilings, the sides would slowly separate as a result, so they went with an overkill glue to prevent it.
Also the battery is covered to make it more sweat proof should any leak in, as that was ALSO an issue they had.
I'm not excusing these design choices, as they were clearly oversights by the initial designers, just explaining the logic behind them. The controllers are pretty great if you have new ones, but they are not easily repairable as a consequence of early design mistakes.
I really hope deckard is as repairable as the steam deck and has comparable standalone power, with the ability to connect to a computer wirelessly. I'd like to be able to keep using my base stations as desired for more accurate tracking combined with it's rumoured inside out tracking. Of course, I'd also like full hand, eye, and face tracking, but I'm not that greedy.
"All eyes are now on project Deckard, the follow up headset from Valve." Any time now, Valve...
Valve pls...
"valve time" tho
knowing the margins the basestations have to work at im not suprised theyre not servicable
Now the real challenge put it all back together
2:48 knuckle controller when you lightly place it on the carpet
The fact that this is one of the oldest headsets is really impressive.
far from it, it’s just one of the older ones still in popular use, although even then the award would still go to old HTC vives or oculus rifts
The first consumer VR headsets go all the way back to the 90s.
Like the CyberMaxx or VFX1.
If i'm not mistaken it was the introduction of barrel distortion with the original Occulus Rift that made "modern" VR viable.
Awesome stuff guys! Can we get the Pico 4 next 👀
Awesome video, incrediblely interesting, but couls you please do a tear down of the pico 4?
I could have sworn that Ifixit had torn down the Valve Index. Had to double check the upload date
That little disk is actually a force sensor. The system knows how hard you're pressing on the touch pad because of it.
There are some parts removed during the headset disassembly that are not shown and I had to figure out myself. Would be helpful to include the entire process.
Loving the T-shirt 🇬🇧
Very nice
Would be awesome if replacement parts were actually in stock.
The thing id like to see more of is the cable connection on the head strap. Mine broke and the cable seems to be very “connected” to that piece. Is it replaceable without replacing the whole cable? It looks like you just pulled the clip on the head strap away from it really easily which makes me wonder why mine broke at all. It seems that yours wasn’t even “attached”
I wish he did a teardown of how the rear cushion was attached so I could clean mine.
I was literally looking for this a few days ago lol.
The VR headset knows where it is because it knows where it isn't. By subtracting where it is from where it isn't or where it isn't from where it is (whichever is greater) it obtains -
You guys need to do a Vive Tracker 3.0 Teardown.
thumbstick drifting is the common problem of Index Controllers, how I wish they have spare part for replacing the thumbstick and of course, a guide to fix it
I would hope if they make a new/better index they make it more repairable. I will give them some slack since it was basically their first hardware item. Hope they change the IPD knop to a wheel instead
Valve Index teardown video out of nowhere? Valve Deckard soon? 😳
No full Lighthouse tear down ? Only the front plastic got removed
I've had a cracked index Controller for a while, official parts would be sweet.
An Index 2 would be great. I would still say, the Index was my best overall headset... and I had a lot of different VR-Headsets.
Does this have the blurry lens that looks smudge from the inside like Meta VR?
Wait I didn't know valve gonna make a stand alone vr?! I'm planning to buy pico for my first vr headset, but I''ll wait for valve new vr headset now, the game library for it will probably be huge considering it's steam
You'll be waiting a long time. If you want an idea about how long you might wait, you should look up the the definition of "valve time"
so around 3 more years is my guess
Can you bear Valve Time™?
@@DerSolinski uhhh... Guess I'll go for pico 4 then, considering that'll be extra 2++ years lol
Oh yeah! Valve... They used to do killer VR stuff! I waited YEARS for them to come up with something new to replace my Index, but eventually I had to just give up on them.
Fun fact: The materials for the face gasket and paddings are made with anti-microbateria material which cleaning with a cloth with some small isopropyl alcohol will clean them.
It's pretty much in their Steam Support help site
Very fascinating teardown. Can't tell ya how badly I want a high-end VR headset, but honestly, I will not bring myself to support Meta, and unfortunately, with the Valve Index being quite old now, and HTC not having an oled panel in their current high-end VR headset, I really just feel like there isn't actually an offering out there that'd be worth the sort of money I'd be having to spend. I absolutely would love it if Valve's Deckard had qd-oled panels along with eye and mouth tracking. I could trust Valve not to be collecting disturbing amounts of information on you, which would mean I could fully enjoy such features with piece of mind.
I"m happy with my index purchase just so long as you don't normally break controller thumb sticks or have the drift alot on you, you should be fine. Its a great over all headset but a bit overpriced. But the warranty experience was great. 1 base station doa, replaced 2 left controllers cause lost touch on thumbstick.
The tool provided in the repair kit is unable to reach the t6 on the opposite side, making this repair video intensely frustrating.
didnt know 3 years ago was "alllllll the way" back then
What happens if your index is bricked? Second damn index headset that has bricked on me. The decard will be great though. They will have wireless tech, repairability , modulation im sure.
Niche-ish but can you do one for the “Vive Cosmos” ?
I have one and the modularity had me thinking Raspberry Pi SLAM related things…
Nice to see an alternative which doesn't zucc
I would love to also see a teardown of the HP Reverb G2 given that it's essentially a cheaper revision of the Index developed by HP in collaboration with Valve.
