DIY Head Tracker For A Tenner

Skeeter · Sep 12, 2014

Just a thought about somit.

If there is a heating issue with one of the chips, duno if its the pro micro one or the gyro one but has anyone thought of a heatsink one of them tiny ones u can get for a quid or cheaper? Might not fit known cases tho cos of extra hight but somit to think about?

Also with regards to 6dof. I had a idea but dunno if its any good. Since the pro micro has leds, could there possibly a way to use them to track the extra dof with using them leds and a ps3 camera or equiv? Ud have to mount the edtracker sideways making the leds point to the cam or whatever but just wondered if it was somit ppl thought about to get the extra dof also i have no idea but would that extra sensor tracking i.e led with a cam help with drift etc?

Edit - These kinda heatsinks?

http://www.moddiy.com/products/Ultra-Thin-4mm-Server-Chipset-Heatsink-(Silver).html

or

http://www.moddiy.com/products/Pure-Copper-Heat-Sink-for-Raspberry-Pi-(14mm-x-12mm-x-5.5mm).html (smaller than previous link)

Gimi · Sep 12, 2014

AndyEdgson said:
€22.61 includes shipping to the UK. I've uploaded a combined top & case and it should be available here

Including shipping to Norway I get €16.43 (Shipping is €4.93) when I try to order from your link. Why on earth would shipping to the UK be an additional €6. Shapeways is giving you Brits a raw deal me thinks.

SilentAssassin82 · Sep 12, 2014

I made one of these for DCS Black Shark last year some time, it cost me £27. The reason for that is I had to get a camera I could remove the IR filter from. Then I bought a rechargeable Nintendo Wii sensor bar from game and used the battery pack and IR LEDs to make the head tracker. I just charge it up via USB, tuck the pack in behind me on the seat and stick the LED setup to my headphones on my right ear. Then use freetrack. Does freetrack work in ED?

drbosnovich · Sep 12, 2014

Thanks so much for designing and supporting these so well, guys.

I've had mine up and running for a while, but I too have a persistent problem with drift; mainly because drift seems to be a very strong function of temperature; while a bit of insulation could damp out the variations somewhat, a 1 degree or so change with a device that's so close to a hot scalp is hard to avoid; and drift varies significantly for me over that kind of range.

My immediate reaction to the problem would be to calibrate the drift correction as a function of chip temperature rather than just have it as a single fixed value. While I'd quite happily put in a simple linear 'eyeballed' distribution into the sketch when it was still in arduino format, you guys kinda past beyond my ability to bosh it myself when it got packaged into java. I think this approach would solve a lot of issues people are having with drift.

NeilF · Sep 12, 2014

drbosnovich said:
Thanks so much for designing and supporting these so well, guys.

I've had mine up and running for a while, but I too have a persistent problem with drift; mainly because drift seems to be a very strong function of temperature; while a bit of insulation could damp out the variations somewhat, a 1 degree or so change with a device that's so close to a hot scalp is hard to avoid; and drift varies significantly for me over that kind of range.

My immediate reaction to the problem would be to calibrate the drift correction as a function of chip temperature rather than just have it as a single fixed value. While I'd quite happily put in a simple linear 'eyeballed' distribution into the sketch when it was still in arduino format, you guys kinda past beyond my ability to bosh it myself when it got packaged into java. I think this approach would solve a lot of issues people are having with drift.

Question, if you just leave it running in the calibration tool to monitor the drift over 10-20 mins, is there anything noticable? eg: Is the head far off center?

At times when playing the game I actually find I've caused the drift due to the way EDTracker works (corrects itself?). Because of the self centering coding it's quite easy to cause the EDTracker to go off center. Try this, slowly move you head/direction of view at about 1cm a second left or right till you get towards the left/right of the screen. If you do it slow enough EDTracker will not register a movement and at the end of the movement you're now looking well off center. Return your view to the middle now, and voila you've drifted off. I think I do this at times during lateral combat by accident so the EDTracker ends up off true.

drbosnovich · Sep 12, 2014

NeilF said:
Question, if you just leave it running in the calibration tool to monitor the drift over 10-20 mins, is there anything noticable? eg: Is the head far off center?

At times when playing the game I actually find I've caused the drift due to the way EDTracker works (corrects itself?). Because of the self centering coding it's quite easy to cause the EDTracker to go off center. Try this, slowly move you head/direction of view at about 1cm a second left or right till you get towards the left/right of the screen. If you do it slow enough EDTracker will not register a movement and at the end of the movement you're now looking well off center. Return your view to the middle now, and voila you've drifted off. I think I do this at times during lateral combat by accident so the EDTracker ends up off true.

Ahh that is very possible. I have a rather unwise arrangement of screen to one side of the desk (my work laptop presides over the other), which makes looking at the screen dead on a little awkward, which in turn creates a difference in 'nose-intrusion-factor', when headtracking left compared to right. I suspect that would cause a drift in my natural head look; I'll have a go with it head on and report back. Thanks for the help.

NeilF · Sep 12, 2014

drbosnovich said:
Ahh that is very possible. I have a rather unwise arrangement of screen to one side of the desk (my work laptop presides over the other), which makes looking at the screen dead on a little awkward, which in turn creates a difference in 'nose-intrusion-factor', when headtracking left compared to right. I suspect that would cause a drift in my natural head look; I'll have a go with it head on and report back. Thanks for the help.

I have a gut feeling the auto correction is a bit over zealous and ends up creating drift as you follow objects slowly around/across the monitor.

