Summary
- Auto-Charge Tracker uses camera tracking and vibrations to guide the Steam Controller to its charging puck.
- The tracker is finicky, and it sometimes misses the charging puck.
- Valve’s Steam Controller charges via USB or puck; the gamepad is sold out, and some orders ship as late as 2027.
An inventive modder has created a browser-based tool that can guide Valve’s recently released $100 Steam Controller back to its charging dock using a combination of camera tracking and the gamepad’s vibration motors.
Ray Foss, the modder who created the sci-fi-sounding project, showed off a short video of the app in action on Twitter where the Steam Controller vibrates towards its dock on its own. Foss explains that a camera is used to track specific points on the controller, which then triggers the gamepad’s vibration motors to move it across a surface towards its charging puck.
Check out the video of Auto-Charge Tracker in action below (it’s pretty wild):
Foss explains that the Steam Controller’s tracking points can be a “bit finicky” when the tool is trying to figure out its target position. Additionally, he says the Auto-Charge Tracker doesn’t work accurately all the time, so anyone looking to try it out for themselves should expect their Steam Controller to miss the mark at least sometimes. Still, this is overall a very cool project, and if I had a Steam Controller, I’d definitely try it out.
Valve’s 2026 Steam Controller can be charged through USB or its charging puck, which also doubles as a wireless receiver. You check out Auto-Charge Tracker for yourself on GitHub.
Some Steam Controller orders have already been pushed to 2027
The $100 gamepad sold out very quickly.
In other Steam Controller-related news, a recently uncovered easter egg allows the gamepad to vibrate to create songs or… to make the famous Wilhelm scream. Valve also recently confirmed that some Steam Controller orders won’t arrive until 2027, depending on when the order was placed. Other earlier order windows include September 2026 and December 2026.
Last week, Valve finally revealed the Steam Machine’s $1,049 starting price tag and June 25th release date following a several-month delay. The company says it’s randomly selecting from the pool of people who signed up to buy the console-like PC during a very brief pre-release window (Valve is starting to send out those emails now).
Someone just released a SteamOS gaming PC before Valve even shipped its own
It has a very clever name.
