Charging the Quest and getting more playtime

[DownunderGrumpy]

With the old Oculus GO we got used to our batteries running out before we could finish watching a long movie.
There at least we could just stick a heatsink on the front, connect a good charger and KEEP playing.

With the Quest 3 all we knew about the Quest 1 and 2 got revamped.
Better screens, still no OLED though, better lenses, more powerful SOC.
When Meta revealed the hardware specs critics quickly pointed out that unless compromises are made the Quest 3 would not be able to utilise all this power.
Not enough battery capacity and very hard to get rid of the produced heat.
Meta claimed none of this will be an issue when the device is launched.
Well, it launched and those are now real issues for many users out there.

So WHAT IS the issue(s) then ?

[DownunderGrumpy]

I took my FLIR camera and wanted to find a good spot for an external heat sink - thinking it could be as simple as with the GO...
The camera however revealed that all the heat is happening in the top centre of the headset and the area where on the right - looking at the front of the headset.
All this is just PLASTIC.....
Meta included a fan inside to provide cooling for the hardware....
If blows out through a tiny gap on the top - you CAN feel a slight airflow but nothing meaningful and really not enough to call it proper airflow.
Either the fan won't get enough air in or this gap just is too small.
Since the plastic front is screwed from the back it is not advisable to take the thing apart as chances are you won't be able to get it back together in working order.

The heat is only one issues but since I am in the hot Australia it is a concern for me.
Battery life though just isn't acceptable.
People need to be able to watch a full length movie on a single charge, even if the movie happens to be longer than the average 70 to 90 minutes.
And who does not hate those warning to charge right when you finally make some good progress in a game ?
If need be then my phone and tablet will charge from near empty to around 80% in under 15 minutes.
And my USB doctor shows they go to 12V for the charging to make it happen, then down to 9V and end with 5V once near full.
My laptop uses a USB power brick, a mix of charger and power supply and is able to do the same fast charging...
The Quest though ???
No matter what charger I try the current never goes over 1.2A and the Voltage stays at 5V - making the charging an experience of at least 2 hours, more if dead empty.
Of course it must be the supplied charger......

[DownunderGrumpy]

The Quest won't utilise and fast charging options the supplied charger is capable of and it won't make use of an PD rated aftermarket charger either, not even the great Samsung one.
USB charging for modern devices works in two ways.
A) The device controls all charging and uses only a 5V support.
B) Those with a proper OS use the data lines to tell the charger what Voltage shall be supplied and regulate the current from there.
The Quest 3 only provides the standard signals on those data lines to initiate a %V charge according to USB specifications, meaning around 1A, not even the 2A USB2 already offered and not the 3A USB 3 came with.
And certainly not a switch to 9 or 12V.
But I did noticed that at times my oscilloscope would show a change on those data lines.
These 'spikes' of the different kind where followed by a short pause in the charging as well.
Sadly I could not find anything about these Voltages in the USB CHARGING specs.
I did find though that for just power delivery devices use different signals to indicate their needs.....
My Laptop uses a power brick with a USB 3 connector and works fine for the laptop, so what bout the Quest 3 ???

[DownunderGrumpy]

A female to female adapter hunt later and my USB doctor was sitting in line....
To my surprise it showed my Quest charging really fast - went from about 12% left to full in under 90 minutes and I actually missed the completion so it could have been a bit quicker.
And the doctor also showed it was charging at 9V and almost 2A.
Did not see 12V popping up but an improvement nonetheless.
Play time was unchanged though and when I reached 15% playing Red Matter I decided to plug the brick in again, hoping I would be able to complete the current chapter.
Lost track of time a bit and wondered about my battery.
A quick pause and check stunned me - it showed my battery went up to 28% WHILE playing....
Not just that, the doctor stated the brick is pumping in close to 18W @ 9V....

[DownunderGrumpy]

Where no charger, not even PD rated ones was able to deal with the Quest 3 an 'old' laptop power supply did the trick....
I don't know what standards this power brick supports for charging and power, only know that it works with whatever USB device I hook up to it.
What I find stunning is that Meta seems to have used non-standard signals to regulate the charging power and power delivery coming from CHARGERS.
Probably to facilitate their fancy battery head strap and charging dock.
Since all this is meant to be used with the supplied 27W Meta charger it is clear that compromises were made for the headset.
I call it another money grabbing marketing stunt.

