Dream Air lighthouse edition internal dongles signal strength

Pimax Hardware Pimax Discussion
1

Hi, I was able to test 3 Dream Air LH headsets in total, and 2 out of 3 had the same issue: when I move one of the Index controllers to an arm’s distance, the wireless connection between the controller and the headset starts to break up. The controller starts to drift away or disappears completely. When I move it closer to the headset, the connection is restored.

The problem is not in the controllers – I tried 3 different pairs. Depending on the order of pairing, it can be observed with either left or right controller. The problem clearly follows one of the internal dongles.

When I observed it with the first headset, I thought that it was just a random QC issue (for example, somebody forgot to plug in the antenna pigtail at the assembly line). However seeing the exact same issue on the second headset makes me suspect that there is something systematic here.

Note that the third Dream Air does not have this problem at all. Both internal dongles operate normally and do not lose the connection with controllers at an arm’s distance.

Could it be that there is a batch of Dream Airs with this issue? The serial numbers are in my ticket 130711.

I hope Pimax engineers can look into this and create e.g. a firmware fix.

The problem manifests like this inAppData\Local\Pimax\runtime\pvr_srv_log_<date>.txt:

01:48:45.893 86B83E8160: Packet received after 0.566s
01:48:48.759 86B83E8160: Packet received after 0.682s
01:48:48.759 86B83E8160: Wireless controller LHR-49E45FAE disconnected
01:48:48.759 LHR-49E45FAE: Disconnected from receiver 86B83E8160
01:48:48.759 Pimax driver removed Knuckles Right LHR-49E45FAE
01:48:49.628 86B83E8160: Unable to fetch gyro/accelerometer range modes
01:48:50.174 WARNING: Malformed wireless packet v0
01:48:52.348 86B83E8160: Packet received after 1.692s
01:48:59.621 86B83E8160: Packet received after 3.731s
01:49:42.630 86B83E8160: Packet received after 21.216s
01:50:23.037 86B83E8160: Packet received after 11.748s
01:50:44.773 86B83E8160: Packet received after 21.737s
01:50:44.820 LHR-49E45FAE: Connected to receiver 86B83E8160

I wonder if there are users who observed the same effect and had to switch to external dongles as a workaround. I know one, but that user has GripVR controllers that are more exotic. In my case the controllers are very typical though (Index knuckles, three different pairs).

4 Likes
2

Hallo. i have a very simular issue where one controler (last paired it seems) do not track stable. and if i for a but of time only have tasks for the other controler it stops trackin at all and can not come back before the Dream air have been power cycled. buttons do still work strangle even throg the tracking have stooped.. my ticket have number 137516.

PS. this is my second Dream Air. the first one had no controler issue.. but the lense for the rigth eye was off some how.

@PimaxQuorra could you chack and see if our HMD’s wit index tracking issue are in the same batch range?

Regards

Thomas.

1 Like
3

Hi Thomas,

Let me forward your ticket to our developers so they can investigate what’s causing the tracking issue.

4

I’ll bring this up in our next meeting with the engineers and developers.

1 Like
5

Hello,

I’m experiencing exactly the same issue with both Dream Air headsets I’ve owned.

The first one had flashing display issues as well as controller drift, so I returned it. The replacement no longer has the flashing problem, but the controllers still drift and occasionally lose tracking.

@PimaxQuorra I’m using brand-new GripVR controllers, so it would be great to get some clarification on what’s causing this. I’m not sure whether I should open another support ticket with Pimax, since I can’t tell if the issue is actually with the headset itself—and I don’t have a SteamVR dongle to test further.

I’ve also noticed that several people on Reddit seem to be experiencing the exact same problem:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pimax/s/SX9iLZ1Yap

6

For now I am using external dongles to solve this problem.

I took the advice from VRChat users (who push lighthouse tracking to its limits), and they said these Neko Dongle Pro were the best: https://nekovr.loli.llc/products/pre-order-neko-dongle-pro (choose “Index HMD” firmware for best performance with controllers).

NekoVR took a long time to ship, but the dongles work flawlessly. I used a USB extension cable to place them apart from each other.

Wish Pimax did not require such workarounds, though.

7

Please submit a support ticket, and our developers will be brought in to investigate the issue.

I know they’re also testing GripVR, as we’ve received several reports that these controllers aren’t working very well. The additional information from your case will help the team identify the cause and improve compatibility.