Anyone recommend a USB 3 Pci card for the three USB 3 ports the Oculus needs?

ironsonic · 17 Jul 2017 at 14:27

I had a little research on this matter, from what I can tell the oculus touch tracks just fine with usb 2.0 and one in usb3.0 if you have a 2 sensor configuration.

The only difference seems to be tracking resolution going from 480p to 720p but its not a dealbreaker or noticeable.

What is noticable however are audiodrops and disconnections that occur when "incompatible" USB drivers modulate the voltage of the USB 3.0 hubs, which I have read can happen even if you buy the recommended USB PCI-E Card.

After being frustrated with my onboard usb 3.0 constantly flickering and the oculus setup saying it is incompatible/too slow, I just plugged the second sensor into usb 2.0. Perfect tracking in experimental 360 mode, all happy no need for extra purchase [for me personally]

So before you rush, try the 2.0. buying a board won't 100% guarantee a fix.

NeilF · 17 Jul 2017 at 14:38

ironsonic said:
I had a little research on this matter, from what I can tell the oculus touch tracks just fine with usb 2.0 and one in usb3.0 if you have a 2 sensor configuration.

The only difference seems to be tracking resolution going from 480p to 720p but its not a dealbreaker or noticeable.

What is noticable however are audiodrops and disconnections that occur when "incompatible" USB drivers modulate the voltage of the USB 3.0 hubs, which I have read can happen even if you buy the recommended USB PCI-E Card.

After being frustrated with my onboard usb 3.0 constantly flickering and the oculus setup saying it is incompatible/too slow, I just plugged the second sensor into usb 2.0. Perfect tracking in experimental 360 mode, all happy no need for extra purchase [for me personally]

So before you rush, try the 2.0. buying a board won't 100% guarantee a fix.

Well, I only have one available USB 3 port (on the rear of my PC). So at the very least to free one more up (eg: by moving my rarely used USB3 backup drive) I'll need an extension card. So for the sake of £22 (for that Inateck card) I'll then have a two USB 3 ports free on the rear of my PC and three on the Inatec card with which to play around with.

But yes, it seems a number of people have plugged their second sensor into USB 2 happily.

ps: This is ignorig the two USB2 and two USB 3 ports on the front of my PC. I'll use one of the USB 2 ports to plug in the wireless adapter if/when I use the wireless gamepad. I'll just hot plug it in when needed.

Clarkson · 18 Jul 2017 at 11:08

Hi, I'm a bit dumb with all this USB bandwidth business.

I have an ageing (and not top of the line) P67-UD3 mobo which my 2500k lives in. I have 2 x usb 3.0 ports on it and a number of usb 2.0, including two on the top front panel of my case by the power button. I received my rift touch bundle yesterday and managed to set up fine with one sensor, playing a bit of assetto corsa, however could not get the second sensor to be recognised at all, and so no use of the touch controllers.

I have the headset + one sensor plugged into my 2 x available usb 3.0, and I had heard (and I think I even read a suggestion from the oculus setup itself) that it is possible to plug the second sensor into a 2.0 port, but as I say there is no life. I tried the port on the front panel hoping it would be a different controller perhaps but nothing. What is annoying is that I have therefore had to plug the Xbox wifi dongle into this front 2.0 port so that I can navigate some things.

So why does the wifi dongle work in this port and not the second sensor? Is it due to the sensor requiring more bandwidth or something?
If I could get the sensor in this 2.0 port then I would use the touch controllers and would still have the same number of USB sockets in use.

NeilF · 18 Jul 2017 at 11:13

^^ Maybe insufficient power from the ports?

Clarkson · 18 Jul 2017 at 11:26

NeilFawcett said:
^^ Maybe insufficient power from the ports?

So what would cause that? Would it simply be that my power supply is a wuss? Or is there some kind of bottleneck with power to USB ports which means even with a good enough power supply, they still can't get enough if many things are connected?

