HTC Vive Wand Controller 18650 mod tutorial (VRC in mind)

[@TheVoidBun]

00:00 - Intro 02:28 - Parts 06:14 - Disassembly 10:36 - Battery disassembly 13:28 - Battery connector 14:29 - Connector prep 16:51 - Connecting back 18:48 - Reassembly 23:50 - battery holder 30:15 - VRC test

[@wadewatts850]

What a coincidence, just what I was looking for. Ever since I upgraded to the 3.0 trackers (that last 7 hours), my wands became the bottle neck of my playtime. Thank you for posting this.

[@TheVoidBun]

Glad to help 🐇👍

[@GabrielTobing]

Wish they'd give us cosmos controllers that work with base stations, I love the shape of it and the fact that I can easily swap out batteries XD

[@TheVoidBun]

Do this at your own risk. I take no resposibility if you screw something up. Mod inspired by: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKmZpXaeZstnbrM Connector: www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/jst-sales-america-inc/ACHR-03V-S/1647784 Tape used: www.tesa.com/en/consumer/tesa-mounting-tape-for-tiles-metal-100kg-m.html Screws - botland.com.pl/srubki-i-nakretki/637-zestaw-srubek-podkladek-i-nakretek-330szt-5410329304478.html (Couldn't find just the 20mm x m2, only in a set like this) JST connector example - www.pcboard.ca/jst-ph-2-4pin ifixit disassembly guide - www.ifixit.com/Guide/HTC+Vive+Controller+Battery+Replacement/98357

[@TheLonelyViper]

Having grip button failures on mine. Any suggestions on where to get parts? :D Veeery tempted to try this... not sure I wana risk tracking loss

[@TheVoidBun]

Looks like those buttons are proprietary (at least on vive pro 2) and I have a sneaking suspicion (after trying to search for them online) that it will be a pain to replace if you are going to try and source the original ones. I'd just go the easy route and get busted ones from eBay and then use those as a donor. www.ifixit.com/Guide/HTC+Vive+Controller+Grip+Buttons+Replacement/98361 You could also try to crack the metal casing of the button and attempt to replace whatever actual button they soldered on the PCB (since it's already broken, why not eh?), but that might end up being a massive waste of time because putting the metal casing back on (even if you manage to solder off the old button and put on a new one) would be pretty hard if not impossible. Aliexpress seems to have no parts, sadly (unless I didn't look hard enough) As for any tracking issues. Ever since I did this mod, I pretty much had none. The controllers have so many sensors on them that they are pretty much not bothered if one or two are obstructed slightly. The only issue I had so far are the battery wires coming off at the solder joint because the metal was bending and twisting too much. I mitigated that by simply supergluing the insulation of the wire to the battery casing so that it's more secure and moves less. I also had an issue with the tape that I used, it was not strong enough and in very active games like "Space Pirate Trainer" the battery casing became loose and unstuck. I fixed that by using a glue called "UHU Max Repair Power" to glue the battery casing to the controller. Now it's very secure and hasn't budged since. However, a crazy friend of mine did manage to put so much momentum into his swing that a battery simply came out of the casing and flew off into a wall. Truth be told, this is an extreme scenario because he is a normie with no VR experience, so he started swinging the controllers as if he was fighting for his life or something. In retrospect, though, I could have used a more expensive battery casing that is way more snug and has more "lips" at the top to stop that from happening. Over all, I'm pretty satisfied with how it performs. The only tracking related issue you may encounter if the battery wrapper is a bit too reflective and the IR light might do weird bounce off its surface and confuse the controller. But you can just use a variety of materials to make the battery less glossy to stop that from happening.

[@TheLonelyViper]

@@TheVoidBun Yeah im buying v1 controllers to canabalise! Dude thanks so much for the writeup! Im going to try aftermarket batteries and if that doesnt work Ill be back with waaay more questions :D

[@neightneight1280]

I've found local marketplace deals for all this kit - best one so far was a complete Vive set for $175 ( My original Vive was $700, lol! ) Definitely worth a look!

[@SelketRua]

thanks man:D also i didnt screw anything up lol. (you earned a sub)

[@TheVoidBun]

Glad to help, and thanks!

[@SpringChickensOnlyMan]

Has anyone ever tried this with the valve index controllers? What I wanna try to do is see if I can extract that battery and then just have a wire plugged into it instead of a battery inside the controller so that my playtime isn't limited by batteries dying

[@TheVoidBun]

In theory, this is possible with any device. With the index controllers there might be a complication though, because it's a bit more sophisticated than the wand controllers. I would suggest either extensively watching some index teardown videos/tutorials to make sure you are up to the task and can perform a disassembly and reassembly without issues. Or get yourself a somewhat busted one from eBay or something and use that one as a practice dummy so that you don't ruin your controllers. Also, this kind of mod definitely will void your warranty, and I am definitely not going to be held responsible if the mod fails. It's also worth mentioning to make sure you do not mix up the + and - because the controllers may not have a protection built in for reverse polarity and thus may kill the controller if you mix up the wires. Happy modding 👍

[@SpringChickensOnlyMan]

@@TheVoidBun At least with Vive wands this could help for the years to come since they’re less likely to break fast than the index controllers. Everyone’s been talking about the joystick problems on youtube

[@TheVoidBun]

@@SpringChickensOnlyMan True, these things are built like a Nokia 3310

[@SpringChickensOnlyMan]

@@TheVoidBun I hope in the future a person on KZbin discusses all the major problem with the index controllers and how to address all those problems without valves help because instead of actually helping they send you another fragile controller. And I’m pretty sure there’s people ME who don’t wanna keep spending $270 on a few months on controllers just for them to keep breaking it’s nothing but a waste of money. Wish companies would stop messing around and make vr controllers and headsets for pcvr that are actually good

[@SpringChickensOnlyMan]

@@TheVoidBunare there any scary risks like the green battery exploding or anything like that? I honestly would rather attempt to solder and pull something like this off with the index controllers instead of buying two of them because these things are not cheap and once the lithium batteries you buy for the mod severely degrade you can just recycle those and buy new batteries instead of a $270 pair of controllers