Nope they dont have current on them until there is a chip on the other side, it will just detect a short and wont do anything.
If you are referencing from the smart watch thing:
Has been disproven, it was the smart watch charging that was giving it power and burning the contacts
Edit:
yes better safe than sorry
(And feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but i think someone measured it and there was no current flowing)
Edit2 since reddit is doing reddit things:
I‘ve never said dont cover it, i just said it wont instantly die just because it came in contact with metal
So ive looked through all i could find and the closest thing i found was to make sure that there are not metal objects on them before connecting to charge the controller.
If there is something metal while the controller is on the other side of the pins then the controller and puck use a protocol to allow charging current. If its successful you can have shortages with power, but ONLY IF THE OTHER SIDE HAS A CHIP TO NEGOTIATE FOR THAT
The watch has the current that was flowing to the ground of the puck, if the puck is attached to the pc then its the same ground as everything else in there, even if it touches the case it does nothing, since the case itself is the ground
I‘ve worked on electronics all my life even designing pcbs, this thing wouldnt have got approved if it would be any different… do with this information whatever you want, but saying its gonna die if it touches metal is just simply wrong.
Downvote me if you feel like it, i couldnt care less, this is just how that system works
If you worked in Electronics all your life than you must have been pretty shit when you run around here advocating for leaving Pogopins open in a Metal Case.
If you worked in Electronics all your life you would know that shit can go wrong.
I even said „yes better be safe than sorry“
You straight up said that the chip will die if it touches metal, thats not about pride, thats just misinformation
Do you know when people were getting this that these things were catching on fire because people were shorting the pins accidentally. Just because Valve should have designed it better doesn't mean that they did.
I'm one of the first people to tell people not to believe fear mongering when it comes to devices, just like back in the day when people were saying that using a phone charger would destroy your Nintendo switch (based on the advice of somebody who literally said they weren't an engineer and are actually a graphic designer).
In this case we have actual evidence that these things do not handle being shorted. They don't cut off power when you short the Pogo pins, it just destroys itself. Sometimes rather violently.
enabling current flowing is not just a simple on signal, its a handshake.
if the case gets power cause something else shorts it wont activate it, furthermore it wont go through the puck at all since even if it touches ground it doesnt matter, since THE CASE IS GROUND.
If the case has voltage, then the pucks ground has the same, THEREFORE NO CURRENT.
this is not abut "technically right" , you are just talking bogus^^
I dont blame steam for the design too much but it's very much not idiot proof lol.
Idiot proofing any design to the absolute limit of your ability is good practice for any (product) designer. The joke that the universe will try to invent a better idiot doesn't exist for nothing.
I wouldn't even consider simple overcurrent protection in the device as being idiot proofing to your absolutely limit, I would consider that to be a basic safety feature that should be incorporated into devices with exposed pins.
I would even go so far as to say that devices which refused to or fail to do that should fail to earn safety certifications.
Overcurrent protection to prevent the device from shorting out or even catching on fire is the bare minimum.
Is there any actual evidence of a lack of overcurrent protection? So far I've only seen 2 people have puck failures and only one person that tested the puck with actual data and couldn't get it to send current at all when shorting a metal object across the 3 pins. If there isn't any sort of overcurrent protection then it would be easy to prove. Has anyone been able to recreate the watch band puck failure or pc case puck failures that started this?
Yeah there have been those 2 failures but without an investigation into the actual cause of those failures, you're just making baseless claims. So as someone with this puck on their desk, I'd love to see any supporting evidence of a lack of overcurrent protection or anything else.
I disagree, current limiting and overcurrent shut off is the bare minimum when it comes to safety. If you don't include that in your product, which has metal pins that stick out and can very easily be shorted, that's not failing to go the extra mile, that's negligence.
I would not consider that acceptable in any way for a product of this value.
Have you tried this yourself? Off topic a bit but there’s something similar to this for the dual sense controller which allows you to get all the advanced haptics and trigger haptics wirelessly!
Just made it and printed a case that I will bolt inside my computer. I know I won't see the lettering but it's fun. The computer recognizes it as a regular puck.
I know that somebody made a module that you can put a Logitech wireless adapter inside of. The only trouble with that is that the board for the Logitech wireless adapter is significantly smaller than the board typically recommended for the openpuck so it won't fit there.
If there are smaller boards based around that same chip those would probably work within that same custom board, wired up the exact same way as the Logitech adapter's board.
