Some controller Compatibility issues with Index controller (Some Info)

Little update from Alex to my ticket:

"sorry for my delay reply because i had a long holiday from May 1.

Our engineers are improving hardware for better compatibility with Index controllers and we have a initial plan.

About already sold headsets, we get the e-mail reply from Valve , the Valve ask us for more compare experimental data , i will send the date to the Valve today .

Best wishes to you!"

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Thanks for keeping us up to date! I’ve ordered that 20 dollar knockoff steamvr adapter. Lets hope it works. I’m really hoping pimax and valve can fix this issue, but it looks to be complex. If the adapter solves the issue I’ll be happy.

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Thanks for the update Leonardo.
But I’m a bit concerned if it is in fact a hardware issue, then it could exist in all Pimax HMD’s even the upcoming 8K X :thinking: sure hope this is not the case.

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Strange thing for sure, @risa2000 have you seen any chip in the HMD for Tracking? I wonder if it is generic of a based on the Valve tech chip.

I did have a few drop outs, but not very often and it seemed more BS related, as most often it occurred with my back to one and then going down (which could be partially blocking line of sight due to my desk).

Also if I read correctly its not USB related and also happens with the valve dongle… that is stranger or its not only PiMax Related - anybody use some other HMD with BS, Index Controllers and Played Alyx?

Actually Alyx is the only game I ever had it in. As others posted in Oculus (Lone Echo, Asgards Wrath and Stormland) I have never had this and I have played them for many hours. I also never had it in games like Skyrim (also a few hours).
BUT Alyx is the only game I played that has the issue and also the only that makes full use of full finger tracking - Oculus only has the 3+1+1 Tracking… (less Data?)

oh man so many guessing’s

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It happens in any game for me, not just alyx. It’s only once a minute or two, so in some games you can play without even noticing. At first I thought it was my room setup, but no. My controllers work perfectly with the OG vive, same base stations.

It’s defo not the USB bandwidth, plugging in the controller solves the issue and is sending the same data over the USB cable.

People are saying the issue is largely resolved with the valve dongle. This indicates, to me, either a bandwidth or drop out issue with the Bluetooth receiver in the HMD. I’ve ordered a dongle, so I’ll confirm if this works for me. Like you said, the additional finger tracking stuff might be the reason for this issue, but it’s worth noting that vive controllers and index controllers do have identical numbers of photodiodes.

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Thx, are you playing Just steam or also in Oculus games? I have played Stormland for hours in one go, no drop out - I am quite sure.

Which dongels are you getting? (or what are the latest revisions)

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I haven’t specifically tried oculus games and I have plenty of them to test. That would be a great way to tell if this is a steamvr issue. I typically use revive to keep my play boundaries, but I’ll test thru just pitool tonight.

this is the dongle : https://www.virtualbuilds.com/product-page/usb-wireless-receiver-dongle

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Christ… has anyone found another source for these? $10 shipping is a bit ridiculous. That thing can go in an envelope for 55 cents first class…

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Keep us updated on this please :slight_smile:

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Yup, 20$ each, plus tax and shipping.
I needed 2, and that would have been 55$ USD.

Plus, they don’t take paypal… so still a nope can’t do, do not know what to do thing. :thinking:

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Pretty sure you only need one, just as you’d only need 1 controller connected via USB.

I hate paying for shipping too but your alternative is paying >80 for a steam controller and dongle, and selling the controller on ebay again with no dongle. Too much work haha.

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I have not disassembled Pimax headset, it would be better answered by those who did (but are no longer among us). But in OG Vive there are two dongles, each for one controller. You are supposed to pair the dongle with the controller. The dongle itself is connected to the USB hub in the headset and communicates with the PC over the USB cable.

It is possible that Index controllers are able to emit more data than the original Vive wands, or Oculus controllers, so they may stress the USB connection, but definitely not by the bandwidth, only by the timing.

The other possibility is that the radio traffic between the dongles and the controllers gets more active with Index controllers and prone to dropouts.

The last question is, how Pimax actually implemented the receivers in the headset.

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With more recent updates the steamcontroller can be used with normal Bluetooth for things like steam link ap.

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Just wanted to share: it’s possible that this issue could happen on both the Vive and Index as well (even with Vive wands), if their cameras are active: https://www.reddit.com/r/ValveIndex/comments/cmpib3/just_got_my_index_right_controller_tracking_issues/

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I don’t have any problem when I use the Artisan with the index controllers while playing HLA but I do have some tracking problem with the left hand controller when I use my 5K+. No tracking problem with the vive wand controllers and 5K+.

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I do not know who to blame but I know that pimax 5k + worked flawlessly months with index controllers just perfect and so some theories about the need to replace antennas or slow data transfer do not convince me. I suspect that it is the compatibility of new drivers install by steam (I changed the pimax software to the older ones did not help). If the steam has changed and does not work then they should remove it and give the old one instead of looking for a problem. My problem started so 2-3 days after the premiere of HL alex unfortunately half of the game was quite frustrating for me …
I will add that nothing will change in the room except the amount of dust and the stations are firmly screwed to the ceiling … and the problem appeared out of nowhere and occurs everywhere even in steam home vr

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Seems to be problems on both sides. Some haven’t had problems while others do.

Even some Index and Vive owners are experiencing issues.

Probably none are just using 1 version of transmitter/receivers.

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I was thinking about this a bit - a while back I had some issues with a Sound Card in the course of that I was looking into a lot of stuff on that system - Latency being one of them.
LatencyMon showed me that during listening of certain music in certain situations the systems latency spiked so high that it caused drop outs in the clean/clear/continuous playback.
Anybody had a look at a thing like that?

Edit: I just remembered that I also never had the issue with Bone Works… just gave it a try again and it worked fine.

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I have used tools like this in the past - typically I have gone on the hunt when my mouse stops responding, or when the OS reports high levels of System Interrupts. I’ve also used Windows Performance Recorder to identify which drivers are causing the interrupts. In that example it was a bad audio driver.

I was having rubbish tracking again last night so I’ll run this while playing and see what I can find

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LatencyMon is all green. When a controller loses a connection it freezes in position, but everything else continues as normal, which is not the behavior I would expect from too many CPU interrupts. (I would expect absolutely everything to freeze while the CPU handles the interrupt)

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