DIY Head Tracker For A Tenner

AMacdonald

A
I am SOOOOO close.

First off, I haven't done anything in Electronics for nearly 20 years but this project has rekindled something inside me. It's fantastic.

I built my 9150 tonight and it works, or at least it calibrates and works smoothly within the GUI. However, I have no corresponding joystick. The USB game controllers panel just has my Logitech G25, which stays plugged in all the time. Device manager might report it as an Arduino Leonardo (in which case the GUI works) or as an "EDTracker EDTracker2" with no installed drivers, depending on which USB port I connect to. When it's detected as an EDTracker2 the GUI can't see it. I feel like I'm virtually there - all I need is to coax that joystick into existence.

All suggestions gratefully received. Sorry if I've missed the solution in the preceding 240 pages.
 

pocketmoon

P
AMacdonald said:
I am SOOOOO close.
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Hi, which arduino type board did you use ? The Pro Micro ?

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NeilF said:
I find it can wander off a bit potentially in the first few minutes of use (starting PC from completely off at mains), but from then on generally good!
Click to expand...

For ultimate performance let tracker warm up then run auto gyro calibration. That gives the magnetometer the very least amount of work to do.

It will handle things from cold (adjusts continually in the background) but the first 5 minutes of warm-up are a challenge :)
 

AMacdonald

A
Hi. I bought the Hobby Components upgraded kit so I have the Pro Micro board. Mag v4.0.1 too.

<edit> Just found the reference to USBDeview in the docs. Will try that tonight.
 
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foxpur

foxpur
Not having bought one yet... how does this not interfere with the joystick ... don't they conflict since it would see combat xyz and headlook xyz from different sources?
 

pocketmoon

P
foxpur said:
Not having bought one yet... how does this not interfere with the joystick ... don't they conflict since it would see combat xyz and headlook xyz from different sources?
Click to expand...

You can plug in as many joysticks as you want and they all appear as separate devices - so no conflict.
 

AMacdonald

A
AMacdonald said:
I am SOOOOO close.

First off, I haven't done anything in Electronics for nearly 20 years but this project has rekindled something inside me. It's fantastic.

I built my 9150 tonight and it works, or at least it calibrates and works smoothly within the GUI. However, I have no corresponding joystick. The USB game controllers panel just has my Logitech G25, which stays plugged in all the time. Device manager might report it as an Arduino Leonardo (in which case the GUI works) or as an "EDTracker EDTracker2" with no installed drivers, depending on which USB port I connect to. When it's detected as an EDTracker2 the GUI can't see it. I feel like I'm virtually there - all I need is to coax that joystick into existence.

All suggestions gratefully received. Sorry if I've missed the solution in the preceding 240 pages.
Click to expand...

I sneaked the unit into my work machine and it was detected immediately as an HID-compatible game controller and as a joystick called EDTracker2 so I know the hardware is fine. I'll try manually cramming some drivers in and clearing out my USB cache later on tonight.

I can't test the UI at work as our proxy server blocks the script downloads. where are the downloaded scripts saved?
 

Dizzy B High

Dizzy B High
Try using usbdeview.exe (in the downloads section on the edtracker site) to uninstall any drivers edtracker or arduino.

Then try plugging the tracker back in.

That usually works for me when it does not show up
 

Munial

Munial
As I have no soldering skills just ordered my pre-built edtracker - v excited, but will patiently wait. I have a question though, do people think you need a multi screen setup to get the benefit from any kind of head tracker? I have an ultrawide 29 inch screen, so hoping its worth having. Any thoughts welcome..
 

Sllewji

Sllewji
Hi All - apologies if this has already been covered but a brief search didn't help
I just received a brand new pre-built 9150 based EDTracker2 with cable, but when I plug it into my laptop, device manager does not recognised that any device has been plugged in. My laptop is a Lenovo Y50-70 running Win 8.1
I also tried plugging it into several other desktop and laptop machines running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008R2 all with the same result.
The red light comes on on the Arduino and so does the green light on the 9150, but Windows seems oblivious to it.

Any ideas?
 
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pocketmoon

P
Munial said:
As I have no soldering skills just ordered my pre-built edtracker - v excited, but will patiently wait. I have a question though, do people think you need a multi screen setup to get the benefit from any kind of head tracker? I have an ultrawide 29 inch screen, so hoping its worth having. Any thoughts welcome..
Click to expand...

You get just as much benefit when you only have a single screen :)

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Sllewji said:
Any ideas?
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Sounds like a faulty cable - do you have another you could try with ?
 

Sllewji

Sllewji
pocketmoon said:
Sounds like a faulty cable - do you have another you could try with ?
Click to expand...

I have tried with a couple of cables I have lying around with the same result - but I can't be _sure_ that those are both power and data cables.
I have also tried with another cable that my wife uses to charge and upload photos from her phone - so assume that is a power/data cable - but again with the same result.
 

Treble

T
I'm still waiting for mine to be delivered (already shipped but no tracking number), so I need a question answered.

I have a 40" TV near my PC, behind my chair and opposite of my monitors. It's connected to my PC and I like to watch movies or play games on it from time to time. If I calibrate the EDTracker to the PC monitors, would it still work if I decided to play on the TV even if I'm essentially facing the opposite direction? I imagine just pressing the reset button on top should do it?
 

Sllewji

Sllewji
brumster said:
Hmmm, you don't get ANY "windows USB connection" sound at all? No unknown device pop-up/etc?
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Nope, nothing - on any machine.
I have a Leonardo-based quadcopter flight controller that I configure on one of the desktop machines, and that doesn't recognise the EDTracker either :-(
 
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brumster

brumster
Treble said:
I'm still waiting for mine to be delivered (already shipped but no tracking number), so I need a question answered.

I have a 40" TV near my PC, behind my chair and opposite of my monitors. It's connected to my PC and I like to watch movies or play games on it from time to time. If I calibrate the EDTracker to the PC monitors, would it still work if I decided to play on the TV even if I'm essentially facing the opposite direction? I imagine just pressing the reset button on top should do it?
Click to expand...

Yes, so you're just effectively spinning around in your chair? That's fine, as you say you just reset it marking dead-ahead as 180 degrees from where it was before. It cares not ;-)

Sllewji said:
Nope, nothing - on any machine.
I have a Leonardo-based quadcopter flight controller that I configure on one of the desktop machines, and that doesn't recognise the EDTracker either :-(
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Hmmm, I think we've got an email from you yes? I can only suggest it's somehow got 'd in transit, as I definitely test them before they go out... no way I could have flashed it otherwise. If you're happy you've tried everything then all I can suggest is we arrange return and, if it is indeed faulty, we will of course replace.
 

AMacdonald

A
Still scratching my head here. I have used USBdeview and pruned the list of known USB devices severely, to the extent of accidentally removing my keyboard and mouse a couple of times but the board is only detected as an Arduino Leonardo on port COM26. The UI is happy with this but no joystick is available. Can I confirm I should also see an HID Compliant Game Controller in device manager as well? I did on my work machine but there's no sign on the home PC, Windows 7 x64.

With the board plugged in. USBDeview sees it with a device name of "EDTracker EDTracker2" and description of "Arduino Leonardo" on COM26, showing up in device manager as the latter.

Plugged into another PC the tracker is detected as a USB Composite Device and works. I feel a Windows reinstall coming on. Ulp.
 
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