The official claim is that the battery strap provides a longer play time - users report being able to play for around 3 hours with it.
A far cry from the expected 5 hour play time based on the combined battery capacity.
Why is that ???
We should see some firmware updates soon to 'fix' this - at least that is what the support tells affected users....
In reality the battery in the strap (currently) only acts like a charger, or power bank if you like.
Means it provides power to the headset while in use - acting like a connected charger.
Users of course CAN keep the CHARGER connected to the strap, using the connector on the back.
Thing is that (right now) then the charger will try to charge the battery in the strap, while the battery in the headset still keeps draining.
And while the strap is charging it can't supply the required power to ALSO keep the headset battery full.
A LOGICAL approach, fully utilising what USB3 has to offer would go like this:
The headset takes 9 or 12V from the charger.
It then takes what the headset requires and uses the rest to charger the battery.
Results in a SLOWER charge but in return the battery WON'T be used to provide power to the headset.
Works a bit like a UPS - if the power fails it instantly goes back to the battery.

Meta did not go this route for several reasons (they claim) :
First the heat issue, hard playing and charging creates a lot.
Sadly Meta did not include sufficient cooling and entire charging part is only passively cooled.
Teardowns did not reveal any temp sensor for the battery, sitting right behind the boiling hot SOC.
Means the battery temp can only be guesstimated and if any real measurement happens than from the protection chip inside the battery pack.
Makes sense then to limit things in order to prevent over-heating, which would result in the headset slowing things down or reducing image quality.

Thing is that this is ONLY valid on 5V .....
On just battery power the headset does get warm and the flimsy fan struggles to keep temps down.
With the charger connected things heat up more.
But, and that's a huge BUT:
If I compare the values from the USB doctor with the playtime it seems clear the Quest does NOT use all the power from the charger for charging purposes!
Only around 40% make it to the battery....
And mind you that depending on the quality of the charger these values can be even lower.

Further checks showed that Meta uses sort of a power limiting system.
The drain on the battery is limited to protect the battery.
Quite sad as instead a Li-Ion battery a Li-Po as in Lithion-Iron-Phosphate battery would have been the better choice for a power hungry device.
Would have also addressed the concerns of batteries blowing up one day....
And of course there is the limiting based on the temperature.

All this was known since we had the GO - lots of power on a small foot print means lots of heat to deal with.
If there is no meaningful temperature increase when using a PROPER USB power brick instead of a charger because these devices are able to provide a higher Voltage......
Correct !
The battery strap has a processor and with that it can be updated if required.
Same for our headsets.
Not really hard to define the right signals from headset over strap to the charger to make things work properly.
And with this little update literally all aftermarket solutions are out of the race again as they no longer provide they longer play times the user had before.
As this will only work with the original battery strap while the headset itself still won't communicate properly with standard chargers users will of course for the battery strap and spend money.
No one even wonders why there is no magnetic charging cable we can hook to the dock connector....

With my power brick the headset goes from almost flat to fully charged with the light green in about 90 minutes.
Is that healthy ?
Of course not, fast charging requires proper battery management and control of all parameters.
Even then it is added stress for the battery.
At least for Li-Ion types.
But this would be a matter of how Meta handles the fast charging and protection plus their warranty.
Ever wondered why our headsets get discontinued BEFORE the battery would start to show signs of severe aging ? 😉
With the power brick I can also play seemingly forever without running out of power.
5 hours of intense gaming and the battery was still over 60%.
A movie night won't even drain the battery at all while connected and heat is not an issue either, thanks to the higher voltage.
Can't be sure but would say that if the Quest 3 would go to 12V for the default it wouldn't require any power from the battery at all.
Just find it sad that Meta won't let standard PD chargers do the same as this would solve a lot of issues for users.
Not everyone has a 65W laptop brick sitting around and buying one sets you back a few pennies....

[DownunderGrumpy · Accepted solution]

Here is a solution for the Meta support to accept (hopefully) :

Update the firmware so PD chargers can provide 12V and the headset can take the power from the connected charger rather than the battery.
Provide a magnetic connector so users won't have to worry about ripping the charging port out or invest into aftermarket solutions.
Stop controlling every single aspect of our headsets and privacy and start listening to your users instead of marking topic off as solved while the support won't provide a solution!
It is the forth generation of your headsets but you still have not considered that there are people who want or need a longer usage time.
What good is all you hype for remote desktop solutions and working together on projects if you can only do so for around 2 hours tops ?
Ever been in a meeting with the design and marketing teams and managed to get out before the day was over ?