PSA: Watch out for the exposed contacts of the Puck! Almost started a fire due to metallic smartwatch strap from r/SteamController
Despite the relatively high price tag and software restrictions, the new Steam Controller has been a massive success for Valve. And just like so many high-end gamepads, it also comes with a neat charging system that conveniently keeps it always ready for action. However, as one redditor found out, the simple puck will punish quite noticeably if you're not careful about keeping certain materials well away from it.
Essentially, Reddit user Toikka discovered that the charging puck for the Steam Controller is constantly 'live' when it's plugged in, i.e. the little metal pins don't 'deactivate' when you lift the gamepad off the puck. This was discovered when the user accidentally let their smartwatch's wrist strap briefly touch the pins.
Since it was a magnetically-latching band, the whole thing is metal-based and thus electrically conductive. Result? Valve's puck tried to 'charge' Toikka's wrist strap, and it "started sizzling due to a short circuit."
This kind of potential hazard isn't exclusive to Valve's unit, as the charging dock for my 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller does the same thing. I used a multimeter to check, and there's a constant voltage across them. Both companies are using a simple, low-cost design for their chargers to offset higher material costs elsewhere in the device, so this is perfectly normal.
An ideal, but less cost-effective, solution would be to have an additional contact that acts as a sense pin. With it, the charger could be designed so that the remaining pins only become live when the sense pin is grounded by the gamepad, much like how those in the 12VHPWR power connector on Nvidia's latest RTX graphics cards work.
Of course, a far simpler and practically free solution to the whole issue is to just keep the charging system out of the way when you're not using it, and absolutely never put anything conductive anywhere near it. Or at the very least, unplug the puck so it's not live (edit: This will essentially nix the controller, as reader Marasi has reminded me that the puck also acts as the wireless dongle).
There is one thing that I do think Valve et al. should be doing, though, and it's to add a very clear warning about the live nature of the puck. I hasten to add that such an instruction might actually be there somewhere in the documentation; unfortunately, I don't have the Steam Controller or Ultimate 2 boxes to hand to double-check, but there's nothing relating to this on either company's website.
But even so, given the litigious nature of today's world, I dare say that Valve might want to beef up whatever hints or warnings it already offers. Because I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of social media nitwits decide to start a new trend of puckifying various things, resulting in an even greater nitwit causing a serious accident or harm.