Thanks for any help

NeilF · 18 Jul 2017 at 11:32

Clarkson said:
So what would cause that? Would it simply be that my power supply is a wuss? Or is there some kind of bottleneck with power to USB ports which means even with a good enough power supply, they still can't get enough if many things are connected?

Thanks for any help

I haven't even got a Rift... But the sensors and HMD are all USB powered? So surely that must add up when all coming off the motherboard?

Hopefully someone with some actual knowledge can chime in here?

DrBombcrater · 18 Jul 2017 at 12:30

Max current a USB 3.0 device can consume while also being able to transfer data is 900ma, so each device is limited to 4.5W (5v x 900ma). A Rift and three sensors can pull a maximum of 18W. I'd expect it to be rather less than that in practice as the sensors can run from USB 2, and the power limit for that is just 500ma (2.5w).

The big issue with the sensors seems to be latency. Some USB controllers at known to play a bit fast and loose with the USB spec and don't handle latency sensitive transfers in the way Oculus needs, which prevents the sensors working reliably so Oculus blacklists those controllers. Some controllers can work but only with certain driver revisions.

melmac · 18 Jul 2017 at 13:03

Clarkson said:
So what would cause that? Would it simply be that my power supply is a wuss? Or is there some kind of bottleneck with power to USB ports which means even with a good enough power supply, they still can't get enough if many things are connected?

Thanks for any help

Is it a faulty sensor? Can you swap the sensors and see what happens?

Another thing to try is put your PC into high performance mode in the Power options in the control panel.

Clarkson · 18 Jul 2017 at 14:53

My computer is always in high performance mode, Al gore hates me.

Was thinking of swapping the sensors over yes, I'll try that when I have chance.

Shiari · 19 Jul 2017 at 07:51

Get yourself the Oculus Tray Tool, brilliant little tool. https://forums.oculus.com/community...ng-profiles-hmd-disconnect-fixes-hopefully/p1

It'll disable power management on your USB ports for you, can switch the power plan, has registry tweaks for the Inateck card, can set super sampling for your games, can show the performance overlays that would otherwise be unlocked with the oculus debug tool, and it can start the services and oculus home for you.

I was having mixed results with my USB ports (sometimes seeing disconnects, didn't really matter much whether I was using my Inateck or USB 3 on the backplate for the sensors) and things are a lot better since using the O.T.T.

NeilF · 21 Jul 2017 at 09:47

So any of you using the Inarteck four port PCI card (KTU3FR-4P) did you just plug it in and Windows 10 supplied a driver? Or did you install a driver? If so where from?

One buyer mentioned:-

I bought the card to use specifically with my Oculus Rift that requires USB 3 for the HMD and Sensor (so 2 USB 3 sockets required). When I plugged the headset and sensor into this card, both reported it as USB 2, not 3! Looking in Device Manager, the card had Microsoft drivers installed, so I went searching for something a little more specific. After downloading and installing drivers from Fresco Logic (the company who make the chip on the card), everything worked as expected Even the Oculus HMD and sensor were happy.

Note: The latest drivers at Inarteck mention Fresco - https://www.inateck.com/media/attachment/file/f/l/flusb3.0-3.8.33709.0.exe

Bishie · 21 Jul 2017 at 10:06

NeilFawcett said:
So any of you using the Inarteck four port PCI card (KTU3FR-4P) did you just plug it in and Windows 10 supplied a driver? Or did you install a driver? If so where from?

One buyer mentioned:-

Note: The latest drivers at Inarteck mention Fresco - https://www.inateck.com/media/attachment/file/f/l/flusb3.0-3.8.33709.0.exe

I'm using the drivers supplied by Microsoft, and the Oculus software recognized the ports as USB 3.0. It did display a notification about updating them, but that's all.

Tracking is working beautifully, with no random disconnects or any such behavior.

Marky · 21 Jul 2017 at 10:13

NeilFawcett said:
So any of you using the Inarteck four port PCI card (KTU3FR-4P) did you just plug it in and Windows 10 supplied a driver? Or did you install a driver? If so where from?

