I understand there’s no linkbox with pimax hmd, and I’ve always relied on it to turn them off. Is there anyway for the pimax hmd to communicate with lighthouses to turn them on and off?
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Is your power supply hidden in the wall too ? I used simple remote controlled power outlets to switch them on and off. You get them for a couple of bucks in any DIY store but they will require a line of sight…
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can we just leave the linkbox plugged in i wonder. or just use a bluetooth transmitter. its a great question though.
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I believe I saw sweviver turn the lighthouses off using the pitool software
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This.
Just leave the existing linkbox plugged in via USB, it’ll handle the bluetooth connection to the LHs.
What will be interesting to see if and how Pimax have chosen to implement this power management feature for their own full bundle.
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No, you just saw him turn off LH tracking as a whole on the HMD side within the Pitool Suite.
We didn’t see the effect this had on the LHs themselves.
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i wonder though, how will steam vr react to having a linkbox taking data and power signals but no display. def one to pass to @sweviver
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SteamVR is pretty clever that way afaik.
I expect 0 problems because from a SteamVR perspective, it makes no difference if the USB and video signal is routed through a glorified hub or connected directly to the GPU and motherboard.
I have personally run my Vive directly connected through the GPU via HDMI and USB via the motherboard, using the linkbox to only handle the LH power management with no issues whatsoever.
I see no difference at all with that configuration abstracted to a Pimax HMD. In fact, I’d be more worried if there was in fact a Pimax Linkbox that did not include the bluetooth interface neccessary but somehow identified directly to SteamVR.
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That sounds promising. Really hope that works. The plug where my lh is plugged in is very hard to get to.
My lighthouses have been plugged in and on since April of 2016 never had an issue.
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I hope the vive linkbox will still work, otherwise I’ll find some other way to turn them off, no way I’ll have them running.
I’ve been told the linkbox, as long as it’s plugged in and conn3cted to pc, will control powering lh on and off.
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Yeah, same here. I mounted and plugged mine in the day I opened the box and have never had them off since. Over 2 years as of now myself. No issues so far, knock on wood.
Problems occur when you are using the designated playspace for e.g. home entertainment.
For me, my playspace is in the ‘cinema’ with a beamer and all so the Lighthouses flooding the room with IR lasers pretty much disables any IR based remote operation.
In terms of longevity, I believe keeping them running is actually better than having them power on and off periodically. After all, those motors are basically repurposed HDD motors so they are set up for an extremely long runtime.