Valve index Base station red light of death Fix

[Kayjack]

Firstly always check if you still have warranty and try to get the device replaced via the proper channels. and give steam support their chance to help you.

Secondly, this repair only works if you happen to have the same fault that I ran into. Of which I will tell you how to figure out if its the same.

Thirdly, I make no guarantee this will fix it. but the repair is cheap and all you need is a soldering iron, a security bit screwdriver, rotary or other cutting tool and a single 14$ part.

This is some what technical repair that will involve soldering and irreversible damage to the aesthetic of the devise. if you have no experience in DIY repair and safely operating cutting tools and soldering equipment or are under 18 DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS.

Okay so you've got the red light of death. in my case the IR laser diode in the base station died, and I was outside of warranty and my only course of action was to buy a new base station. but i wasn't happy without at least trying to fix it.

To see if you have the same issue just power it on and look at it through a cellphone camera. you should hear it spin up as usual before giving you the red light of death. though through the phone you shouldn't see any IR light being emitted. do this with a working station to see the difference. if it spins up but isn't emitting IR this SHOULD be the fix for you.

the hardest part is getting into the base station shell. outside of that the internal modules are all plug and play and its a shame they don't sell spares. I used a rotary cutter to get into mine. however you do be very careful its tough plastic. and save the tinted shield you'll still want it to keep dust out. once in there's a little facade that clips near the top, remove that.
then there are 4 torx style screws holding in the main unit remove those and withdraw the unit. you only need to take off the top board, under that you'll see the laser module and optical array. this part is finicky and will fight you so good luck. but do what you can un-solder and remove the old dead diode without causing damage to the diode contacter board or optical array. you want to replace the diode with a new IR diode you can find them on amazon listed as (IR LED Diode Lasers 808nm 500mW 5.6mm TO-18 Infrared Laser Diode with Pd LD) for about 14$. install the new diode, solder on its contacter board and reassemble the unit and re seal the tinted shield back to the front. assuming nothing was damaged during this process you should have a sckrunkly looking but working base station again.

I'm not liable for any injury or additional hardware damage caused by attempting this. you're performing this repair at your own risk so please be careful.

[VIT]

500mW is probably too high power
in BSv1 (Index works with it too) used 12mW/sr @ 100mA / 850nm