Gear VR - Add a cooling fan

Add a cooling fan to stop overheating issues

This is a simple project which is non-destructive to the Gear VR unit.

Parts

You'll need the following:

• 50mm 5V fan with a USB plug about 35cm long (eBay)
• Fan cover (optional, stops your fingers getting caught!)
• 1200MhA battery pack which is reasonably light (bought from Poundshop)
• A strip of non sticky-back and sticky-back velcro (eBay)
• Elastic strips (Poundshop)
• 4x 2.5mm rivets and washers (eBay)
• 4x M4 nylon dome-nuts and bolts (eBay)
• Small rubber sticky-back feet (Poundshop)

Battery

For the battery pack, simply add a strip of sticky-backed velcro to the underside and to the back strap of the headset. This can then go anywhere you wish on the straps. I prefer it at the back to add as counter weight.

Fan unit

Cut the elastic to about 8cm long. Fold the ends to reenforce where the rivet will go through. Add washers for better grip. The velcro is about 2.5cm by 1cm. Do this 4x.

Make sure the fan is facing the right way, it needs to blow onto the phone!

Attach the elastic arm to the fan with the nylon screws. The elastic strips and nylon screws are to reduce vibrations.

Add the rubber feet to the screw head when tightened. This is so there is a gap to allow air to move freely over the phone.

Headset unit

Finally, add about 3cm long stick-back velcro to the top and underside of the Gear VR headset. The CPU/GPU is near the camera on the S7 so I placed mine around where that is. It may differ to your phone.

You're done!

Notes:

Obviously you can use a better more capacity battery to get longer run time. Mine only lasts about half an hour until it dies so will need to upgrade to a higher capacity one, which unfortunately means more weight.

There is some vibration that you can feel when using it but it is subtle. Maybe better with softer rubber feet.

The fan can be attached very quickly and the velcro can be peeled off the headset if you need to readjust or if going to sell it.