As a HMD, nothing about the Index is really exceptional*. What makes it still an unbeaten package today is the top-notch open-standard/inter-compatible outside-in tracking which the Reverb G2 sorely lacks.
*Audio is better than many headsets that came after it, but it's basically the same system as in the original Rift CV1
@@zig131 Lighthouse tracking is inside-out.
I think currently the only devices with outside-in are the PSVR and Nolo-trackers, both are not that great.
@@taumelscheibe5948 Yes you are technically correct - Lighthouse is an inside-out tracking method in that detectors on the headset work out where they are based on fixed position of basestations.
Rift CV1 is genuinely outside-in tracked in that the sensors "see" the infra-red LEDs on the headset and controllers to position them.
Rift CV1 constellation tracking provides really accurate 360 (common misconception is that it is 180 only) tracking using relatively cheap components.
No matter what tracking technique we talk about, really what we are discussing is the drift restraint method as ultimately all tracking is based on inertial measurement units first and foremost as their data collection rate is so high.
Lighthouse is really just an over-engineered technique for restraining IMU drift.
But it had the key advantage over Constellation that Valve/HTC opened up the sensor side of things to 3rd parties so you have a selection of devices that can be tracked by the same method.
@@zig131 As someone that has actually spent more then two secounds looking at the spec sheet and has had a CV1 and has an Index I can tell you that the in every way the CV1 is worse. TBH the Index is still the best consumer Headset out there rn and prefer it to the Quest 2 in every way.
can you guys do the hp reverb g2
Thought the Steam Value Index VR headset already had a teardown by ifixit interesting
replacement batterys on the store PLEASE!!!!!
Next do vive cosmos elite😊
Wonder if you could replace the displays with oled
If the Index was able to have its LCD panels replaced with higher resolution ones, and somebody made a modular insert for eye tracking LED's, that would be amazing.
Could we see a Pimax teardown?
1:00 Index not triangulated by lighthouses! You can use only 1 lighthouse for traking with same accuracity.
4:38 whats the Name of this Element? Faceplace? Or how you call it? Where csn i find this Thing to replace it
The lighthouse base stations are similar to hard disk drives. You are not supposed to open them by design.
I like a hard fixed controller. Since we bang them quite harshly
Cool
Pog
Wait, there was no teardown vid?
Wow it only took 3 years 😢
Teardown tundra trackers vs vive 3.0 trackers?
Pico 4 next?
didnt tear down the speakers? would have liked to see what is in there
aaaah get some tether cable in stock in AU!!
The HDMI signal on my headset drops out if I touch (and I mean BARELY touch) the front of the HMD. I suspect a ribbon cable has a loose connection. Have you run into this at all? I'd like to fix it instead of spending a $1000 on a new head set.
Finally
It's a shame I bought a headstrap from you guys that was faulty an exploded from the thin plastic an that so called warranty got thrown out the window cuz the support team basicly claimed I caused the issue. Thanks ifixit for taking my money...
My index died last week out of warranty. I would have done a repair but there were no replacement boards on the store so I had to get a new one.
That’s what’s making me shy away from getting a index. I put my money towards a meta pro instead.
@Pork have fun with your thirty warranty replacements for basic headset components.
@Pork *that doesn’t need to be repaired
@Pork imagine strapping a nuclear reactor to your face
wat about teardown of Pico 4 headset
Do a iFixit Teardown of a Varjo Headset, I dare you!
Yeah when something is designed and someone says i don't need to design this part to be serviceable, guess which part often fails, the non serviceable part.... true in cars too and many other products.
I hope the Deckard and its controllers are more serviceable...
To anyone out there whos nearing the end of the warranty mark. Dont forget to contact steam support and ask them if you can do this first
-they are gonna say no
removing the cable was the hardest part for me. you guys made it seem so easy, but there's no way to grip the cable to pull it out. I eventually wiggled it free, but I think my cable is now damaged. All I wanted to do was replace the headstrap as the spring loaded mechanism to hold it onto your head broke through the plastic casing making my headset very loose on one side. Now that it's replaced, I've been getting headset not detected, but when it does get connected, VR seems to crash even though I'm in VR. This makes it very difficult to play beat saber and stream it if I need to restart VR.
Parents: don't sit near the screen it's not good for your eyes
VR now: what about putting the screen near to our eyes??
Of all the things that needed a proper teardown, the index controllers sure are a hassle to repair. I'd say just about everyone is hoping for a proper repair guide on the index controllers, which are the sole thing that break in some fashion for nearly everyone. Only a matter of time before something aspect of it fails, like the analog stick drift.
I'm hoping Valve will introduce a new version of this gadget without the lighthouse and with a more repairable design similar to the Steam Deck.
That's great and all but how about you sell parts for the controllers instead
First Steps for Quest 2 was amazing. Certainly not sterile.
6:14 "Valve does provide OEM replacement parts for many components inside this device" is stretching it considerably! There is barely anything available. For the Controllers you can only buy the straps. No Analog sticks or batteries which would be most important. For the HMD it looks a bit better but overall still barely parts.
Yeah, people replacing batteries - that's me. I've developed a way to replace those. Too bad this video came so late. And too bad Valve designed those controllers to be not servicable.
pico 4?
Is that going to e-waste now that you destroyed it?