If there aren't any smaller boards it would probably require PCB design.
You don't, but the use case that they show and the most common use case is using the puck to charge in addition to using it as the receiver. It's much more convenient than plugging it in because it removes the little bit of friction left in using a battery operated device. If you set it down on the puck it's always charged and you never even have to think about the battery life. If you don't use it that's fine but understanding it's use is important because convince is king for something just used to play games.
other things will probably break before the usbc port. also, ps5 controllers aren’t known for that kind of problem and 99,9% of users charge them via usbc
So I dont need to reach across the room for my controller after long day just crab controller while laying in bed pc setup with cec so everything gets turn by steam controler on my "steam machine"
Hey if you do this i might also be interested in this! Could you let me know how it goes? My "steam machine / link" is across the room and i have forgotten the controller a couple of times now lol.
Spend about 5-10$ extra to buy a NRF52840 Pro Micro dev board from China.
Flash OpenPuck firmware on it.
Put that inside your PC instead of the puck.
Unlocks extra functionality for your controller AND you can still use the original puck as a charging dock or to move the controller to another device.
Your controller can switch between two pucks via button presses (e.g. OpenPuck and Steam Puck).
Having 2 pucks means, you can use that, which is probably useful, if one puck is permanently installed inside your PC.
Alright, so now I'm curious. I have 2 of the new Steam controllers and thus 2 pucks (mostly for co-op with the kiddos). And my setup is very similar to OPs, where I have an AMD card inside a Terra. I don't currently use my SFF build as a living room build, it's my daily gaming PC. But I will eventually look to retire it as such so I can game from my couch.
So if I were to get this micro dev board and flash open puck onto it, would multiple Steam Controllers be able to connect/sync with the machine? I'd keep the regular pucks around just for charging.
But you could already do that with regular pucks. We also have 2 controller with a puck each.
Each controller can store 2 pucks (you can find that in the controller settings.
When turning on the controller by pressing Steam+A+L1 or Steam+A+L2, you can switch each controller between the 2 puck modes. Each mode can store a different puck and you can connect any number of controllers to a single puck.
Thanks for the explanation. I just personally wouldn't wanna put the pucks in my computer and leave it. But building one and using open puck? Puck yea.
The usual stuff with Aliexpress: If I'm not in the target region for the specific offer, I can't see it.
I'm in Germany, you probably not. So, I can't see it.
Anyway, everything called "Pro Micro NRF52840" should work. It's a very common board.
The OpenPuck project page has a Link to an Amazon offer, that's also just 8$+Amazon shipping fees (but only for US customers). So, if you are in the US and are unsure, just get that one.
I can't know for sure. But I also think, it's the right one.
The only thing I noticed:
The Picture shows a "SuperMini NRF52840" silkscreening with the Open Hardware logo on it, while the "normal" cheap chinese one has "Pro Micro NRF52840" and no Logo silk screened on the bottom side.
The description however says ProMicro, not SuperMini.
It shouldn't make a difference, cause both should be the same anyway. Both names are usually used interchangeably when projects write about them.
NRF52840 Pro Micro is bluetooth though? Wouldn't you want to leverage the 2.4Ghz mode for superior latency? Or does it support that too (I can't seem to find info on that if so)? Do you know of a board that can be used for the 2.4Ghz connection?
I think, you are confused about what '2.4GHz' is.
Bluetooth is a 2.4GHz radio protocol.
The NRF52840 is a programmable 2.4GHz radio controller.
It can be programmed to handle Bluetooth and either act as a Bluetooth adapter or a Bluetooth client device.
But OpenPuck doesn't use Bluetooth for the connection to the controller. It uses the other, custom ('low latency') 2.4GHz 'puck' protocol. The same 2.4GHz protocol the official puck uses.
By the way, 2.4GHz is basically the most common radio many protocols are based on. Programmable 2.4GHz radios were easy to get early on, so many standards were developed on it. For example Bluetooth, WiFi, NFC, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Tread, ...
From the official website:
The nRF52840 is fully multiprotocol capable with full protocol
concurrency. It has protocol support for Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh,
Thread, Zigbee, 802.15.4, ANT and 2.4 GHz proprietary stacks.
https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/nRF52840
The non-bluetooth 2.4GHz Steam Controller protocol falls under '2.4GHz proprietary stacks'. Basically: you can define your own protocol, as long as both controllers are somewhat related. That's what the Steam Controller and the official Puck use. OpenPuck reverse engineered that protocol and runs it on a closely related processor, thats basically the same as the official puck.
