DIY Head Tracker For A Tenner

Omegahunter

Omegahunter
A month or so ago posted about a jitter problem I was getting with my selfbuilt ED Tracker 9150, well I am only a little closer to finding the problem with it but think its in part software related.
I always leave my ED Tracker plug in to the USB ports and it stays powered up.

Here is what it looks like just so you can see it not a minor problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Ed4_sCveE

Its a pain but I could live with it just as it means either unplugging the ED Tracker or doing an Auto Gyro Bias

The real issue is that I've got one of the prototypes of the ED Tracker Pro which i've had on test for the last month or so (Thanks Brumster :D )

This too is starting to show signs of the same jitter problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To2cAlio

As you can see in both videos the ED Tracker's are stationary with no smoothing set in the UI and a minimal dead zone setup in the game.

I've had the ED Tracker Pro jitter as bad as the 9150 just didn't get a video of it.

Thinking that if the issues isn't easy to fix would it be possible to add a fast Auto Gyro Bias reset option?
 

brumster

brumster
Gwaihir said:
Just a quick question. It's possible to get older version of sketches fo mag version?
Click to expand...

It is, yep, but you'll need to flash them with the command line tool for now.

The various images (hex files) are at :-

http://www.edtracker.org.uk/update/EDTrackerII_9150_M.m.p

At the moment there's only 1.0.0, 4.0.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2 and 4.0.3

Then flash with the command line tool thus :-

java -jar UpdateTool.jar -d -i <filename>
Click to expand...

I think they are all pretty much inferior to the current version, though, so your results may not be great...?
 

brumster

brumster
Omegahunter said:
A month or so ago posted about a jitter problem I was getting with my selfbuilt ED Tracker 9150, well I am only a little closer to finding the problem with it but think its in part software related.
Click to expand...

Rob's already working on this, he believes it's particularly bad if the device is left on it's side but it can happen any other time too - basically the mag is constantly calculating and compensating for drift and, over extended periods of time, the gyro wanders off (which is to be expected) and the mag ends up with rather large corrections to make. We've got some power management functions to incorporate into Pro which will hopefully feed back into the DIY firmware also, that should help prevent this - basically after periods of inactivity the device will "sleep" and stop any sort of compensation. My other thought is exactly as yours too; have the re-center function do a very quick gyro bias calculation; just a few cycles, not an in-depth one. For now the fix is as you've discovered, just do a quick gyro bias calculation prior to play.
 

Gwaihir

G
brumster said:
It is, yep, but you'll need to flash them with the command line tool for now.

The various images (hex files) are at :-

http://www.edtracker.org.uk/update/EDTrackerII_9150_M.m.p

At the moment there's only 1.0.0, 4.0.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2 and 4.0.3

Then flash with the command line tool thus :-



I think they are all pretty much inferior to the current version, though, so your results may not be great...?
Click to expand...

Thank you. I will try. After initial sucess problems came back. I honestly don't know what is causing them. On older version i had no such problems. When i get back home, i will post photos of tracker. Maybe i've built it wrong, somehow.
 

robbyp

robbyp
brumster said:
Ah, ED is like that - it hates devices being unplugged or added. Like you say, it completely resets your profile :(
Click to expand...

No it does not.

Your custom.binds is still safe, its in <user>/appdata/local/frontier developments/elite dangerous/options/bindings.

It just won't load it until all the devices referred to it are present.

You can see whats missing by reading LoadErrors.log which is written in this folder if the bind won't load.

If you plug back in the right equipment, custom.binds will load again. Or manually remove the offending device from the .binds file will at least save most of your work.

The interface is a bad in my opinion, it should post a warning on loading saying "Device XX has not been found but is referenced by your custom.binds file. Using default instead".

Rob
 

brumster

brumster
Yes, you're right, I didn't word that right. It can potentially really screw you up if you don't recognise that you've got a device missing, and backtrack straight away.

The problem used to be, if you had a device unplugged and you went into the control setup and changed just ONE mapping, then your custom binds got overwritten. I think this is still the case, it was last time I checked a few weeks ago :)

But like you say, I've got my custom.binds backed up and ready so I've got my backside covered on that front!
 