One buyer mentioned:-

Note: The latest drivers at Inarteck mention Fresco - https://www.inateck.com/media/attachment/file/f/l/flusb3.0-3.8.33709.0.exe

I literally took delivery of this yesterday and installed it. It didn't work from just fitting it in the computer, but after downloading the driver from their website (The link in this quote) and a restart, it's working perfectly

Got 2x Sensors on the same board, and my mouse connected - No issues at all.

Quick question, if anyone has tried this - If I bought a third sensors, would it be able to handle 3 sensors on the same card?

NeilF · 21 Jul 2017 at 10:22

^^ Interesting how two people have such opposite experiences

OK - I'll plug it in and install the drivers just to be safe... Thanks!

Shiari · 21 Jul 2017 at 11:58

If you're using the Microsoft drivers rather than Inatecks then the Oculus Tray Tool can't do the magic it needs to to prevent disconnects. So your mileage may vary ... of course, if you don't have any disconnects anywhere there shouldn't be an issue

Bishie · 21 Jul 2017 at 12:41

People have reverted to using Microsoft's drivers for a number of reasons:

A well known fix is to only use the Windows native drivers instead of the official one (From https://support.frescologic.com/portal/helpcenter/articles/latest-drivers). It seems to have fixed all my issues so far, but Oculus home is constantly displaying a warning asking me to update the USB driver.

Using the Windows driver also reduces those crashes drastically. For me those Inantek drivers are absolutely shocking.

I have fewer issues when running the MS drivers. I've gone back and forth between them.

I've also had problems with the latest Fresco drivers and the fix was to roll back to the Windows 10 default.

A huge amount of people have verified the board works best with windows drivers rather than the fresoclogic ones.

Since there seems to be nothing wrong with the Windows 10 driver other then Oculus Home complaining I stick with the Windows 10 driver.

Same thing happened with me. Rolled back drivers to windows 10 drivers no issues all night

It's not supposed to require any external drivers with the included Windows 10 drivers being sufficient. Oculus Home however is complaining with "USB driver update recommended".

I am in the same situation. The default Windows 10 drivers appear to work just fine, but you get those annoying warning messages in Settings/Devices.

The list goes on and on!

Mileage definitely varies, but for me the Windows 10 drivers are flawless.

Shiari · 21 Jul 2017 at 12:58

Sounds like running the Fresco drivers without the Oculus Tray Tool fixes might be a bad idea (they reset their standby mode after reboot or something like that, OTT takes care of that problem and that avoids disconnects). Can highly recommend the OTT though, irrespective of the drivers you're using. (I'm using the fresco ones with the OTT hack, and don't have issues).

melmac · 21 Jul 2017 at 14:12

Marky said:
I literally took delivery of this yesterday and installed it. It didn't work from just fitting it in the computer, but after downloading the driver from their website (The link in this quote) and a restart, it's working perfectly Got 2x Sensors on the same board, and my mouse connected - No issues at all.

Quick question, if anyone has tried this - If I bought a third sensors, would it be able to handle 3 sensors on the same card?

If you use the extension cable that comes with the sensor then yes it should. But, the best option is just to plug it into a USB 2.0 port.

FlukeRogi · 21 Jul 2017 at 15:33

melmac said:
If you use the extension cable that comes with the sensor then yes it should. But, the best option is just to plug it into a USB 2.0 port.

I'll just say that I've never managed to get 3 Oculus devices working in my 4-port Inateck card - it detects them all in the Home app, but when I try to launch something in VR, it will just disconnect something after 5-10 seconds.

A good rule of thumb is do not connect more than 2 sensors to a single controller.

melmac · 21 Jul 2017 at 16:04

FlukeRogi said:
I'll just say that I've never managed to get 3 Oculus devices working in my 4-port Inateck card - it detects them all in the Home app, but when I try to launch something in VR, it will just disconnect something after 5-10 seconds.

A good rule of thumb is do not connect more than 2 sensors to a single controller.

The problem is if you use USB 3. If you use the Extension cable, the sensor will run at USB 2 so won't have the bandwidth issues