DIY SlimeVR Trackers!
Edit 5th OCT 2025:
It’s been a few years now, and while I have really enjoyed this project, I would definitely recommend using higher-quality IMUs than what I did here. While you can make it somewhat manageable with careful calibration, most of the time I experience a lot of drift on some of my trackers, which overall makes these kind of a pain to use. Nevertheless, I would still highly recommend you give this a shot if you’re up to it. Another thing you should watch out for is batteries. I had a battery go puffy on me a few months ago. Just make sure you’re being safe, properly housing the batteries, and checking to see if they look healthy before putting them on. Another good tip is to order enough parts to make a few more trackers than you think you need. While I did this, I probably should have ordered more just to be safe.
Full-body tracking is widely considered one of the best additions you can get to greatly improve your immersion in VR. But unfortunately, if you’re not already using base stations, it can cost upwards of $1,000 just to get some legs in VRChat. Well, that was until the open-source project SlimeVR was created.
For those not in the know, instead of using outside-in tracking (i.e., SteamVR base stations), SlimeVR uses IMUs (inertial measurement units) to try to figure out where they are based on where they have moved since they last calibrated. Long story short, while less accurate and needing a lot more calibration, SlimeVR trackers are way cheaper, lighter, easier to DIY, and have a much longer battery life.
So, after doing a bit of research, I decided to go all in and buy everything I needed to build the trackers. I decided to go with this guide, as it included a custom PCB that I could get printed, making my project neater. All in all, the parts ended up costing $160 AU (including shipping) and took about a month and a half to arrive from China. I’ll spare you the details of how I soldered and assembled them, but a brief summary is:
- Solder the through-pin and electronic components.
- Solder on the battery (this was very sketchy and not enjoyable. I would recommend trying to use a battery connector instead of soldering the wires directly onto the board like I did.)
- Place in the 3D-printed cases.
- Use this installer to configure and install the firmware.
- Tape the cases together and attach the straps.
- Calibrate each tracker.
- Connect to the SlimeVR server.
- Enjoy!
After finishing this process, I ended up with this:
While it may not look the best, that’s not what matters most. What matters most is how it tracks. And, well:
“It’s fine.” - Jack (2023)
While it still is a work in progress and there are definitely some improvements to be made, I would say that the overall tracking quality is quite usable as long as you’re fine with it being a bit off sometimes. If you’re expecting to do lots of high-octane kicks and dancing, in the state my trackers are currently in, this probably isn’t for you. However, if you’re just planning on standing, sitting, leaning, or lying down, I would say this is a good option for some cheap FBT (as long as you don’t mind recalibrating every so often, although this only takes five seconds).
If I were to build this again, I would probably bite the bullet and not use the custom PCB. That specific one only supports an older IMU that probably won’t work as well as some of the newer ones. If there were a PCB that let you use a newer IMU, I would probably go with that one. I would also try to protect the battery a little better from the start. As of now, the battery is just sitting there with the exposed pins of the circuit board touching it. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that’s not great for safety, so I’ll probably wrap the PCB in electrical tape to fix it. Also, as I mentioned above, I would probably use a connector to connect the battery to the board rather than soldering the wires directly.
Overall, tracking quality aside, this was a really fun project, and I would highly recommend it if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty and spending a while trying to squeeze the best performance out of what you make.