Flimley

Flimley
Neillm said:
Just for information, in case you didn't know, but it's highly advisable to backup your Custom.binds file should this (or an update wiping your settings) happening again. You can find it here (on Windows 8):

C:\Users\<<Your usename here>>\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings

Then you can just restore it and carry on without having to rebind everything.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Thank you Neillm.... Yes, I always save my custom bindings file. What was confusing me that day was that I dropped the save file into the 'bindings' folder, but when I restarted the game, it just wouldn't 'see' the file. I now know the reason was I didn't have my EDTracker plugged in also. Just my joystick.
Anyway. All good now. And thanks for the replies. This tracker system is most excellent ! :)
 

Flimley

Flimley
Help again please kind people.
All set up and working well...but,....When I restart my PC. The EDtracker device isnt seen. The only way I can work around this is to go into device manager, uninstall the EDTracker unit. Then. Plug the Device back in and let the driver software reinstall.

So so my question is.... What do I change to allow the PC to recognise the device when I start up ?
 

Fenster

Fenster
Canada Custom Version

So first off, thanks very much guys for this project! It must have taken a lot of effort, and the product is just amazing!!

I live in Canada, so I didn't want to order from "overseas" and wait forever for the pre-built version, so I bought all of the components from Canada Robotix (no affiliation, just seemed to have reasonable prices, and good selection). It was also fun learning how to solder, and build something of my own - but the parts over here need a little more love than what's shown in your guide, so I though I would contribute, and post my "custom" version and lessons learned :)

First off, the North American version of the sparkfun MPU-9150 does not have the voltage regulator - so you need to buy one to get the voltage down from 5V to 3.3V when feeding the 9150 from the pro-micro. I have attached an updated wiring diagram to show how I installed this. ED Tracker.JPG
(thanks to Bartybees for the original diagram - I just made a few adjustments)

Second, the "red" pro-micro needs specific drivers from sparkfun.com - the drivers from the ED tracker website do not work - if you cannot find them, just PM me and I'll send them along (I cannot remember exactly on the website where I downloaded them).

Third - I started to assemble the ED tracker to work on a non-soldered breadboard - which was a mistake because it made it very difficult to wire up permanently with solder on a protoboard - after I put the header pins in the arduino and the 9150. *Moral of the story - follow Bartybees guide for the order of assembly :) - but make sure to make the protoboard a little bigger to fit the voltage regulator*

My partslist from Canada Robotix is below - if you want to make your own with more "local" parts (if you live in Canada).

Also - I would go with thinner wire than I bought to allow you to pass the wires through the proto-board holes.

Description: Part#:
Voltage Regulator (3.3V 0.8A) 0128-PRT
SparkFun Pro Micro (5V/16MHZ) 1113-SPF
SparkFun 9 Degrees of Freedom (MPU-9150) Breakout 1134-SPF
Break Away Male Headers (Straight 40-pin) 0440-PRT
Momentary Push Button/Tactile Switch (Mini 6mm Square 4 Legs) 0545-PRT
SparkFun Hook-up Wire (White) 0696-SPF
ProtoBoard (3x7cm 2-sided) 1160-PRT
USB A/Micro-B Cable (6ft) 0615-GEN

http://www.canadarobotix.com/
 
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Antmax

Antmax
That's what I had to do last summer when I got my first EDTracker. back when there was no guitool I also had to load up the device manager and watch the com port. Click the EDtracker microbutton and watch for the com port to change to unrecognized and quickly install the unsigned drivers for that com port too.

From then on, that particular USB socket always worked.
 

voon

V
Are there some news for the 9250? If not, I'd wonder why? Is it too expensive or not better? Or so different there's no time to develop for it?
 

Gwaihir

G
So i found some free time to investigate further, to see why my tracker do not work as it should. Previous solution on correcting mounting was not enough, i've still experienced rubberbanding.
I've disassembled box and found out that sensor board is soldered upside down. I've built new box and mounted it upside-down this time. Worked like a charm. DCS, ED, Warthunder, you name it. Now it's rock solid. Only downside now is that i cannot access reset button but not like it's needed anymore on newest firmware.

Lesson learned. Always read instructions while building something :)
 
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Blairvoyach

Blairvoyach
I like your taste in games Gwaihr and well done for persevering :)

- - - Updated - - -

voon said:
Are there some news for the 9250? If not, I'd wonder why? Is it too expensive or not better? Or so different there's no time to develop for it?
Click to expand...

Think the team are busy developing EDTracker Pro Voon, whether that will feature the 9250 in some form, who knows?
 

Ytheleus

Y
Noob72 said:
Flying RC helikoptets, Old gyros, and new fbl gyros have heading hold abiltys for drifting. This magnetic thing same stuff ?
Click to expand...
Yes, same hardware, but helicopter software needs drive output signals for motors, and a headtracker needs to update faster and be more precise. If you know how to change the software and hook up some motors and an RC receiver, you could turn an edtracker into a quadcopter with only a few extra components.

Magnetometer is used to correct for drift in the yaw axis, which gyros can't do.
 
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