Thanks rajveer. That sounds like the lag introduced by the sequential display tech they are using however - it may not be taking into account any additional lag caused by the display interface box.

Found out a way to reduce the lens reflection at the edge. Removed the plastic lens cover and paint the edge of the lens with
matte black paint.



Ski goggles mod in progress.

Nice, so even you got tired of the stock design

We're at about the same stages in our mod, I have not had time for a week now, will try to work some on it this week or this weekend. Have you choosen a mounting solution? I will make a baseplate in alu that will have oval holes fizzed into it so you can slide the HMZ eyepiece and adjust the distance to eyes that way, will use L-shaped mountings you can find in hardware stores to mount the baseplate to the glass.

Im thinking of using matte spray paint, sprayed from the inside of the glass to darken it, since light will be able to leak in through the hole im thinking of using some kind of foam and cut out holes for the lensens and attach them on the inside of the skigogles, this way they will follow the lenses if you use the pupil adjuster

Most likely I'll use aluminium L bracket or plastic L bracket for mounting. I'm thinking to design the mount that can tilt the lens up/down for better focus. Reason I go for Ski mod is when I jump few times with the previous mounting, the position of the lens move slightly out of focus.

Is a adjustable up/down mount really necessary? I choose a positon on the glass so that my pupils are centerted on the lens, then I can move the entire goggle to fine adjust until I get a perfect vertically position, horizontally I'll use the built in adjuster, and for Z I use the base plate as described

It's not the adjustment of up/down but tilting the angle of the lens maybe in +/- 10 degrees up/down. Could be useful if you can focus the bottom screen but slightly blur on the top or vice versa.

ah, thats thougher, and to get it to be stable, how will you do that?

Most likely with screws and rubber wedges. I'm still brainstorming on the mechanism.

Have shortened my HMZ about an inch closer to goggle frame vs. last pics I posted (still looks the same in general though). Wanted tilt adjustment too, I used turnbuckles (found in local RC shop). Turn one way, pushes both pieces away, other way moves both closer, hence can not only adjust tilt (more than enough), but also exact distance from eye to lens on each side.

I use no extra mounting plate now by the way, setup is a 4 point mount that uses the lexan edge from goggles atop (to red circled conveniently located/built in mount points in pic below), turnbuckles on each side of lower frame. Assembled unit is VERY stout, as if goggles and HMZ are one/were made as one.

Any way, sorry for dark turnbuckle pic, but hopefully can see how the turnbuckles were used. Zip tie is only on white plastic piece for cable strain relief, will tidy that up a bit now that I've nailed things down final, have the time.

Just did the hole in the glass, i still have to make adjustments for the HMZ to fit, but its a start

Going to copy SDM design. I try out the original casing and at the point of no return by cutting of the nose pieces and side wing to mount it nearer to the eye. So far it fit the googles. Still missing some mounting point at below and going to do more drilling.

Shameless copy of SDM ski goggles mod. Thanks for the idea. I just use double sided tape to mount the top extruded plastic to the internal of the goggles. Going to add extra screws at the bottom for adjustment of tilting the HMD.

Nice, but using tape? Doesnt sound like it will hold?
I will try to get time this weekend to make the baseplate for my mod

Would depend on the tape hes using - some of the hobby stuff I have is apparently also used for sticking skirt kits to actual cars, so it must be pretty strong

Loving the look of some of these mods - would really like to see some better photos of these 'turnbuckles' so I can understand what is being talked about though.

I'm using industrial strength 3M double sided heat resistance tape.

Ok, will that hold if you jump up and down every day for very long?
I must admit that I have no experience with high-end tapes so I dont have a clue, but I always looked and using tape has a 'ugly hack'

If thats the same stuff I've seen, its pretty damn strong. One of its uses is mounting skirt kits to cars...

Yup. That's the same stuff used for automotive. It's quick and simple, not that ugly as it is hidden.

