HP WMR – Alternate Headstrap Mod

The stock halo style headstrap for the HP Windows Mixed Reality headset is fairly comfortable, but it positions the lenses quite far from your face, and tends to droop off your face when looking downwards. The lens position tends to shift a lot too.

I decided to remove the stock halo, and attach a more conventional fabric headstrap. The stock halo can be removed with 4 screws inside the faceplate, located under a sticker. The headstrap was salvaged from a cheap phone VR headset from Walmart, which can often be found for only $1, and is actually quite nice. The brackets are 3D printed and glued to the headset, and 30mm M3 standoffs and screws are used to attach the headstrap to the brackets. Overall, the appearance is quite nice, and looks almost stock, with the exception of some glue leakage.

After a play session, there are definitely a few compromises I noticed. The straps take a bit of adjusting to get the right tension without being too tight. I also could not as easily wear my glasses, though I personally don’t need my glasses in VR. Once I had everything adjusted correctly, the benefits definitely outweighed the downsides. The perceived field of view is much larger, as my eyes are a bit closer to the lenses. Moving my head feels more direct, due to the headset being more secure to my face with less wobble, and the lenses don’t shift away from my eyes when looking down anymore. Light leakage is now almost zero.

Parts used (Amazon Sponsored Links):

Standoffs: https://amzn.to/37GtMRJ
M3 Screws: https://amzn.to/2N4PhUx
3D Printed Brackets: WMR Bracket STL

Posted in Scrapbook.