Step 5: Remove Battery Caddy

With a little bit of force, the battery caddy can be removed. WARNING: This piece is connected to the PCB with a ribbon cable. You need to disconnect this cable from the PCB prior to removing.

Step 6: Remove Exterior Plastic Ring?

Here is where it starts getting a bit tricky. The exterior plastic ring must be removed to expose 2 screws that are holding front plate in place. I attempted prying with a Jimmy, but it didn’t really budge. I assume a bit of heat from a heat gun or knowing where to pry could do the trick. *I plan to do a post-mortem of the teardown to update the best way to approach this.

Step 7: Remove Screws from Behind PCB

Once the exterior ring is removed, there should be 2 screws that are exposed behind the PCB. These should be the only remaining mounts of the front plate. *I assumed that the front plate was attached only with adhesive similar to the original Touch controllers. This wasn’t the case and I ended up breaking off the front plate. Learn from my mistake and don’t do the same thing!

Step 8: Remove Screws on Top of PCB

Carefully remove the cables from the top of the PCB using tweezers or a spudger. Remove the remaining screws from the top of the PCB.

Step 9: Remove PCB

WARNING: The PCB will still be attached to the ring with a ribbon cable. Delicately remove the ribbon cable from the PCB. At this point, you should be able to remove the PCB.

Thoughts on Design and Repairability

As expected, the ergonomics of the new Touch controllers are unrivaled. I have been a huge fan of the original Touch controllers and always felt they were the VR standard to match. The change in the IR LED ring location didn’t seem to make a major difference to me during gameplay and the inside-out tracking was very comparable to the original.

Disassembling went fairly smoothly until the ring had to be disassembled. These controllers were definitely designed to be replaced, not repaired. Although, I did appreciate the reduced use of adhesive for this iteration. I’m sure once I determine an optimized method of disassembly with the appropriate tools, it may become much easier. I’ll be sure to share what I figure out here!

As a last note, I expect designing around these controllers will be a challenge due to the organic geometry designed for ergonomics. We have several projects in our road-map that involve designing and 3D printing around these controllers. Luckily, these are compatible with Quest and Rift S, so I will only need to design once for multiple platforms. Thank you, Oculus! It should be a fun and interesting challenge, and I plan to share it along the way.

Final Thoughts

At a compelling price point, an incredible lineup of VR titles at launch and the convenience of mobility, Quest will most likely be the catalyst to wide-spread VR adoption. Beyond gaming, Quest will undoubtedly make an impact on Enterprise, Medical, Education, Social Media and Entertainment. To many developers, it is the headset we have all been waiting for. For the general consumer, it may be the first glimpse of the new immersive world.

Much appreciation for taking the time to read the teardown and I hope it will be helpful for others in the future! Special thanks from BadVR!