I can’t turn Crystal off completely. I press the power button for 5 sec. as specified in the manual and it doesn’t turn off completely - the blue LED close to the power button is lit.
Does it mean that Crystal is charging the battery via the powered hub?
Also I experience very short battery life, like 2h. All connected as required - both USB cables to the powered hub, hub connected to power source. Batteries fully charged in the external charger before starting the session (all battery bars visible in Pimax software).
Crystal running in sim. Blue LED shines on the battery compartment on the back of the headset - what is the meaning of this LED? Charging? After just 2h of flying, in Pimax software the battery level is critical, eventually I receive the message in the VR screen about the critical battery level.
When Pimax software is running and Crystal is on - both LEDs (next to power button and on the battery compartment at the back of the headset) shine blue.
When the Pimax software is exited, both LEDs are still blue.
After pressing power button for 5 sec sometimes both LEDs go off (battery fully charged?) and sometimes the LED next to power button still shines blue, but the LED on the battery compartment at the back of the unit goes off (battery charging?).
And sometimes (after pressing the power button) the LED next to power button briefly turns green, which is not documented in the manual.
The LEDs on the battery compartment at the back of the headset and in the battery charging case are also not documented in the manual.
Apart from the issue with the battery life described above, so far the biggest disadvantage of Crystal for me is the lack of the possibility of bringing Windows desktop to VR (it is possible with Reverb G2 and WMR). So I can’t:
- use SkyDemon (I use it IRL, so it’s a second nature for me),
- take notes of clearances with my Wacom tablet.
I tried FSDesktop but it’s not responsive and seems like abandoned by the developer (@TheStoepsel2001) at the early development stage.
I also tried the AllInOne panel from @ErDebugger which is equipped with VNC (remote control of another computer) but it has scaling issues (the remote desktop on the tablet doesn’t fill the tablet screen). The developer promised to replicate the issue and to attempt to fix it, but he prioritized this low. AllInOne tablet stops functioning completely from time to time, which requires some action on the developer side.
So no VFR Vatsim flying for me in Crystal in the near future 
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I too have had short battery life of about 2 hours, even using the powered hub. Having it on makes no difference to battery life it seems. So I disconnected the supplied hub and connected the 2 USB plugs directly to my PC, making sure to get the USB 2 and 3 in the correct sockets.
Now I use a spare 10 watt iPhone charger my wife had and plug that into the USB C port on the right of the headset. 10 watts is twice the power of the supplied hub btw.
Regarding not shutting down, several people have had issues with this on various Discord channels. Mine usually shuts down OK, but last night it decided to start up again all by itselft he power button went green like yours and it connected to the client, which was weird. I think you should get two blue lights, one on the power button and one on the battery when you switch off. Both should then go off and stay off.
Did you update the headset and controller firmware when you set the Crystal up?
Hopefully further firmware updates will improve things.
So you have two long cables connected to the headset when flying? The original one connected to the display port of the headset and the next one (from the charger) connected to the USB on the right side of the tablet?
I believe we should report this to Pimax - the added the hub for a reason and seems like charging via the hub and the original cable doesn’t work.
BTW - I updated the firmware.
I reported the battery charging issue to Pimax support. Consider reporting as well.
I just received my Crystal. I updated the firmware of the headset and the controllers to the most current version.
I have very short battery life - about 2h.
I have powered hub connected as required:
- power adapter connected to the hub - blue LED on the hub on,
- USB 3 cable connecting the hub with the PC
- both USB plugs from the long headset cable connected to the USB ports on the hub,
- display port plug connected to 4090 GPU.
I always start my session with the battery fully charged in the external charging sleeve - steady blue LED on the sleeve (all green bars visible on the battery symbol in Pimax software).
Looks like no charging via the hub while Crystal is used.
Is this a firmware problem or a faulty batch of the headsets or batteries?
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I will. Right now I have posted it to the Pimax Discord server and also on VR Flight Sim Guy’s server as other people have noted issues with battery life and also difficulty switching the headset off.
Yeah, I actually have the iPhone charger on my right with a 2 metre lead plugged into the USB-C port on the right of the headset, with my PC on the floor to my left, bit of a hassle but it seems to work. Have only used that once so far and the battery stayed fully charged in a a short half hour flight.
