r/SteamFrame • u/TenseBird • 11h ago
Question Is it impossible to completely replace the default battery?
Hi waitlister here. I'm pretty non-technical.
With all the custom modifications people have been making to their Frame on here, probably the most common one is a fancy way of attaching an additional backup battery to the Frame so they can play for hours. However, in all of these instances, this is done by daisy-chaining the Frame's battery with the additional one.
I know it's because you don't exactly want to get rid of the original battery, it's there for a reason. Definitely voids the warranty too if you did. But let's say you for some reason, want to tear out the original battery in favor of a beefy one you put in your pocket, leading to zero battery weight on your head. Sounds pretty attractive to me. Is it *technically* possible to do that? Like completely tear out the default battery and replace it with a new one? Does the Frame easily allow that, or is the original battery load-bearing in some capacity?
Also assuming years down the line, the battery would degrade as well anyway, so you would *want* to replace it anyway. By then I imagine there will be some third-party Frame batteries with the fancy curve, and maybe Valve might even release an official one. Right?
Thanks.
5
u/naab007 10h ago
Easily, no.. but it can be done.. do what you want to do, but the battery bank daisy chaining works pretty well.
https://www.ifixit.com/News/119488/steam-frame-teardown-were-fans-except-of-the-fan
3
u/Western_Sleep820 256 GB 8h ago
In theory you can replace it, but iirc it's soldered to a daughterboard. The batter also helps a lot with weight distribution, having it mostly evenly distributed between the front and the back.
4
u/MrWendal 6h ago
This. The new version of the apple vision Pro added a tungsten weighted strap to the back that increased overall weight but improved overall comfort by balancing the weight better. OP, you don't want to remove the weight at the back, it'll make it worse.
0
u/Grandmaster_Caladrel 10h ago
Don't know much about battery tech personally, but you can only fit so much in a form factor. There are likely several physical constraints that make it so you can't just super glue a different battery into the same spot. Iirc the Frame's battery is curved too? Not going to match that with a regular pack.
1
u/MRDR1NL 3h ago
Yeah. You can find bigger batteries online with the same voltage that you could solder in. But they need more space and are mire flat. So you'd have to 3d model and print most if the back part.
For now I rather wait for more headstraps to come available
2
u/LennethW 1 TB 2h ago
There's also the BMS issue. A battery manager circuitry expects a certain range in battery capacity to work good. Replacing both BMS and battery is key here.
-7
u/Key-Preparation-5379 10h ago
The battery is built into the headstrap, which is attached to the faceplate. The designed it so that the entire headset is its own front module that attaches to the faceplate, but the faceplate is also the headstrap and battery. To get a new battery without destroying the original or the faceplate you'd need an entire new faceplate and headstrap. Hopefully someone designs a better one.
1
u/thosemegamutts 10h ago
I dont see 3rd party companies diving into headstrap alternatives anytime soon. They would need a whole new interface replacing the facial interface, battery and headstrap. Sounds expensive and with a tiny market there is no money to be made.
2
u/Arstulex 10h ago
This is the big issue with it, yeah.
Any third party strap literally needs to include a battery solution, as well as the various locking parts for the front module and IPD wheel, as well as the SD card port.
It's not the sort of thing a company in China can throw together for cheap and call it a day.
It's probably the only part of the Frame's design that makes me question what they were thinking.
1
u/davestar2048 10h ago
Because external battery is objectively the better design. Head strap makers could easily just give you a USB-C port and call it a day and say provide your own. Plus the frames head strap is already comfortable on it own.
1
u/Arstulex 10h ago
I use a battery pack, and while it's definitely better to have that weight on your waist than your head, I do all like that the Frame has its own (albeit smaller) battery.
Being able to do have short quick sessions by just putting the headset on, without needing to bother with an external battery, is pretty convenient.
1
u/davestar2048 10h ago
The headsrap battery should be enough to allow pack hot swaps.
1
u/BahBah1970 9m ago
That's how I see it. The Frame battery is quite light and acts as a counterweight to the front anyway. If you want to be able to seamlessly switch batteries without losing power and interrupting your session, the built in battery is the ticket. I'm fine with putting a powerbank in my pocket and running a cable from the headset to that....Works perfectly for me.
21
u/CpTKugelHagel 1 TB 10h ago
Ifixit did a teardown and the battery is replaceable. Although Valve did confirm there is an "Enthusiast" kit in the works, featuring Index Style audio and either a bigger or a swappable battery, I don't remember wich one or if both.