Meta Quest 2 Battery and Microphone Mount

The Meta Quest 2 was a monumental advancement in Virtual Reality technology, allowing for the highest amount of processing power on a portable VR headset at the time, causing a renaissance in the VR industry. However, there's 2 notorious problems with it; a relatively short battery life and a sub-par built in microphone that users were forced to use as their sole communication devices. Fortunately, the Quest 2 supports external USB Type-C microphones natively, the only problem being there's no dedicated mount for it, so why not kill two birds with one stone and let people have a use for old battery banks for extra power and create space to mount a microphone with 3D printing?

Pretty much the only materials that you need apart from the microphone and headset are large rubber bands and filament. The bands are utilized due to being extremely easy to and simple solution to securing the accessories to the headset via wrapping around the headset, and they can also be layered for extra strength depending on the weight of the users desired microphone and/or power bank.

In order to conceptualize a functioning design, a prototype must be made which can be used as a rough basis. In my case, I just used a boxcutter, packing tape, and markers to label components all within my bedroom. This prototype allowed me to find a suitable place for the microphone and conceptualize possible ways of attaching the final product to the headset. The microphone mount is still pretty similar to how the final version functions and looks when attached to the headset.

This initial design based off the cardboard prototype was likely not going to be the final draft. In my case, it wasn't, but it still let me think about designing other components like the microphone holder, which I decided to make a separate component that could later be optionally added based on the users needs.

The baseplate of this headset consisted of 2 very simple features; slots for rubber bands and an indented space for battery packs to rest in. Apart from that, the only other feature that would remain is the peg holes at the front of the baseplate.

The microphone mount remained the same throughout the entire process. I refrained from adding threading until the end due to wanting to keep a copy of it for other people to use without threading so they could add their own and to ensure I got every measurement correct for the threading.

After printing it out fully and strapping rubber bands in the slots, this initial variation of the assembly was too large on the sides of the headset and stuck out the front slightly, which could have interfered with the tracking sensors on the sides and top of the front panel.

Fortunately however, the rubber bands worked out perfectly, meaning it was a viable and cheap attachment method, making assembly and design a lot more streamlined and simple.

This failure reminded me to double check the dimensions of the headset, and after I got the correct ones, I began producing Version 2 of the modular accessory.

Version 2 has a lot more upgrades over the first iteration. For one, the bottom has an arc which is designed to form fit with the headset better as opposed to having flat bits sticking over the curves on the left and right sides.

Another new part of the baseplate is the heightened walls and extra guards which jut out over the top of the main compartment. This was added as an extra precaution in case something came loose to help prevent it from flying out unnoticed. The front guard also acts as extra support for the microphone mount.

Finally, the amount of slots for rubber bands was reduced to increase structural stability and focus tension to the headset in just the front and back, allowing for more tuning with overlapping bands.

This assembly was nearly identical to the first iteration, mainly just requiring an initial 3D print and strapping rubber bands in the slots.

The fit is still a tad bit tight, but it can be easily adjusted. I'll be testing the microphone mount at a later date, but it should hopefully work as planned.

The facial interface I use with my headset did interfere slightly due to it being a third party accessory, but it should hopefully function a bit better with the factory standard components.

The rubber bands securely held the mount in place, along with helping to secure the extra battery secured on top. Having the battery helped increase the time of use with the headset by about 30-40 minutes in my experience, but that is probably due to how old it is, causing a decrease in ability to hold charge.

If I were to do anything differently about this project, it would definitely be regarding better connections between the microphone mount and the main baseplate. The one I designed was rudimentary and could easily be expanded upon. I do think that sanding down the connecting surfaces and applying more glue would definitely help with the connection.

If I were to design another additional modification to the headset, it would likely pertain to the controllers themselves to assist with actual usage.