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Windows 11 is not detecting Crystal microphone. So I can’t use it in MSFS to communicate with VATSIM controllers by using vPilot. Crystal loudspeakers are detected correctly.
Windows Settings, Privacy, Microphone…allow apps to use microphone.
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Allowed already. It works now (to some extent, sound level very weak)
Seems like Crystal microphone is visible in my system under any of these 3 entries:
In the recording tab of sound control panel I can see:
Capture Input Terminal - AC Interface
AI Noise-Cancelling Microphone (Asus Utility)
Virtual Microphone (Asus utility)
It works now, but the sound level is very weak.
Not sure what else to suggest, as it depends on motherboard and sound devices. Sound setting on my AMD rig show all my headset mics as being there, although I haven’t tried the mic on my Crystal as yet. Good luck, apparently the Crystal mic works really well when you get it sorted out.
Is there an option in Pimax software to limit or turn off the local dimming?. I can’t find it.
I can’t imagine my VR life without OXR toolkit 
Doesn’t SteamVR in MSFS mean performance degradation?
So just to be clear OVR Toolkit and OXR Toolkit are two different things…i know it’s confusing.
OVR Toolkit, as far as I know, isn’t per-sei dependent on the app using OpenVR, but instead dependent on using SteamVR.
Are you using my PimaxXR now instead of SteamVR? If so then OpenKneeboard might be your only option until I come up with something else.
Whether you are using PimaxXR or SteamVR, either way OpenXR Toolkit will work. This is because MSFS uses OpenXR, and therefore whichever “backend” you use isn’t relevant.
Regarding performance differences between PimaxXR and SteamVR, better to try to confirm exactly what is better on your system.
And I don’t any reason SteamVR + OpenXR Toolkit + OVR Toolkit wouldn’t work together.
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PimaxXR ca. 45 FPS
SteamVR ca. 39 FPS
OVR Toolkit with one desktop window spawned ca. 30 FPS (OVR Toolkit window refresh rate minimum - 5 fps)
OVR Toolkit with one desktop window spawned ca. 25 FPS (OVR Toolkit window refresh rate - max.)
Resolution override in OXR Toolkit set to 3800.
Ryzen 7800x3D, RTX4090
Malmo medium complexity Orbx payware, on the ground, Cessna 172 classic.
I will try to experiment to achieve acceptable FPS with OVR Toolkit. I will try to limit res. override and the size of the window spawned by OVR Toolkit.
Yes, I can confirm that SteamVR + OpenXR Toolkit + OVR Toolkit working very well.
Pimax 8kx.. I am being using them in DCS & MSFS. In DCS ..very help to learn new aircraft F15e by watching youtube tutorial & Chuck’s guide and fly F15e at the same time.
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Are you able to use MSFS mouse in the window (with desktop or any application) displayed by OVR Toolkit, or you need to operate the application in the window by VR controller only?
Yes, I use mouse. I have not tried with vr controller. It works better in msfs than in DCS. In DCS, if the size of the overlay too big.. the screen get flickered.
Are you bringing to VR the entire desktop of just one application window with OVR Toolkit?
When I bring the entrie desktop (to make it less impacting on the FPS i bring the desktop of my secondary monitor set to 1024x768 or similar) I can operate the mouse, but I must “release” the cursor from the MSFS window.
When I bring to VR just one application window, I can’t constrain the mouse cursor to stay i this window only and moreover I can’t see the cursor moving in VR (I I remove my headset I can se the cursor moving on my 2D screen).
Did you find I way to “push” the mouse cursor to the application window displayed by OVR Toolkit in MSFS VR?
MSFS mouse cursor is a different beast (kind of 3D cursor) vs. the ordinary mouse cursor.
BTW: After some tweaking and using 2nd 2D display which I bring to VR with lower resolution, I manage to have:
PimaxXR resolution ovverride in OXR Toolkit to 3500 - ca. 45 FPS
SteamVR resolution ovverride in OXR Toolkit to 3500, with one desktop displayed by OVR Toolkit - ca. 38 FPS. I must still check if Steam VR actually presents the same resolution which I set in the OXR Toolkit.
Not so bad for the convenience of having the entire desktop in VR. Ca. 10-12% FPS drop.
