Tracking Loss (Grey-screening) While Using Direct Drive Wheels (And More)

Sim racing can involve some high powered equipment, like Direct Drive wheelbases, bass shakers, motion actuators, etc. These draw a lot of power, and in some cases they can emit electromagnetic interference. This can interfere with the sensitive tracking of the Beyond, causing it to periodically or frequently cut to a "grey screen", indicating tracking loss.

This problem is not unique to the Beyond, and has been handled with lighthouse tracked headsets going as far back as the original HTC Vive. See this handy article for more info.

If there's a conducted EMI issue present in your setup, there's one fairly reliable way to detect it.

1. Power up the suspected source of interference, and sit/stand wherever you normally do in VR.

2. Put the Beyond on your head, and experiment with touching the headset all along the mesh-filled ventilation cutouts. You should try 1-2 finger tips at a time, and hold them in each place for about 3 seconds.
   Note: Be careful not to obscure the line of sight between the sensors on the front of the headset, and your base stations.

3. If your headset starts to float and drift around like you're on a boat out at sea, or the headset cuts completely to a grey screen, that's likely a sign of EMI issues being present in your environment.

The most common solution for the headset grey screening while using a Direct Drive wheelbase involves wrapping the main cable from the headset around a FT240-31* core, wound around it 7 or 8 times, spread evenly. Example photo:

Multiple cores may also be used like so:

*Ensure you get FT240-31 specifically - lots of knock-off cores available on Amazon, so be careful. Purchasing directly through DigiKey also works.

Other devices, such as ferrite clip-on cores or other Amazon devices to "Reduce EMI" have shown less effectiveness.

Wrapping the DP/USB cables from the linkbox may also work, though your mileage may vary.

Here's an example from a user's setup:

Some users have found wrapping the direct drive wheelbase in Faraday fabric to help as well.

Insulating the Direct Drive wheelbase from the metal rig (to prevent it from acting like an antenna) via plastic/rubber washers has helped in some situations.

Plugging the PC and the rig into different outlets / breakers can help to electrically isolate them.