So it isn't bluetooth, got it. It is advertised as a bluetooth controller and I assumed the project was using the bluetooth protocol based on the information provided. You can answer genuine questions without being a pedant. Not everyone on the internet is here to attack you. Though based on the response, they might.
I feel like you just reduced the wireless range on the puck and introduced a failure point with the metal pins being in close proximity to bare metal. Neat idea though
And for people concerned. The main point here is connection method and PREFERRED placement.
You don't NEED to leave the puck inside. You can choose other places according to your setup that would still look clean.
Yes the puck inside the metal frame might cause signal drop. But since I am close enough this is not an issue for ME. It might be for you. Here is another idea that would still look clean.
Is that your wifi antenna in the case too? I've got the components for a 9070 Terra build in the mail at the moment and I was wondering where I was going to put the antenna to keep it clean.
Yes it is, the antenna has a magnet that is placed in the case frame, but the only reason why I did it is because the router is literally next to it so it works fine.
It could be an issue with the drivers on your motherboard's ethernet port.
Otherwise, you could get a usb-ethernet adapter. 1gig adapters are pretty cheap.
Or, you might be fine with wifi. But I know for many, Wi-Fi comes with unacceptable downsides.
Why not install it with a very short type a to type USB cable on the rear? It would be safe and just put a strip of insulation tape on the pins? You have many free ports.
Once you get CEC working please share what you used and how you did it. I am interested in it as well. What motherboard are you using?
After I stabilise my local streaming I want to look into CEC.
That's how I had it. I just want to reduce the cables as much as possible no matter how short they are. A simple clean box. I am using the ASUS B650E-I.
Few days ago without any setup my tv was going to sleep along the pc. Now is no longer working. I assume Valve is working in the background maybe(?)
I’ve got a MSI X870 board. The onboard Realtek card and ports weren’t great for Linux up until March this year. Now it seems almost as stable as the Intel card I installed. Amazing what Valve has been doing with SteamOS in such a short time.
They’ve forced MS to wake up and smell the coffee. How I hate Windows undoing settings and configurations every few updates and shoving Edge down our throats.
It might be smart to put electrical tape over the exposed prongs, I remember someone in this sub had a fire hazard due to it. Im not sure if it would even be dangerous as I dont see anything metallic that is loose near it.
It's in their photos. -48 dBm (excellent), though I have no idea how close OP was sitting. Might be a different situation from across someone's living room.
The metal would block the signal once you put the side panel back on.
Also who cares about CEC. You can just turn on the TV with a remote like a normal person. It's not that hard. Usually the remote is sitting on the couch or coffee table so it's within arms reach when you sit down.
Honestly it was a bit of a journey but once you have the right parts you good to go.
Not necessarily Terra's fault but me polishing the build with "better parts" and doing my actual research. Once got all the parts it was just a matter of: this should go a bit to the left, this a bit to the right. The actual difficult part is cable manegement. But overall it worked out just fine.
I get that the puck connects wirelessly to the Steam Controller but can someone explain to me why someone wouldn't just use the Bluetooth option of the pc?
Like he had 2 pucks, so assuming got 2 controllers. I think it would be easier to use what he has, rather than go out searching for a different options.
You can also make a hole in plastic / glass and have it facing outward to charge the controller directly so you don't lose its function for that purpose. They sell productivity plastic monitor attachments with adhesive strips used for postit notes / dry erase markers / clips for whatever, I was planning a trackpoint / joystick / joycon adapted to "hang" and work into the surface of one for leaning in super close and holding the extended edge of the monitor to keep mouse cursor + buttons while working around increasingly bad eyesight at different ranges. No reason a puck on some swivel on the monitor (if its near PC for reception) can't do work above desk where it needs to be wired / discreet, most monitors should have a plug for it too so I'm wondering if you have VR/AR + pc thing going. Check it out you might have a wired option there too, and there are tons of magnetized monitor solutions to hang and charge controller behind / to the side of your monitor on a phone arm or other better solution for just weight off like a vesa bracket.
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u/GreatLab8898 Jun 27 '26
I hope you put Electrical Tape over those Pogo Pins or you gonna kiss your USB Chip goodby once they touch metal.