AndyEdgson · Sep 12, 2014

Gimi said:
Shapeways is giving you Brits a raw deal me thinks.

Tell me about it

sthalik · Sep 13, 2014

Starting with today's build, you no longer have to use workarounds in EDTracker for it to work with opentrack joystick tracker.

OillyRag · Sep 13, 2014

sthalik said:
Starting with today's build, you no longer have to use workarounds in EDTracker for it to work with opentrack joystick tracker.

Today's Build ?

NeilF · Sep 13, 2014

OK... I recon the following behaviour causes EDTracker to get uncentered.

When looking slowly across your monitor, EDTracker ignores it, so when you stop and return your gaze back to the center of the monitor, EDTracker is instantly off by the amount you "slowly" moved too.

So if you are watching something slowly pass by, eg: during combat a target slowly move left/right, your view can be skewed off.

And the slow movement I speak of actually isn't that slow. It can be in effect a couple of cm per second I recon, and EDTracker ignores it.

So question - Why is the slow movement ignored? A limitation of the hardware, or a software decision?

Skeeter · Sep 13, 2014

Probably meant to not turn on when doing slow movements which are natural and not intended to be seen by edtracker so they were not tracked is my guess. Maybe ask for a toggle of this ability in the next sketch? Or adjuster on how slow till tracking is stopped. That or just use the reset button more often or a keybind to disable edtracker while not intending to use it.

NeilF · Sep 13, 2014

Skeeter said:
Probably meant to not turn on when doing slow movements which are natural and not intended to be seen by edtracker so they were not tracked is my guess. Maybe ask for a toggle of this ability in the next sketch? Or adjuster on how slow till tracking is stopped. That or just use the reset button more often or a keybind to disable edtracker while not intending to use it.

Well, it's easily reproducable - just look left/right at 1-2cm per second - so hopefully one of the boffins can comment?

kile · Sep 13, 2014

NeilF said:
Well, it's easily reproducable - just look left/right at 1-2cm per second - so hopefully one of the boffins can comment?

I think that's self centering code kicking in a bit more aggressively than it should. It would be nice to be able to configure the self centering sensitivity from the util in the next version.

NeilF · Sep 13, 2014

kile said:
I think that's self centering code kicking in a bit more aggressively than it should. It would be nice to be able to configure the self centering sensitivity from the util in the next version.

I'd have said that apart from the fact as you move your head (at 1-2cm per second) the EDTracker doesn't budge one bit? Unless the self centering code is working uber fast per fraction of a second so negating/ignoring all small movements of less than a cm in less than a second?

Skeeter · Sep 13, 2014

Did adjusting the deadzone in the controls ingame help with this at all?

kile · Sep 13, 2014

NeilF said:
I'd have said that apart from the fact as you move your head (at 1-2cm per second) the EDTracker doesn't budge one bit? Unless the self centering code is working uber fast per fraction of a second so negating/ignoring all small movements of less than a cm in less than a second?

Self centering works gradually. When the tracker senses that you are looking close to center and not moving much, it will start resetting the view so that as you move your head slowly you never notice it's correcting, but it actually is.

OillyRag · Sep 13, 2014

How I sorted out my drift to an acceptable level (1 reset every hour)

I put my headphones on with attached head tracker on, loaded up the GUI and settled down for a while, played the game did some surfing had a cup of tea.

after about an hour I took a note of the temp ... for me it was 18 degrees, then I took the head tracker off my headphones and taped it to the desk (nice and stable) and flashed the calibration sketch to it and again took a note of the temp.
I noticed that it had started to fall (It's not on top of my head any more

) I then got a table lamp and shined it on the tracker and lo and behold the temp on the tracker started to go up again. i messed about and messed about till the lamp was in the right place to keep the tracker temp stable at about 18 degrees.
then i went through the whole calibration / drift compensation routine while the tracker was taped to my desk at the same temperature it would be on my head.

And now i can use the tracker for ages without it drifting off ... my headphones aren't very comfortable on my ears though but i guess you can't have everything

NeilF · Sep 13, 2014

kile said:
Self centering works gradually. When the tracker senses that you are looking close to center and not moving much, it will start resetting the view so that as you move your head slowly you never notice it's correcting, but it actually is.

It could well be the problem then. We end up with slow lateral movement simply being ignored. Often in battle you pan your head left/right to slowly look/track objects so this would mirror this issue.

I wonder if a change in this self centering approach could help?

Skeeter said:
Did adjusting the deadzone in the controls ingame help with this at all?

Deadzone makes no difference to the issue/behaviour.

With no/loads of deadzone I can move my head across the monitor and beyond at a good 2-3cm per second without the EDTracker changing my view. I can be looking at say 45 degrees and then stop with EDTracker still (incorrectly) looking forwards.

Of course when I then return my view to the center of the screen EDTracker decides my view should move way over left.

Antmax · Sep 13, 2014

sthalik said:
Starting with today's build, you no longer have to use workarounds in EDTracker for it to work with opentrack joystick tracker.

I can confirm that EDTracker now works with 3DOF in opentrack. The TrackIR emulation works in both ED and War Thunder

As you can see, yaw, pitch and roll are working in the orientation widget.

You use the joystick input plugin. The window is visible in the screenshot with the correct axis settings.

One slight niggle I am having is that the center and on/off toggle shortcuts built into opentrack do not respond in game. (I only tested on my computer so it might not be universal)

UPDATE:

Noticed I was running my games as admin and when I did the same for opentrack the shortcuts worked.