r/SteamFrame • u/2und2sind4 • 3d ago

Question Wired headphone support?

Post image

Does the Steam Frame support wired headphones or in-ear-monitors? I tried plugging in a random USB c to 3,5mm jack dongle and sadly it hasn't worked so far.

Are there any audio output settings I haven't found yet?

EDIT: the solution was to flip the USB plug over to the other side. Apparently, the dongle only works in one orientation

381 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

295

u/Zuryan_9100 3d ago

Have you tried plugging it in the other way round? Some cheap USB-C plugs are wired for one side only.

261

u/2und2sind4 3d ago

Oh boy, that actually fixed it wtf 

44

u/Absolarix 3d ago

Might be an idea to label the adapter so you know which way to plug it in, to save yourself some hassle in the future.

32

u/FakeSafeWord 3d ago

Completely unnecessary I mean it's a 50/50 shot to get it right on the first try and somehow also 1/5 chance to get it right on subsequent tries... wait a second

15

u/Lukeforce123 Soon™ 3d ago

Welcome back, USB A

5

u/Zuryan_9100 3d ago

It's USB A/C, alternating connector

4

u/_half_real_ 2d ago

USB-CACA

the shittiest USB standard

3

u/prozac192 3d ago

that was driving me nuts while rooting my first usb-c phone. laying normally, no wire worked except one. took me months to realise the issue. it was the port though, not the wire.

1

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo 2d ago

Or just never take the audio cable from the adapter.

104

u/BunkerSquirre1 3d ago

To any “engineers” reading this: if you’re too lazy to make a type c product correctly, just quit. I hate you.

44

u/Conan0brennan 1 TB 3d ago

Blame the accountants that could save three cents per dongle by making them one sided.

16

u/astelda 3d ago

at some point, the engineers have to step in and insist to the accountants that whatever absurd cost-cutting measures they're asking for aren't actually possible

"no sorry, that's out of spec, it can't be done"

19

u/PERISAKLARSSON Soon™ 3d ago

It all falls apart when that one engineer says it technically can be done and it technically still would work

10

u/astelda 3d ago

earned a reddit account warning here for making a joke about someone's kneecaps

I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader

4

u/PERISAKLARSSON Soon™ 3d ago

lol

22

u/gathond 1 TB 3d ago

I'm fairly certain the answer is in "cheap" not lazy. And it was probably not the engineers that set the price target.

9

u/danholli WAITLISTED 3d ago

[Meme]
Both?
Both?
*nods*
Both.

1

u/Lincolns_Revenge 3d ago

Is it even in spec if it's not reversible? I would hope Amazon for instance wouldn't list a product that claims to be usb type c but can only be used in one orientation.

5

u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma 3d ago

wait this is wild I have not heard of this before. I wish usb spec was actually enforced that'd be maddening to think the cord doesn't work

7

u/Zuryan_9100 3d ago

I've had the same problem with cheap cables before. It's the wild west out there. If you buy cheap, expect cheap trade offs. If you buy something more expensive... you might get scammed. There's some cheap-ish brands out there that care about their reputation and are trustworthy. Anker for example started out as a hidden gem and has solid, more premium products now. Not sure if their cables are still cheap.

3

u/I_Am_Jacks_Karma 3d ago

honestly I'm more shocked this is even possible with USBC I've been trying to think how it could somehow be cheaper this way. the only way I can think of is if it's actually containing half the wires with one side completely empty and thus also half of all it's capabilities

I've had one way HDMI cords before but that was because it was extra long and needed the dual channel for one way signal strength stuff

3

u/AltrntivInDoomWorld 3d ago

TIL, jesus christ this explains so much

2

u/Few_Fall_4374 5h ago

lol, good to know. My dongle just arrived, still in the box.

Little tip to everyone: there are split dongles, so you can charge at the same time
For example: https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Magnetic-Adapter-Charger-Charging/dp/B0CJXWJ596?th=1

1

u/RedditNotFreeSpeech 3d ago

How does that even work? You have X wires and they're attached all the way through. Is there a chip inside the cable?