I have given my base plate to a guy at my company that will fizz it for me, while I wait for him to get it done (Those guys at the Precision Engineering department works really slow ) I'm going to work on the 5 volt mod.

Im thinking of getting the DC-DC-stepdown pierreye linked to, a question though, if the 220 Volt powersupply in the HMZ box is a switched powersupply it can take damage from getting 5 volts from behind the power stage which it will it if fed it from the points PalmerTech showed in his picture.

My question is, has anyone fed this baby with 5 Volts, and did the PSU in the HMZ box hold? How many hours have you driven it in this way?

Here's another adjustable DC step down. A bit more expensive, but I use them and can vouch that they are quality parts.

http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/de-swadj3

PS. Maybe you guys should consider creating a thread for specific mods. (ie. Sony HMZ Ski Goggle Mod)

If brantlew had tested the DC converter than I would put more faith in it than the china product. Important specs that I look at is DC voltage stabilization and over/under voltage protection. Haven't tested the DC converter yet.

Anyway, I had completed the ski goggle mod with 2 additional screw at the side for tilt adjustment. I should get a longer screw but current setup is good enough and very sturdy. The top part is still using double sided tape. Jump a few times and the hmz-t1 doesn't move at all.

I bought the one that pierreye linked to, gotta try
So no one have actually tried powering this of a 5volt source yet? Theres a possibility you can damage the switched PSU in the HMZ box

@pierreye: Looking good.

I tried to power the unit off the lab-PSU at work, and at the welcome screen the glasses and box used 1.4A = 7.84W @ 5.6V.
But I forgot to feed it with a HDMI signal while connected to the PSU and I guess the power usage can rise a bit when it has to process a HDMI signal.

My plan is to remove the 220Volt PSU from the box entirely and replace it with the DC-DC stepdown I bought from ebay, this way I can use a 12Volt DC brick when using the HMD for gaming, and a 11.1 volt Lipo battery when using it for FPV flying

Looking forward to your voltage mod. Anyway, I had ski goggle mark over my face after 2 hours. Did I over tighten the strap?

Hehe, maybe, does it have to be really tight not to tip over from the weight? You might have to add an extra strap over the head then :/
Is it better to wear than the stock design for long hours, not done with mine so havent tested

Loosen the strap and add a counter weight from the middle. Feel much more comfortable and no pressure on the face.

I wanted/needed the HMZ lenses/screens closer to my eyes, so the lexan of the goggles actually mounts to the other/opposite side of the two (built in to HMZ) mount points atop than you have it pierreye. It overlaps more of the top of the HMZ assembly of course, so to do this, need to either cut the HMZ plastic, or need a wider cutout up top in the goggle lexan -looking something like this to clear the HMZs curved plastic front piece/lip:
.....____________________
......\ ........Cutout .........../
.......!...........___...........!
.......!_____/...... \_____!

I opted for the latter, cutting the goggle "glass" to allow for clearance. This will move the screens/lenses closer to the eyes, the perfect clearance in my my case. Can just let the curved goggle glass sit "naturally" over the top of the HMZ unit (what I do), or opt to direct it between several bushing stubs that will move the screens a bit further away again (like the middle ground between the way I have it and the way you have it now).

This reduces the moment arm a bit too, brings the CG of the unit closer to your face/goggles, so could reduce counterweight needs (I don't use or need any). Other things you can do to lighten everything, but the above is mainly about getting the screens closer to your eyes. Very much wanted/needed in my case, don't know if you are happy with the lens to eye distance you have now or not.

