About a year ago the battery on my left Valve Index controller died. To be fair they are old as hell; I bought them used from a friend back in 2021 and they werent even the original owner of them Im pretty sure. This year tho around I think June, the right controller also died. I made do just having them plugged in all the time
That was until I bent the plug in a weird way on the right controller, and then it could only charge are specific angles. I ended up getting replacement batteries and the repair on the left controller went fairly smoothly (ifixit guide if curious), but the screw that is really deep on the right controller got hella stripped because of the bad quality ace hardware T6 driver I was using and I couldnt replace it... so still dead. xP
Eventually though, the port got so screwed up I couldnt charge it anymore and I was forced to buy a new controller since I obviously didnt have warrenty on at least 4 year old controllers I'm not the original owner for.
My friend Boofy also recomended to me a custom battery pack you can make for the Index controllers by StriK3FoRC3 on MakerWorld so I ordered parts for that. A bunch of people also told me about magnetic usb-c plugs to protect my ports from litereally breaking and desoldering themself in the future.
All the parts on their page aren't for the US so here are the parts I used:
| Component | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Battery* | 57x29x10mm 1800mAh LiPo (connector doesnt matter) | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808878207666.html |
| USB-C Male Connector | For soldering | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806068877804.html |
| Charging/5V Board | "Color: No welding" | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806068812158.html |
| Switch | MSK-12D19 | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806167315550.html |
| Wires | 26AWG, ideally one red one black | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801511896966.html |
| Heat shrink | Whatever I had lying around, lol | N/A |
| Cable Sleeve | 2mm, pick somethign complemetary to ur filament color! | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801417893607.html |
| Screws | 2x8mm | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832165702647.html |
| Magnetic USB-C | "Adapter For Type-c" - comes with adapter & plug | https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808486856882.html |
*Note: This battery seller only sent me two batteries when I ordered three. To be fair, that could maybe be on me because I place two seperate orders (I messed up and only bought one the first time, the second order I ordered two and only one of those arrived), but I still feel like I should share this.
It ended up being not too difficult, kinda scary working with batteries but not too bad. I wish there was more space to feed the battery cables to the charging board. The model is just a bit weird but it works and fits very well onto the controllers. At first I only made one for the one controller that still worked, but I made one of the right controller once it came in.
Which btw, did you know you can get replacement controllers cheaper just directly from Valve? A lot of sellers on eBay are selling controllers for like $50 more than just getting a new one from Valve.
Not that I think getting replacement controllers from Valve is a more reliable way to get a functional controller though, because the one I received was very faulty; bad tracking, broken grip, thumbstick randomly moves or freezes. Not ideal.
I already made the second charger before I knew that Valve gave me a busted controller tho xP
I'm set to get a replacement from Valve after a week of back and forth, so fingers crossed that all goes smoothly!
In the meantime though, Im working on a new project! Now that my controllers last basically forever, I want something for my trackers to give them more life too. Track straps are like $200 though so I'm trying a project made by print3dsolid on Cults. Have prototyped some changes based on that and printed the shells out already, just waiting on parts to arrive. Stay tuned! ;3
