The website is now live at www.ViveNchill.com.  Website is stocked and ready and orders are being fulfilled daily.

The Vive's amazing room scale ability allows players to be physically engaged and immersed in endless alternate realities for hours at a time. However, wearing a bulky headset while being physically active is the perfect recipe for an uncomfortable and sweaty situation.  

The ViveNchill is a heat fighter! It's effective, quiet, and discrete.  It's the perfect companion for your headset, keeping you cooler and more comfortable with the press of a button. 

We iterated over many design choices when creating the ViveNchill.  Our initial prototypes focused on piping air into the headset.  Users complained about dry eyes, high noise levels, vibration, interference with the built in mic, and low cooling effect.  So we took things outside and directed airflow at the forehead and contact area with the facial foam.  We found a drastic improvement in its ability to cool you off with no negative side effects.  As an added benefit, reducing heat and moisture also reduced fogging and nausea.  

The science behind the madness

According to research at Veostrip:

"The forehead produced the largest absolute volume of sweat per unit of surface"

"The forehead is the best heat dissipating skin on the body"

“The forehead is particularly important to cooling and can dissipate heat at 4x the rate of the torso”

“Bloodflow to the forehead increases by 12x during exercise, specifically to aid cooling”

A similar study from Frontiers in Neuroscience states that “Conversely, although the head and neck represent only 7–9% of the total body surface area, even a small increase in heat loss from surface cooling of this region causes a relatively larger cooling of the body core (Pretorius et al., 2006)." 

By directing air at and over this crucial part of the body, the ViveNchill helps reduce your overall temperature effectively in a compact package. 

Reference 1: Veostrip. “Science behind Veo.”, 2017, www.veostrip.com/science-behind-veo

Reference 2: Frontiers in Neuroscience. “Thermal Regulation of the Brain”, Jan. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4720747/#s7title

Switch development

Various prototype parts

Injection mold machine with 3 plate double cavity ViveNchill mold setup for run.

Core of the ViveNchill mold with slider components made from high quality NAK80 Steel

2+2 Cavity side mold with edge / pin gates made from high quality NAK80 Steel

The ViveNchill packs a 1-2-3 punch. A clean and discrete form factor is paired with effective cooling and an easily accessible on/off switch.  This allows you to regulate your temperature instantly based on the intensity of the game play.   

Actual production injection molded components and custom cable harness with overmolded switch shown below. 

 

 

 

 

The ViveNchill uses high quality CE, CUR, TUV, and UL approved fans and draws under 200mAh from the accessory USB port.  The fans feature auto-stop and restart feature, and won't snag on hair, skin, clothing, or whatever else you feel like sticking in there.

 

 

The ViveNchill has a runtime of 70,000 hours.  It should last as long if not longer than your Vive.  Premium MagLev vapo bearings ensure vibration free operation throughout it's lifespan.  To stay ahead of the curve, the ViveNchill is compatible with the HTC deluxe audio strap, TPCast wireless module, and current prototype DisplayLink XR. The ViveNchill is a perfect partner in crime for these upgrades since it allows for greater mobility and a bigger chance of being a sweat mongrel.
 

 

 

 

 

RedRotor VR is a team of 2 engineers with a knack for solving problems. In the past, we have successfully launched several drone related products under our RedRotor RC label. We both share a passion for creating beautiful, functional and reliable products.

We're currently on track in our development cycle and have our final injection mold samples and cabling completed. The next step in line for us is to begin the assembly run and go to production. This is where we need your support to keep the price as affordable as possible!

Being at a late stage in the product cycle allows us an excellent chance of success to meet our delivery window. Not having to fuss with prototypes and having a finished production ready product means we're focusing all our effort on mass scale production now.

We've gone through many iterations of prototypes and after multiple rounds of refining tooling, we're very happy with the end product. Nailing down the tooling was a big milestone for us because it is the key process in successfully moving past the prototyping phase to a production worthy item.

Through countless test sessions we've garnered extensive feedback and are quite pleased with the response from players. Hearing a big sigh of relief each time as we turn on the ViveNchill for players during an intensive gaming session gives us confidence we're delivering an effective product.

While the inherent risks associated with mass production are still there, we are confident that our years of experience in designing and manufacturing drone products will ensure a smooth process. This is why we're happy to offer 2 years warranty for parts.