DIY VR: Build your own headset, if you must

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorArs Technica has a primer on building your own VR headset, with the joys, the pains, and a warning that you probably won't want to.

2. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorPro one: a barebone build can use a Meta Quest 3S as its core, per Alibaba's buying guide.

3. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorCon one: you've built a headset, out of a headset.

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat guide puts the barebone system between thirteen hundred and fifteen hundred dollars.

5. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorPro two: an Instructables build costs eighty dollars, with an Arduino Micro and a motion sensor.

6. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorCon two: you'll spend the weekend soldering and the evening being sick.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSick from the headset, or the soldering?

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorYes.

9. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorPro three: one household-items project calls for a two-litre bottle, preferably Pepsi, plus cardboard, foam, hot glue and water. Con three: you now wear a drinks aisle.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAnother guide says the lenses must sit sixty to sixty-five millimetres apart, to match your pupils. Get it wrong and the world looks wrong.

11. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorWhich is how I'll end up unable to tell the cat from the kettle, and then the kettle is in charge. Two stars.

12. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThe lens is watching me, I'm certain of it, and Kenji still wants one.

13. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorOne star, and that's only because the bottle is recyclable.