Oculus CV1 setup notes

I have an Oculus Rift CV1 VR headset and three tracking cameras. This page is here to document some of the things I've done to expand it, and improve its (many) faults.

The CV1 is extremely fussy when it comes to USB ports. Many motherboards include incompatible chipsets,

To resolve this, I installed a 4-port PCIe USB3 card which has a Fresco Logic controller. This controller is the one Oculus suggest as being usable in room-scale setups.

My USB ports are set up as follows:

Motherboard USB3
- USB3 A: Tracking Camera 1 (TV Left)
- USB3 B: Tracking Camera 2 (TV Right)
Motherboard USB2.0
- USB2 A: Keyboard and mouse (via USB hub)
- USB2 B: Tracking Camera 3 (Rear Right) via USB active extension
Inateck USB3 PCIe card (Fresco Logic controller)
- HMD on one port. Remaining three ports unused.

There is also a software tweak to disable USB power management, which can help with Oculus USB issues. Other power management settings can also affect the Rift.

In a living-room VR setup, the HDMI and USB3 cables from the headset can be a little too short. Extending them is relatively easy once you know how.

I found that HDMI extension cables caused the HMD to black out randomly. I found that the combination of a Cable Matters HDMI 2.0 repeater and a 2-metre HDMI cable worked much better.

A USB3 extension cable works for extending the HMD's USB link. The HMD sometimes works in USB3 mode for a short while, then falls back to USB2. As this happens without the extensions, I expect it's down to either Oculus driver issues or a fault on my HMD.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has had the same issue (where the HMD reverts to USB2 mode despite being plugged into a USB3 port) and has been able to solve it.

This is considerably easier and less finicky than extending the headset cables. The tracking cameras are USB2, and can be extended with an active USB extension cable.

I use a Bolongking 5m USB2.0 active repeater cable for this. The PC side plugs into one of my PC's motherboard USB2 ports.

The Oculus software complains that the camera should be plugged into a USB3 port but I've found that in practice this is unnecessary.

This generally requires three tracking cameras.

You should read the Oculus guide to room-scale CV1 setups:

Part 1 – tips for camera setup
Part 2 – USB bandwidth balancing, or why you shouldn't put three tracking cameras (in USB3 mode) on the same USB3 root hub.
Part 3 – identifying host controllers. Useful for bandwidth balancing.
Part 4 – Extra equipment. A list of USB cards and extension cables which Oculus have found to work with the CV1.

The CV1's stock cable guide isn't fantastic. It offers very little support for the very fragile HMD cable, and tends to pinch it. Over time, this causes the fine wires inside the cable to break. I had intended to fix this (somehow) – catching the cable and sending the old clip pinging off into infinity hastened this project.

Shortly after printing this part, I found the lost clip… it's now in the CV1's cardboard box.

The 3D model can be found on Thingiverse.

If for some reason you prefer the stock Oculus clip (why?), there is a 3D model of a very similar 3D-printable part on Thingiverse.

After a while the glue on the Facial Interface foam begins to fail, and the foam curls. It's quite difficult to get a new Facial Interface for a CV1 these days.

These 3D-printable clips hold the foam to the plastic more firmly and help prevent it from peeling further.

There is also a 3D-printable replacement facial interface model. I have not yet tried this.