Anybody else have eye strain on their 8KX, solutions?

As with the 8K and 5K+ I always had trouble with eye strain. Now that I have the 8KX I have the same issue. My IPD is low, around 60mm, even with the new Pitool that has the 2 different IPD tools I had no luck. I really want to love the 8KX but I simply cannot use it for more than half hour before it starts to wear on my eyes. Somebody said its the canted displays?? I have the Index, G2 and Pimax 4K but dont experience this strain of the eyes with any of these headsets. I remember reading here that some folks with higher IPD say they have no issues. Has anybody here been successful at remedying this issue?

Hello,

Have you ever try this thread?https://community.openmr.ai/t/tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-your-8kx/32487 maybe you’ll get something from that , BTW, if you have tried the method in the thread but still have eye strain ,you can submit a ticket so that our technical team may get you some help.

Sincerely!

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Ok so I followed the “Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your 8KX” thread regarding fine tuning the IPD and this is what I found…

So I have an IPD of 60mm. I have tried to make fine adjustments with the Pitool IPD adjustment along with the mechanical IPD adjuster and in conjunction with each other but Im still unable to dial out this eye strain issue.
Now I think I have found out what the problem is but I dont know how to fix it.
Here goes. So I have adjusted the IPD mechanical adjuster all the way down to like 60 (my IPD is around 60) and then, leave the Pitool IPD adjuster to default. So now if I put on the HMD and hold the HMD right in the center of my eyes, what I see is that each eye(screen) looks a little blurry, now if I move the HMD just slightly to the left, my left eye will focus and the screen will be clear, same thing if I move the HMD slightly to the right, my right eye will become in focus on the screen. So this tells me that the mechanical adjust will not come down far enough to match my small IPD. Also, I tried leaving the mechanical adjuster to 60 then adjust the Pitool IPD adjuster down and it just gets worse, same if I increase the Pitool adjuster. I hope ya’ll follow and please tell me if there is anything else I can do.

I already have a ticket open so I forwarded this over to the tech that was helping me with my other issue.

Thank guys

Wasnt there a member here than modded his Pimax 8K or 5K+ to make the lenses get closer. It looked like a Frankenstein from hell mod, I mean it was pretty brutal but he said he got the lenses a couple mm closer to each other.
There was a thread her on it but I cant seem to find it.

Hi stixvr, was it this one?
https://community.openmr.ai/t/another-user-successfully-does-the-extreme-ipd-mod-this-should-be-standard-on-the-8k-x/25817

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@Trigen also modded his headset(s) - both a 5K+ and an 8KX as far as I remember:
https://community.openmr.ai/t/pimax-8k-x-and-pimax-lenses-in-general-pimax-please-put-your-main-focus-on-lenses-and-sweet-spot-not-pushing-out-hmd-after-hmd/33160/17?u=drwilken

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Silly question from me :slight_smile: have you tried the thick face cushion ? for me it made quite a difference in lens adjustment Vs. precieved clarity. Must be the lens to eye distance, cause the eyebox “sweet spot” seems bigger than with the thin face cushion.
But if it’s too thick it will make the usable FOV smaller

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Yes thats the one, its a beastly mod but I think I might tackle it when I get some “down” time. I spoke with Pimax tech support on my issue and they basically said Im s h ! t outta luck.

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I did this mod on my old 5k+ and you should be very brave to try that on a 8KX :laughing:

After my first test i thought my eyestrain is gone, but now im not so sure anymore. Headset always says 70mm IPD in the pop-up and you have to blindly adjust the software IPD, because you have to damage the IPD readout in the HMD. So there is no reference anymore. I put the little mechanical slider inside to the lowest IPD, but it still said 70mm after turning it on. Now i am a bit limited by the 10mm range in Pitool, as i have to set the software IPD to +7 (still testing). I have 62 mm real IPD. Very weird.

In short, you get a perfect sweetspot if you haven’t achieved that before, but setting the software IPD can get difficult then.