Latest other change I did was the turnbuckles. Goggles are meant to flex a bit to conform to different faces, even flex a bit bit just taking them on/off. My turnbuckles were mounted to the frame (rather than to the goggle glass as pierreye has it), which allowed a tad bit of flex, but this made the turnbuckles very hard to adjust on the fly depending on how the goggles were positioned. Could see the turnbuckles needed a bit of pivot room (ideally) to remove any stress from both the HMZ unit and the goggle frame. So, I dumped the turnbuckles and went with small ball links/connectors and threaded rods instead. On HMZ side, ball links are bolted on types, not meant to be removable. Goggle side ball links/connectors are the snap on/off style, easily popped off, given a few turns to adjust (while actually wearing) if/as needed. Once again, got all bits from a local RC shop.

Anyway, once new setup is worn, positioned on your face, still gives a 4 point mounting system just the same, new ball link setup just allows MUCH easier adjustment, things to flex/pivot to relieve any strain on any parts, allows the goggles to "adapt" to different faces more as they "naturally" would for best comfort.

Hope that makes any sense, will post pics to make this all clear if anyone is interested.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Manage to trim down the plastic further and mount the lens around 5 mm nearer to the eye. With some adjustment on the tilt, I manage to get very good focus. Still need the counterweight for best comfort but leave some mark on the face after 2 hours of usage.

Nice work!

I have trouble finding a nice AC-DC brick that has atleast 2A for a justified price, I'm thinking about picking this up. What do you guys think about the idea to skip the stock 220Volt PSU and go DC all the way?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-3A-AC-DC-Ad ... 256c68c631

I wouldn't trust that ebay psu. Cheap PSU's have a habbit of failing in a way that takes whatever they are connected to with them.

Also, that brick is 12v. The HMZ-T1 needs 5v.

Personally, I don't think there is much reason to convert to DC input unless you will be using batteries.

5.6V to be exact, its going to be used with a DC-DC step down, 11.1 Lipo for FPV and 12V AC-DC for gaming

edit: the DC-DC step down is variable so I could as well use a 7 or 9V AC-DC adapter, but looks like the 12V versions are the ones most common to output more than 1A

edit2: Bob, in a DC-DC scenario thats impossible

I just tested the HMZ with the China DC-DC stepdown mentioned earlier and a 3A 12Volt brick and also with a 11.1 Lipo battery, works very well. It was a little hard tuning in 5.6 Volts on the stepdown, but once I got it right it was very stable, and since its switched it doesnt matter what input voltage I give it (12Volt from DC brick or 11.1 from Lipo battery) it will always output 5.6 volts.

@CyberVillain: Nice work. You have a ski goggle mod, right?. Does that fix the "sweet spot" problem by locking the unit into a stable orientation or do you still have issues with focus moving in and out at the edges?

Im ashamed to admit it but my HMD has been in a shelf for the last month, but, i have finally found a guy with a CNC rig that can help me fizz the mounting base for the optics, so this weekend I hope to come very far on completing this. I really want to try flying my AR Drone with this baby before winter

I have just tried it with a cardboard prototype base, (Still very stable) and I got focus right away, I didnt try it long enough to give a real review, but it felt very nice right away. Pierreye should have more info about this since he too have done the Ski goggles mod

Hi, i'm new.

I dont really understand why some peoples have comfort problems, because i use it one with light-blockers and i can play with it like 12h on 3D PC gaming.

Maybe it's because i have Serial model 200xxxxx ?

Or you have an unusual head shape?

Apparently there is a new 200xxxxxx version that has better sound and less pixelation overseas... also the weight is more distributed (can any one confirm this as I am just taking comments from another forum)? I called my local store (Canada) and they had not heard anything about this however they did mention that they are expecting to receive informaiton regarding an updated version for the fall? They told me to call back in a few weeks - here is hoping for a more comfortable design as well as 1080p... man oh man, this is going to make my final decision to order the st1080 that much more dificult lol!!!

EDIT - sounds like this is BS after reviewing the comments again - sorry!

I'm sorry, I love the HMZ, but its got to be the most uncomfortable consumer electronic device ever built. I feel like they are going to force prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to wear this thing day in and day out playing episodes of Barney just for the hell of it. Its that bad.