r/ValveIndex • u/HexDanTHEWHALE • Sep 15 '26

Discussion Folks. This one is a doozy

Hello Folks!

I have the good ole Red Light of Death :)

So I saw a comment on a rather old thread regarding Valve Index base station repair. Specifically one for when the IR emitter goes out.

Now that they are discontinued and second hand sellers want $200+ i am definitely looking to get my hands dirty repairing mine.

Mine is spinning and working fine however the IR diode is no longer illuminating. They mentioned something regarding a tool that they made to focus the beam and some high level info about a 830nm diode.

Does anyone know what diode exactly goes into one of these things? Any tips and tricks for the repair?

Thanks!

40 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 28d ago

So i found the method.

Buy a 1.0 lazer assembly on Ali express and its a direct fit into the 2.0 base station. Literally all you have to do it rip out the existing diode and little pcb its atrached to, followed by soldering 3 wires. Boom done.

Heres the link:

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOXPky7

Edit: hardest part is getting the front clear plastic off. Other then that its ez business getting it going again.

1

u/Tomsfia 28d ago

It's weird the description states: "(Not fit for base station 2.0)".

saw this, what do you think?
https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005007961770704.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2bra

comment says this: "Was packaged well and worked flawlessly on valve index basestation :)"

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 28d ago edited 28d ago

I wish i could reply with photos. Next best thing is an Imgur link.

https://imgur.com/a/s3p6Uok

The 1.0 lazer fits right in, trust.

I thought about doing purely the diode replacement, the one you found seems like it should work. However, it is much more difficult than the 1.0 diode assembly method. Literally a drop in replacement.

Edit: you can even just buy a 1.0 station and it has 2 of those diodes in it. Whereas the 2.0 only has the one. So one 1.0 fixes two 2.0s if that makes sense.

Edit 2: actually i just realized that the diode you found is likely too weak. Need something in the 200mw region. 50mw will work but with diminished range. It's performance will be that of a mostly dead base station diode. 200mw will get you oem range and coverage.

1

u/Tomsfia 28d ago

So i can buy a used 1.0 for both? but then the diode would have use i suppose

1

u/Tomsfia 28d ago

To confirm, that's what you will do or you have done it already?

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 28d ago

Its already done and functioning. Those are my photos i put up in imgur link.

1

u/Tomsfia 27d ago

Oh cool, so green light and all! Then yeah I will go for it to buy them. Sorry for the hassle of explaining me everything ahah, it was a welcome tip! Do you have any tips for the whole procedure and should I just follow the steps of the ifixit teardown?

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 27d ago

Unfortunately the ifixit guide isn't very detailed. Mine is definitely better. Ifixits guide is very high level and assumes you know exactly what you are doing.

Biggest tip i have for you is be careful removing that front plastic as that is what you will see every time you look at that base station. The neater you can remove it, the neater you can put it back. It will never look like new again, but at least it'll be working :)

1

u/Tomsfia 27d ago

Thankies heh, I have been between a thin razor blade and keep going at it in all 4 sides or a heated blade like a soldering iron with a blade tip. Will later put some T7000 Black Glue to try to mask

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 27d ago

Heated blade is definitely the easier method although not as clean. Scoring with a blade untill you been through is the cleanest method, although most time consuming.

1

u/Tomsfia 6d ago

Hey hey! Meanwhile mine arrived a week ago tho haven't had yet the opportunity to install them yet, I think I can this week. How have they been these last 20 days?

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 6d ago

Working as expected to be truthful. Besdies looking ugly as fuk due to the having to carve it open. Fully functional.

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 28d ago

Yeah, buy one 1.0 station and inside that station is two diodes. With those 2 diodes you can fix two 2.0 stations as the 2.0s only use 1 diode each.

Or just buy two of the Ali Express ones i sent. Its gonna be about the same price, honestly. The only real difference is gonna be shipping speed.

1

u/Tomsfia 28d ago

sry to be annoying but your second edit is quite interesting because the worse part of this is all conflicting info. some people online saying 40/50mw, some saying it worked with 150mw. some saying its too much. It's so much conflicting and contradicting info

1

u/HexDanTHEWHALE 28d ago

Hence why I'm just saying what i did.

The 1.0 assembly method is guaranteed to work as its currently working for me as we speak, lol.

The 1.0 and 2.0 stations use identical diodes in different packaging/fixtures. The best/only way way to guarantee that it'll work is to buy an exact match, the 1.0 is an exact match 100% to the 2.0.

Plus i gave you a whole ass photo guide on it already 🤣 go do it. I also spent way too much time roominating on this rather than just going for it. It is fortunately not as deep, precise and sensitive as people make it out to be.

Monki explanation:

Monki bai juan poeint oeh lasser assembli

Monki brek opin beas stetion

Monki remov bordz

Monki wrips out ould diod aind peeceebee

Monki instell nu assembli

Monki soulder tree wirz

Monki skrew everiting bak togeder

Monki epoxie or hout gloo bak oen frunt plestik

Monki teast ein stem veeare wit onlie repered oonit toe c ef et werkz

Monki VEEE AREEEE

Done

Hope this helps XD