Hydra Teardown/Repair

[btkramer]

So, I was unfortunate enough to get a bad Hydra. One of the ones where if you turn the base station around backwards, with the wires facing you (the opposite of what you are supposed to do) it kind of works, but still not well.

I live in Nepal, so returning it really isn't an option. Shipping alone would be more than the unit is worth, and then the clowns at customs here would charge me about $50 just to pick up the package when it got back.

So I thought I'd try taking it apart and seeing what I could do with it. I am thinking maybe that orb sensor in the base was installed backwards or something, so I'd try flipping it.

Although I can find I bunch of teardowns on the controllers, I haven't seen any on the base, and I don't know how to open the stinking thing.

There is a void under the sticker on the bottom of the base which I thought might be a screw, but I cut the sticker out, and no luck.

I have tried prying gently with a screw driver in the seams of the unit, but it doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere, and I didn't want to put too much pressure.

I am basically at the point where I am ready to try using as much force as necessary to pry the thing open, since the thing is basically a hunk of junk as is, but I thought I'd try posting here to see if anyone has any thoughts or experience with these things.

Any help?

[WiredEarp]

What exactly is the issue when you use it backwards?
Also, why do you want to use it backwards anyway? Usually I do all my stuff on one side of the Hydra, since its usually mounted in front of me.

[btkramer]

The unit is defective. It only works (sort of) when the base is facing backwards. That's why I want to take it apart and flip the orb sensor around.

[Krenzo]

Here are pictures of my system: http://imgur.com/a/U8LJy

I don't think any kind of fix is going to be that simple.

[btkramer]

Yeah, I don't figure the fix will be that easy, but it should be a good place to start.

I don't have much to lose at this point, so I'm just gonna tinker with it.

Thanks for the pics! How did you get the base open btw?

I can see where some screw holes appear to be, but I don't know how to get to them. Just pry that plastic up? Or are they under the rubber? They look closer to the edge than that.

[btkramer]

OK, found them. They are under the rubber.

[btkramer]

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

SUCCESS!!!!!!

The fix was actually much easier!

There are two plugs coming off of the orb sensor that plug into the base board. I tried swapping them and it worked!!

It works perfectly now!

There were also a bunch of pieces of stray solder wire rolling around in there. I think QC is not so good on these things....

[btkramer]

I have pics if anyone is interested.

[WiredEarp]

Well done! Good work. What were the symptoms when it didn't work before? Intermittent, moving in different directions, inconsistant movement?

[zalo]

Aren't the plugs in there just to power the LEDs?

Good job on the fix

[btkramer]

Well, the symptoms in a game or program when the base station was facing the right way, (with the wires facing away from you), were that the hands (in the sixense Tuscany demo) were behind you, and/or all over the place, sometimes even 30ft in front of you, and really couldn't control anything. Basically, useless.

So after reading up on troubleshooting and other people who had the same problem, I got Motion Creator 2 from Sixense's website to see if my unit was defective like the others I was reading about.

In Motion Creator, under tools, there is a tool called Simple 3d which shows your 'arms', and mine were pointed backwards, like the other people with defective units. So, I turned the base station around backwards, (with the wires pointing towards me) and it worked a little bit better, arms facing forward now, but jumping all over the place, and still really unusable.

That's why I thought my sensor orb may have been installed backwards, and my plan was to try flipping it. Before I did that though, I saw the 2 plugs coming off of the sensor, so I tried switching them, and that actually worked.

As far as those wires being for the LEDs, I have no idea. There are a bunch of small thin wires also coming off the orb sensor that are soldered directly to the board, so it would make sense that they were for the magnets, and the plugs were for the LEDs, but the LEDs did work fine before, exactly the same as they are now, glowing and fading in and out. And I don't know why they would need 2 plugs (4 wires) for the LEDs, as I would think 1 plug would be enough, but who knows?.

I have no idea why this fixed the problem, but it did. In Motion Creator now, both hands are facing forward with the base station facing the right direction, and no jitter, very accurate positional tracking.

All the other posts I read of people with this problem just came to the conclusion that they had to send their units back for replacement, which I probably would have done, but I couldn't, so I took a stab at fixing it.

[WiredEarp]

Nice work, and thanks for the details!

[AlexS23]

Hi@all,

I've got a similar problem, my hydra hands are switching from left to right and vice versa.
Made a video of Simple3D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsW9_GDEANQ

I am only pointing with both controllers to the base and moving (only) the right controller.

The hands switch places every few seconds.
Not able to use this

Is this familiar with the problem you had?

Thanks
Alex

[AlexS23]

Well, the symptoms in a game or program when the base station was facing the right way, (with the wires facing away from you), were that the hands (in the sixense Tuscany demo) were behind you, and/or all over the place, sometimes even 30ft in front of you, and really couldn't control anything. Basically, useless.
[...]
All the other posts I read of people with this problem just came to the conclusion that they had to send their units back for replacement, which I probably would have done, but I couldn't, so I took a stab at fixing it.

Whoa, thanks man!
Just tried this, it works perfect!
Here is a manual, how to tear down the Hydra (Screws under the rubber, more screws, then switch both plugs).

http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2 ... -teardown/

btkramer, You made my day!

[geekmaster]

The unit is defective. It only works (sort of) when the base is facing backwards. That's why I want to take it apart and flip the orb sensor around.

So, some of these were assembled backwards?

[AlexS23]

They were twisted.
Look at this pic:
http://howiem.com/wordpress/wp-content/ ... et-125.jpg
from here:
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2 ... -teardown/

The polarity was right, but the position of them. Put the left connector to the right and right connector to the left.

[btkramer]

@AlexS23

Congrats on fixing your unit! Glad I could help!

@Geekmaster

Initially, I thought that it was assembled backwards, based on the fact that if you turned the base around, it worked better. But after taking it apart, I tried switching the two plugs around (basic troubleshooting: always try the easiest solution first) and it worked. So it turned out the orbs were not installed backwards, but the plugs were plugged in opposite of what they should have been.

Thank God for easy fixes!

[Marcosedu]

I had the exacly same problem.
This fix solved it .

tks for the tip.

[samwatts]

I just bought a new set from eBay and the base works backwards. Will have to try your fix and see how I go. When I calibrate the controllers, the hands are pointing at me, rather than inwards towards the scene. If I rotate the base 180-degree and recalibrate then the hands face the right way but I still get little movement detected vertically up and down. Will try this fix, thanks for posting!