.png)
<aside> ⚠️
Keep in mind, you cannot mix 2.0 Base stations with 1.0 Base stations. You must choose one or another.
</aside>
| 1.0 Base station | 2.0 Base station | |
|---|---|---|
| Laser hardware | Two 60 rps motors & laser diodes (one vertical, one horizontal) + IR LED array flash | |
| Single 90 rps motor & laser diode with a dual‑slit mirror; no LED flash, uses “sync‑on‑beam” instead. | ||
| (Bitcraze) | ||
| Field‑of‑view | 120 ° H × 120 ° V | |
| (VIVE) | 160 ° H × 110 ° V | |
| (early units 150 °H, later 160 ° H) | ||
| (VIVE, Reddit) | ||
| Recommended range | ≤ 5 m between stations and devices 5m × 5 m | |
| (VIVE) | ≤ 7 m to devices; 10 m × 10 m with four units(VIVE) | |
| Channel scheme | Hardware switch A / b / c (A = master‑with‑cable, b = master wireless, c = slave) | |
| (VIVE) | Channel ID #1‑ 16 | |
| (Bitcraze) | ||
| Clock synchronization between bases | Optical LED flash or 3.5 mm TRS “sync” cable; | |
| must stay in mutual line‑of‑sight unless cabled | ||
| (VIVE, Reddit) | Timing sync is encoded in every laser sweep, so each station is completely independent (“sync‑on‑beam”) | |
| (Bitcraze, Bitcraze) | ||
| Stations per SteamVR environment | Hard‑limit of 2 (time‑slot TDMA scheme) | |
| (Bitcraze) | Up to 16 can operate simultaneously on channels 1‑16 | |
| (Channel adjusts lighthouse RPM. So beam collision becomes very rare.) | ||
| (Bitcraze, Github) | ||
| Stations a device actually solves against | 2 | First 4 sweeps that reach its photodiodes (driver limit per SteamVR device?) (Reddit, comment from Vive dev) |
| Accessory port | 3.5 mm sync jack present (HTC‑labelled 2 × 3 pins) | No accessory port |
| Compatibility | Works with every SteamVR‑tracked device | Only works with 2.0‑firmware” devices: Vive Pro/Pro 2, Index, 2.0, 3.0 trackers, etc. |
| Power draw | 2500mA (Reddit) | 833mA (Less power because they don’t have to generate LED array sync pulse) |
|
| Beam looks like | — (Top rotor) | (Bottom rotor) | /// (Top rotor) \\\ (Bottom rotor) | | HZ | 60Hz slave, 30Hz when optical, but 60Hz and 60Hz when sync cable is used
(30Hz optional is to avoid crosstalk with slave) | 50-54Hz (Reddit) |