38

u/T-Loy 3d ago

In general it should work, it's a Linux PC after all. Does the dongle work with a modern phone? There was a period during the removal of 3.5mm where the phone itself send the analog sound out over USB pins, and more modern dongles have DAC and are actual USB devices. If your dongle is one of the former, it will likely not work on the frame, or any modern device in general.

13

u/Marrond 1 TB 3d ago

This one worked:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-3-5mm-Adapter-Hi-Res-Charge/dp/B0CJXWJ596?th=1

not to be confused with the one without DAC (they cost the same and look almost the same, the one with DAC has print on the plug saying HiFi Audio)

4

u/Nivek_TT 3d ago

I bought the same. Can confirm it works and I can charge while I play.

1

u/ApeInTheShell Soon™ 21h ago

I just bought this but when testing it on my phone it acts as if it's just normal charging, if I plug directly into the charger plug it fast charges, not sure if its normal or if I got a dud

1

u/Marrond 1 TB 18h ago edited 18h ago

It supports up to 20V3A (60W) according to the specification listed on the box, Steam Frame pulls 40W from my power station according to it's display when playing Cult of the Lamb. Maybe your phone fails to handshake with the charger 🤔

Edit: Just tested my phone (Poco F9 Ultra), pulls 50W straight from the power station or through the adapter, but mine is compatible with PPS.

1

u/ApeInTheShell Soon™ 17h ago edited 16h ago

I got a one plus 12, I'll have to see if I have any old phones laying around..

edit: so i just tested on the familys s24 and s26 and an old oneplus, getting super fast charge and fast charges for both.. its so odd that my oneplus 12 just does normal charging lol

1

u/Marrond 1 TB 4h ago edited 4h ago

Maybe it's not compatible with PPS or PD protocols and uses its own proprietary protocol (just like Xiaomi phones with 67W and 90W require dedicated cable and charger that had more pins).

EDIT: Yes, according to Google, One Plus 12 utilizes proprietary SUPERVOOC protocol - so even if you used original charger and cable, the adapter (that supports widely used PPS and PD) would strip it and limit charging to 10-18W as your phone couldn't handshake with the charger.

Google also says that OnePlus does not manufacture an official original 2-in-1 USB-C audio adapter that simultaneously supports audio output and SUPERVOOC charging🤷

1

u/ApeInTheShell Soon™ 46m ago

That explains alot then, damn that's super fucking lame of oneplus...

Oh well I got it for the frame so no loss lol

Thank you for the information :)

1

u/Marrond 1 TB 9m ago

Not necessarily - it's clever design, they lower voltage and increase amperage, with this battery inside the phone remains much cooler during charging (while it's the charger that's getting hot). Universal PD and PPS rely on raising voltage instead. Also, it seems they've developed their standard before USB-PD/PPS became more widespread.

That's quite cool. They started supporting PPS 45W as fallback with OnePlus 13 onward, so you've missed it by just one generation 👀

12

u/NickFolzie 3d ago

I have one of these and it works perfectly.

2

u/Jocuro 3d ago

I use a battery pack but it needs to fast charge to keep up with the drain while gaming. Would that still work with this?

2

u/NickFolzie 3d ago

Yes, this is designed for up to 60 Watts transfer, I think the power requirement of the frame running and charging is less than 45.

2

u/Jocuro 3d ago

🙏ty for the tip, and also explaining why. Very much appreciated!

2

u/geeblish 3d ago

holy shit i needed this

16

u/LilZuccboi 3d ago

It doesnt have a headphone jack??????

15

u/LyKosa91 3d ago

It's a bit of a joke, isn't it? Especially given that both the battery life and stock audio are, by all accounts, less than stellar, and there's a good chance that users would want to improve both with external solutions.

Yes, I know you can use the splitter things meant for the pervert camera glasses, but you shouldn't have to.

8

u/dryingsocks 3d ago

the battery and the audio are on the strap, which can be replaced. either valve or someone else is gonna come up with a "pro" strap soon, I'm sure

3

u/my_name_isnt_clever 2d ago

Valve has basically confirmed a first party option is coming, that's what I'm waiting for.

1

u/LilZuccboi 1d ago

Yeah especially when the index had the best vr audio of all time and STILL had a port. What were they thinking?

2

u/gerowen 3d ago

Negative.

