[SOLVED] Base Stations don't show up

[TaeKwonDodo]

Greetings! For a couple of days now I have the problem, my base stations don't show up in the little window of SteamVR on the bottom right. I think thats more or less the reason why I can't calibrate my trackers anymore.

The calibration attempt insstantly aborts in the moment where I click the calibrate button in OpenVR Space Calibrator. A day before that happened everything worked fine. I don't know what happened suddenly. Do you know what the problem is and how to fix it?

VR Hardware:
Oculus Rift S
3x HTC Vive Tracker 2.0
2x HTC Vive Base Stations 1.0
USB Hub to connect the three dongles

[Bob Loblaw]

Could be any component here. If the base stations are showing green status LEDs and are in the correct modes (double check the a,b,c they display) then it's not likely to be them, because it's unlikely they each had a lens fall out at the same time.

The mistake you don't want to make is assuming that the failure of SteamVR to detect base stations is the root cause, because base stations do not directly tell SteamVR they are working. The base stations do nothing but sweep lasers over the room. The tracked devices getting struck by the lasers tell SteamVR the base stations are working. The base stations are not going to show green in the SteamVR status window until you have a tracked object which is on and connected and getting hit with the lasers from the base stations. A problem with that USB hub could have taken out all the trackers at the same time... check the cabling, maybe try one tracker on a different USB port.

[TaeKwonDodo]

Thank you for your message, Bob! Well... like I said on the day before I NOTICED the problem, everything worked fine. On the day I've noticed it something happened. I was looking for something behind my monitor and leaned a little with my thighs against my table. In this moment the table moved against the wall and I THINK, but I'm not sure, it squished some cable. I mean, my table is not THAT massive, but could be a possibility for a little damage or so. But the confusing part is everything else works fine. USB Hub works and buttons are glowing, base stations show their normal behaviour.

I think I will check the USB Hub. After all the dongles are on the hub and maybe one of them has a problem. Or they don't get the connection to the PC. The Hub has two cables. One for the power and one USB cable to my PC. Even when the USB cable COULD be broken, the Hub is powered and the buttons glow. I have really no idea what the problem could be... annoying! :(

[TaeKwonDodo]

Somehow I was able to make my base stations appear again in the SteamVR status window. But what did you mean with "a, b, c"? Maybe the channel letters in the front of the base stations?

Parallel I found out there was an info on the HTC website. If I want to sync the base stations I need to push the button on the back. This changes also the channel I've mentioned above. The website says one base stations needs Channel B and the other one Channel C without sync cable. With sync cable I need Channel A and B. I have no sync cable, so I tried the non cable way.

Maybe this was the reason why it didn't appear in SteamVR. Now I see them again there, like I said. But normally I can see them also in the VR view when I have my headset on. But they don't appear. The trackers also don't appear. Normally they do.

Edit: So. I solved the problem. the two base stations simply had the wrong channels. First I gave my front base station the B channel and the other one the C channel. This made them appear again in the SteamVR status window. But it still didn't want to calibrate. Then I switched the channels. Gave the other one B and the other C. THEN IT WORKED!

[Bob Loblaw]

You are confused about base station modes and channels. Base station 1.0's have modes (operating modes), not channels. Only base station 2.0 have channels, which are totally different, and they don't have modes.

FYI, 1.0 lighthouses take turns with their laser sweeps and one is master mode (b) and one is slave mode (either IR sync (mode c) or cable sync (mode a)). OTOH, Base-station 2.0's encode the base-station ID (called a channel) onto the beam, so they don't have to synchronize with each other. Only newer gear (vive pro, index) can decode this info from the beam. OG Vive gear (HMD, black controllers 1.0) will not work with base station 2.0's. The newer gear (vive pro, index) can also work with 1.0 base stations.