No wonder they had a problem when the first started showing them on the road. Didn’t they have to fabricate a cable because the soldering came loose. Maybe some venting wholes and a small internal fan should be in order.
sigh
Vent holes would have been in order if at all possible. External heatsink is a good idea for some of us now.
I think 55degC is what we will find when @MikeJeffries tests this at worst case conditions.
This explains a lot of things to me.
Problem is, a VR headset isn’t something you can throttle down if it gets hot, and a power supply is inevitably even less a component that can be ‘throttled down’. Pimax is running close to design limits here. Sure it may be ok, but a little bit better would be a lot better.
48.6c degrees is really hot
As a chef I can tell you I sous vide my steak at only 56.5c degrees.
And my spa pool at 42c degrees.
For the cable, a 3D printed part could provide an extremely robust enclosure for a fan. The kind you could step on without injury to human or machine.
Not sure I understand what your saying. These self mods on Pimax are getting crazy!
A fan inside a large ‘bead’ like thing clamped on the cable.
Mine gets hot also. Just received.
Yes mine also, a little bit more then the 8k+ and a little bit more then 5k+.
I also ran mine just with usb 3.0.
@PimaxUSA is the usb 2.0 required for the X to function or just for power distribution to the usb.
@MikeJeffries did you try with just 3.0 and with both? Is there if so a difference?
AFAIK, the second USB port is only required in case the motherboard limits USB power to something like 0.5A. Although that is part of the USB specification, and required to prevent catastrophic damage in case of short to USB data lines, in practice, the vast majority of USB ports do not have the expensive and degrading hardware to enforce this.
In short, most USB ports should supply enough current to connect just the USB3.
An interesting side effect though may be that if Pimax used an OR-gate diode on the second USB connector used only for power, then that would account for substantially increased heating when in use.
I only tried with 3.0’s
looks like a DC / DC converter that has to process a little more amps with 5v than before with 12volt.
Yes, 1-2 exhaust vents would work wonders.
I will continue to monitor it through the weekend and see if it gets as hot as it did a few days ago but if not, i’m alot more comfortable at it being at it’s current temps, than the way it was.
I doubt that is the issue. USB3 is limited to 1.5A. Considering the second USB2 power connector, Pimax headsets may be taking in only 1A total (0.5A/port). So, ~5W.
The PSU must be highly inefficient to generate that much heat out of a 5W budget. Perhaps only 70% (1.5W waste) or worse.
My guess - either there is more than just the PSU there, or linear regulators are involved.
Yes, linear regulators are cheaper and there is less effort to reduce the noise. but there are heaters.
Less effort to reduce the noise? All switching PSUs on the market today add noise, linear regulators usually attenuate noise about 30dB.
I think it’s a pretty good guess Pimax became fed up with some instability problem affecting their headsets, engineered the PSU to maximum ripple reduction, making sure the heat was just within acceptable safety margins.
I said linear regulators make less noise. maybe bad translation.
Ah, sorry, nevermind. I was just being precise, trying to emphasize that linear regulators can be added downstream of switching regulators, to actively remove noise from an already lowered voltage with a minimum of power loss.
We should consider the heater as an extra to remove condensation.
Ive run the headset for about an hour now and temps feel normal. I can touch it without an issue. I think originally the way it was heating up so much was probably due to the fact that both USB’s were connected to the last 2 USB ports i had available and i was getting conflicts because it was too much power for the motherboard’s usb controllers.
Now that i added this hub, all seems “normal” to the touch and doesnt hurt when i touch near the connector again.