Being one of the lucky few to get my Steam Frame a few weeks ago, I have been using it quite a bit since then. I have been buying some third-party accessories to mitigate some of its weaknesses.

First the obvious one: it is surprisingly light and small, but overall not comfortable enough due to my glasses. To solve that I went ahead and bought prescription lenses from VR Optician (119€ including fast shipping and additional prescription fee).

Then I figured I had better protect it against sunlight because I do not have one of those fancy head mounts nor do I want to pack it in its box between each use. Thus I got an AMVR lens cover that fits quite well (13€).

And finally the battery life situation is… Well it’s bad. I got decent VR legs and can play for hours, but the battery only lasts at most 1h30 when running PCVR at 120Hz. So I got myself a UGREEN Nexode 145W 25000mAh Power Bank (56€), 2 short angled USB-C cables (24€), round magnetic USB-C adapters (16€) and a small fanny pack (10€).

I will also say there has been some trial and error regarding the magnetic adapter. The idea is to protect the headset port in case the cable snags on anything. I wanted to plug it directly in the headset port, but it tends to disconnect when I turn my head. The tradeoff I landed on is : one very short cable plugged in, magnetically coupled with a longer one that goes to the battery. The 240W-rated USB-C cables are also overkill but hey, not that much of a price difference (they are quite thick though and contributed some in my disconnect issue).

So there you have it, 238€ on top of the initial Steam Frame + ergonomic accessories kit purchase (which is a must-have if you ask me), not counting said trial and error.

  • JelleWho@lemmy.world
    0·
    22 hours ago

    You require to have the CC pins (CC1 for left and CC2 for right) to be able to use power delivery, these are the data pins that the device and adapter communicate on for highering the supplied voltage (and using power delivery).

    I do not know what magic you use to get PD working on an USB 2 cable. So please share

    I’ve attached a photo of the pins of an somewhat higher end magnetic cable, showing these pins are not available on an magnetic USB C cable Photo of magnetic cable

    • Natanael@infosec.pub
      0·
      20 hours ago

      Passive USB C cables can use resistors to signal up to 20V 3A (60W) under Power Delivery with just USB 2.0 data pins (as compared to classic USB 2 which is capped to around 5V 2A). You can even do cables with the chip which only makes the 2.0 wires available for data while still getting 100W

      That way a cheap manufacturer can put weakass cables in for negotiation rather than USB 3 data rate compatible ones

      • JelleWho@lemmy.world
        0·
        19 hours ago

        I think you got some things mixed up maybe? There is a resistor in an USB C to USB C cables but, this tells the power supply the max rating of the cable so it can respect this. This has nothing to do if both device and adapter actually agree on a higher voltage to change to.

        Also my point was that most magnet connectors only carry 2, maybe 4 connections. Which is enough for power only (2) or USB 2 data (4-5 wires), but not enough for Power Delivery.

        It can and will still charge, just at a slower speed.

        • Natanael@infosec.pub
          0·
          11 hours ago

          I looked around and can definitely see multiple stores holding 100W USB PD USB C cables with 2.0 data speeds. You can’t do 100W without being PD compatible with negotiation.

          • scutiger@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 hours ago

            You can be PD compatible AND limited to 2.0 speed without the number of functional conductors being the limiting factor. But they’re saying that the magnetic cable IS limited by the number of functional conductors and consequently cannot be PD compatible.