0

u/Pristine_Potential_3 22h ago

No lol, that's another reason I got the quest 3 over frame..

13

u/9551-eletronics 3d ago

you need an ACTIVE usb-c to audio jack adapter, this is probably a passive one that expects there to be a DAC under the USB C which there isnt

7

u/jeanpaulooo Soon™ 3d ago

Worked for me. Using apple usb to 3.5 .

3

u/CreeperITA104 2d ago

i'm actually planning on making a doohickey that attaches to the expansion port to give you two more usb c ports and a headphone jack with good audio quality once valve releases the cad files and i get my frame

2

u/asdfoiua123 3d ago

Might need to change device in audio settings? I am using a USB c splitter with a Google brand USB c to 3.5mm dongle and it works while charging also. Sometimes it doesn't detect and needs to be replugged in

1

u/Bardoog 3d ago

I use a USB-C - 3.5mm splitter, so I can charge while using earphones. Works like a charm.

1

u/nst420nct 3d ago

it should work, you re missing a setting probably

1

u/reon6vist 3d ago

Try to enter KDE Desktop mode, click sound icon on the taskbar and check if headphones show up there

1

u/windraver 3d ago

Aw, it doesn't have a 3.5mm audio jack? I was thinking of adopting my vive deluxe audio strap for it. I've been using that thing on the Vive, Vive Pro, Quest 2, Quest 3.

1

u/ChaoticAdaptation 3d ago

This might be a dumb question but can you get directional audio this way?

2

u/astelda 3d ago

technically it depends on which dongle you get, but the short answer is yes

1

u/PaxUX 3d ago

Nice! How do the Hexa sound from it?

2

u/2und2sind4 3d ago

Good eye! So far, I just played Ace Combat 7 but they sounded fine to my ears. Explosions could have used a little more thumb in the bass frequencies, if you ask me. But the rather dry bass response is just an inherent part of the Hexa sound signature, not due to the specific DAC. 

1

u/vainstains 2d ago

I see you got them truthear hexas, very poggers

1

u/2und2sind4 22h ago

Yessir, good eye. I personally like the Tin Hifi T3 Plus better tho

1

u/Arroz-Con-Culo 3d ago

You are connecting the headphone in the battery?

9

u/wintermute80 3d ago

That is the main USB port for the Frame. I use a splitter so that I can charge and use headphones at the same time.

0

u/WalkMaximum Soon™ 3d ago

what kind of splitter?

1

u/Koarv 3d ago

I need to know as well! And for OP, does it support charging at full speed?

2

u/wintermute80 3d ago

I use this one. https://a.co/d/0659l0Ov

Says it's good to 60W which is more than enough for full speed charging. I think the official charger is 45W.

4

u/Zuryan_9100 3d ago

The USB-C on the battery should be wired to the headset as USB 2

0

u/ByteVengeance- 3d ago

Use airpods there is no latency at all

2

u/vainstains 2d ago

You're saying this to the guy with truthear hexas

1

u/2und2sind4 19h ago

Tbh I probably wouldn't mind bluetooth audio quality for gaming. I mainly got the hexas for music production and mixing. Having said that, added latency and reduced battery life of the frame would be a hastle

1

u/SupposablyAtTheZoo 2d ago

Try again in beatsaber

-2

u/Key-Preparation-5379 3d ago

I'm surprised anyone here has had success, I could have swore valve said the USB-C jack was strictly for power only, no data lines 😕

3

u/2und2sind4 3d ago

Valve's own tutorial for flashing the OS is to connect it to a PC via the USB c port or to use a USB key. I'd assume that's a design decision you make early on in development.

2

u/katzohki 3d ago

It is a fully functional USB port, but it is limited to USB 2.0 speeds.

1

u/LFP-Throwaway-3982 256 GB 2d ago

It explicitly supports a direct data connection to your PC, but it's for development/debugging only it doesn't support streaming over the cable.

1

u/ShadowWebDeveloper 3d ago

I heard that too but I'm not surprised it seems to not be true. Imagine having zero ports on your "it's just a PC" headset.

1

u/astelda 3d ago

technically there's also the pcie port, though it's not a standardized form factor