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Yes the IPD slider in the HMD was concerning to me. I wondered if not being able to set the slider to the new mechanically lowered IPD setting, would interfere with the software somehow, it seems it does.
But Im confused, you said you had to set your Pitool +7 but your newly mechanical IPD is set to (x amount of mm) BELOW stock mechanical IPD… Can you expound, THX

I am confused too. I put the mechanical slider to what should haven been 58mm (lowest possible). It can’t go further, that’s why you have to break the connection to the lenses, if you want the lenses to go even lower. (automatic IPD adjustment of lenses and image position is now broken here) So the software should show 58mm, but it shows 70mm. Then I thought I have to go to negative software IPDs, to reach my 62mm. But no, positive values were necessary. Very strange :man_shrugging:

Yep sure is. Well I modded my old Pimax 4K and am an electronics repair tech by trade but I still really dont want to tear into the 8KX but its useless to me as it is right now.

I guess by now you have seen that there are many, many people reporting this problem on the forums, and far more often than with the old headsets. The problem of course is that there’s no magic solution for everyone. Some people have fixed with software settings, some with hardware, and some unfortunately cannot solve it at all.

It is not the only factor of eyestrain of course - depth settings is another - but it certainly doesn’t help. With software adjustment I could remove major eyestrain, but still had a big clarity problem. I managed to reduce it to a minor problem by swapping the X Comfort kit to the 5K+ cowling. That was the only thing that really worked.

These things also helped - a thicker leather pad from VRMust (which I find more usable and comfortable than either of the Pimax foams), counterweights and top headstrap from StudioformCreative.

Hope some combo will work for you :+1:t4:

https://community.openmr.ai/t/pleased-to-say-i-just-managed-to-fix-most-of-my-8kx-lens-issue-by-swapping-ck-gasket-with-5k-one/32337/1

https://community.openmr.ai/t/just-cant-get-ipd-settings-right-on-the-8kx/31555/30?u=octofox

https://community.openmr.ai/t/blury-in-one-eye/32261/22?u=octofox

I also had eyestrain problems with my new 8kx. Previously had Artisan and 8k +. My ipd is measured at 62.5mm by the optician and I always set the ipd with the wheel at 62mm and everything was good. With the 8kx I had to set the ipd offset left and right to -0.5, then the eyestrain was gone. Wheel ipd set to 62mm again.

BR Henry

Add images

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perfect imagic representation of the issue ha!

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So I did a bit of the lens spacing range mod, earlier in the week…

I say “a bit”, because I only filed down enough that the slide potentiometer now gets pulled all the way to its low end stop, which means I only needed to operate on one surface on each shuttle.

My p8kX readout now goes down to 60mm, which it did not do before. Were I to open the patient again, and amputate more, I would not break off the tab on the pot, like suggested in the originating post, but instead file the slot on the shuttle, that drives it, wider, and fill in the excess with JB Weld.

(Incidently; There is a few tenths of a millimetre “play” between the sides of this slot and the tab, so there is that much physical difference between dialling up to a given readout value, and dialling down to it.
Also; As I’m sure we’ve all already spotted without taking the HMD apart; Like on the HTC Vive before it, the non-driving sides (the ones without the worm gear, so top on Vive; bottom on Pimax 8k/5k), of the lens shuttles drag behind a not inconsiderable distance, when moved, so although we are talking really small numbers, it can be worth jiggling the lenses a bit after adjusting spacing, to stand them up in neutral position. :7 )

(Kind of curious what the unpopulated ribbon cable connector next to the potentiometer might be… Just a port for factory config/testing and development, perhaps, or maybe something in reserve for unknown expansions, or a USB header… :7 )

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@jojon
Did you by chance take any pictures of the PCBs inside the 8KX ? :wink:
Documenting the innards of the patient, for future mods preparation :slight_smile:

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Moving the HMD up or down will make a small difference for me, moving the headset closer to my face or further away doesnt do it either. I have tried a couple different thickness face gaskets but still cant get it right. I looked through the posts, and thank you for posting them here, I have tried a frew of them and went back and tried them again. I beleive my issue if that I have too small of an IPD. I have read here that the reported IPD that Pimax displays is actually greater so that would explain why I just cant get a great picture, since I have a small IPD.

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Interesting,

Do you have any pics? Are you saying that the physical limits of the slider man be modded to allow he slider to move a little further therefore giving a close to accurate IPD reading in the HMD display

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Also wondering if you have to break the seal between the lenses and the screens? dust was a real issue when i had to break that seal on my old Pimax 4K