Affordable DIY Virtual Reality Backpack!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,323 words · ~6 min read
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people tend to treat building high-end computers like creating a sculpture the
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construction is slow and meticulous time
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is taken ensuring that every individual cable is roted and managed perfectly
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Investments are made not only in their cuttingedge Hardware but also in things
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that offer little to no performance Improvement like beautiful brushed
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aluminum and tempered glass from their Superior components to their fine
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craftsmanship to they seemingly cult-like Community it's easy to
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understand the passion and like sculptures the best personal computers
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are all about the Builder's attention to detail it has a GTX 980 like a desktop
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PC it has rubber tubing like the International Space Station it has
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strapping like a pickup truck it has a magnesium aluminum alloy frame like an
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F1 car it mounts to your back like like
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a jetpack it features an AC to DC
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voltage converted power delivery system like the cray supercomputer and it
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features dual exhaust ports like an F-16
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fighter jet the LT Edition VR backpack
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may just be the most revolutionary closest to falling apart piece of
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technology ever pulled out of a Craigslist ad
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the be quiet! dark based Pro 900 modular design supports a variety of different
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layouts and configurations click on the link in the video description to learn
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more all right so first off I need to give a shout out to the drive YouTube
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channel and Corbin Goodwin for their awesome video the zero given RX7 which
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inspired the intro to this video Corbin's car is badass go check it out
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now getting back on topic why did we make a VR backpack it's actually rather
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simple we wanted to play with it and you can't buy a commercial one yet the B1 VR
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backpack that we checked out from aorus in January at CES this year is vaporware
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and the same is true for the Zotac VR backpack that was showcased at computex
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this year and while MSI has announced their VR1 backpack and I've heard
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through the grape find that a certain space fairing organization that rhymes
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with Bessa H anyways they're going to use it
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for immersive training of their astronauts which is very cool and that
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also is not available yet so if you want
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to solve the problem with the long cable that runs between the headset and the
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computer also known as the tether coming up with something yourself is the only
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way lonus had one idea but while he lightened the cable itself he ended up
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wearing a backpack full of electronics so large and heavy that many of you
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wondered if he wouldn't be better off just you know putting the Computing
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device on his back directly this doesn't remove the tether but it will remove any
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issues with the tether as you just need to Cable manage it from well your back
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so I set out to do this as cost effectively as possible without
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compromising on the experience I started
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with a proper hiking style backpack frame with a waist Buckle the weight
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mitigation is really not a big deal this
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thing with all this Hardware weighs less than the bag I used to carry around
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school with just textbooks in it but as with many things the most important
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reason is cost I got this backpack for
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25 bucks off Craigslist from a lady who seemed like she would have rather had
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anyone come pick it up other than me
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after removing the bag off of the frame I had a perfect solid lightweight frame
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I got the straps for another 20 bucks from Home Depot and some spare waste
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rubber tube from tan for free 45 bucks
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all in and with some more time spent deal shopping and thinking of your own
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creative ways to mount your laptop it is
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possible that you could get even lower overall none of this was that hard I
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spent a bunch of time planning out the best possible way to mount everything
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looking up thermal properties of different materials online and what not
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then I finally went to Home Depot to grab some gear to get it done and
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thought hey what about straps like like pickup
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trucks and that solution worked perfectly well and was Far easier than
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what I was actually thinking of doing so just head out to the local store
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junkyard get inspired and get her done it's not that big of a deal now the
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reason I chose to do this with a laptop instead of various desktop components
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wasn't actually the difference in difficulty it would have still been
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doable but I just didn't feel like it was actually a compromise the percentage
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of people buying gaming capable laptops
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is increasing at a surprising rate in no small part due to their performance even
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this last generation Acer Predator X17
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has a high performance Intel Core i7
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6820hk a desktop grade 980 dual 256 GB
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ssds in raid zero 32 gigs of ddr4 memory
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and more including an air vent layout that worked perfectly for this setup not
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to mention that for somebody that already has one of these laptops 45
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bucks isn't too much to invest in order to be able to swap quickly between a VR
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backpack experience and the normal laptop experience that you're used to
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now I know this video isn't going to get a million views and I also understand
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that it probably doesn't deserve it the internet currently is fueled by hype
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drama and memes and this video contains
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none of those sometimes I just feel obligated to to make a video where I
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show that it really isn't that hard to just create something of your own I'm
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actually rather proud of this rickety little bag it's mine I was the one that
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made sure it matched the standard lonus Tech tips orange and black colors I was
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the one that scared the nice lady while picking up the Magnesium aluminum alloy
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frame and I was the one that thought to
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use the strapping I like to think of this project as a reflection of me it's
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not perfect but I'd like to think that it's very functional and I'd like you to
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go out and create something that is a reflection of you send a picture or
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video of it to me at Linus and tag me if
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you want to reply at lukor LFR and by
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this I do not mean just a collection of
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computer parts that you happen to plug into each other I'm sure most of you
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watching are sufficient enough at electrical Lego to get that done now go
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make something cool and make it for you
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just let me know about it thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you
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know what to do you can dislike it but um LT backpack man will be very sad if
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you do that because um I don't I don't know where I'm going with this like the
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video if you liked it subscribe if you liked it as well if you want to buy
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something uh uh a laptop there we go
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check out the Amazon Link in the video description down below also discuss how
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terrible my creation was on the Forum the LTD Community Forum they're great
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over there um and in the description down below you can buy a t-shirt not
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this one but like ones that are like this one I just don't think this one's
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available anymore but you know that's cool whatever if you want to see another
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video check out this one where I turn an old computer case into a test bench also
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pretty cool