DIY Head Tracker For A Tenner

ZZleeZZ

Z
Tom Kewell said:
Does anyone fancy making up one of these and posting it to us at frontier. I'd be interested in seeing how it performs.

I'd reimburse you for your costs of course. While I feel confident balancing weapon stats and galactic economies, I'm not so hot with a soldering iron.
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It works really amazingly well. If this becomes a commercial product that can be bought as a ready to go cased gadget that just works I can see it being very popular as it gives such a big big advantage. I've always found any game with a fixed forward view frustrating to play and this has been a revelation for me.

I demonstrate a little combat and landing using the EDtracker here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc_mBLnu9Lo
 
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OldGrumpyGit

O
ZZleeZZ said:
It works really amazingly well. If this becomes a commercial product that can be bought as a ready to go cased gadget that just works I can see it being very popular as it gives such a big big advantage. I've always found any game with a fixed forward view frustrating to play and this has been a revelation for me.

I demonstrate a little combat and landing using the EDtracker here
Click to expand...

Just as a heads-up ZZleeZZ, your link doesn't go anywhere ;-)
 

pocketmoon

P
brumster said:
Hi Tom,

You should have one there somewhere? Rob sent one to Michael, I believe? Mind you, it will have a rather old image in it by now. Let me know if you can't find it and I'll sort you out another one; drop me a PM.

Cheers,
Dan
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I'm not convinced the first one ever made it through the postal system (not the first time :/ ) ! It was a looong time ago (and an early prototype with not-so-good software).
 
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Tom Kewell

T
Thanks for all your responses! This is now all sorted. Special thanks to those of you who volunteered to make and send in devices.

Can't wait to see how this holds up in the game!
 

Tom Kewell

T
Good news everyone!

We got a chance to have a play with (one of) the tracker you sent in!
I've got to say I'm impressed with how quickly and easily it works!

Are there any features or areas of the game where you would like to see some support from the game for it? Where do you feel it's integration with the game could be improved?

Also, a big thank you to those of you who helped sort out sending in trackers, sent advice and guides to help us get started with is, and offered your feedback. I'm frequently staggered by the generosity and helpfulness of the Elite community!
 

Juppstein

Juppstein
Honestly we probably should lock this thread here and move over to the currently running one http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21570 so we do not fragment current information between two threads.

But I am not the OT here so not my call.

Here's my proposal:

Probably not really going to be possible but it would be all-sorts-of-awesome if there would be a way to assign a button directly to the reset function of the EDTracker so we don't have to use the button in the device.

As it turns out sometimes the tracker loses its center in the worst possible moments in the game :D
 

brumster

brumster
I know what you're saying Juppstein. That piece of work would really sit with us rather than Frontier though.

Firstly, we (as in the EDTracker team) would need to write a proprietary driver for Windows that would accept input from the operating system (ie. capture a keypress or button press) and send a command to the EDTracker to re-centre. Since this needs to tie in to the OS it's not a simple java utility, although people have made ingenious solutions around GlovePIE scripts!

Dreaming a little futher.... ideally, we'd go with a proper USB descriptor so it was all 'formal' and could run signed windows drivers. Unfortunately we're then looking at several thousand pounds for a USB ID (or look into the hazy shennanigans around a USB device from a 'broker' vendor)...! So I think that is unlikely!
 

pocketmoon

P
Tom Kewell said:
Good news everyone!

We got a chance to have a play with (one of) the tracker you sent in!
I've got to say I'm impressed with how quickly and easily it works!

Are there any features or areas of the game where you would like to see some support from the game for it? Where do you feel it's integration with the game could be improved?!
Click to expand...

You guys deserve all the pizza you can eat. It's great being part of the ED community :)

With this type of tracking device they all suffer from yaw drift to some degree. We have some semi-smart compensation build in which does an OK job of keep things roughly on track. We also have the button on the device which does a quick re-centre but it would be cool if a key binding could be added to send a recentre command to the device. Sending an 'R' to the com port that the tracker is attached to will do it.

A picklist with a list of active com ports could be shown to enable the one with the tracker to be selected along with a key binding for it. Or, the Processing UI (https://github.com/pocketmoon/EDTracker2/blob/master/UI/source/EDTrackerUtil.pde) does a smart scan of the COM ports; sending an H and waiting for an H back from the EDTRacker. So you could potentially do an auto-detect; get a list of com ports , loop through sending H wait a few milliseconds for a response (H). When you get one you've found the EDTRacker :) Then in-game hit a key or joystick button for instant recentre.

That would be my one wish!

Cheers,

Rob
 
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Lasse B.

Lasse B.
Juppstein said:
Probably not really going to be possible but it would be all-sorts-of-awesome if there would be a way to assign a button directly to the reset function of the EDTracker so we don't have to use the button in the device.

As it turns out sometimes the tracker loses its center in the worst possible moments in the game :D
Click to expand...

I have that already set up and running. I'm using a Logitech G300 mouse, and one of the buttons on the right side I use to recenter the tracker.

I'm using Microsoft's own devcon.exe command line device manager to check if an Arduino device is using a COM port, and if so, which port it is. The rest is simply sending commands over that COM port, as pocketmoon has pointed out.

Here it is again: :p
http://lbsoftware.bplaced.net/EDTracker_2/reset_tracker.zip

It's currently set to Numpad 1 and only works from within the game.



PS:
And now it even supports freely selectable hotkeys. Same download link.
 
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Omegahunter

Omegahunter
Tom Kewell said:
Good news everyone!

We got a chance to have a play with (one of) the tracker you sent in!
I've got to say I'm impressed with how quickly and easily it works!

Are there any features or areas of the game where you would like to see some support from the game for it? Where do you feel it's integration with the game could be improved?

Also, a big thank you to those of you who helped sort out sending in trackers, sent advice and guides to help us get started with is, and offered your feedback. I'm frequently staggered by the generosity and helpfulness of the Elite community!
Click to expand...

As other have said having the game recognize the ED Tracker and have the option to reset it with a key press would be great.

A default to "ON" option for head tracking mode PLEASE, would be so nice to set the axis's up in the control panel and never have to press a key to change the tracking state unless it went out of range and you just had to turn it off.

Not so much for the current space section of the game but when we get planetary landings and first person it would be nice if headlook mode roll axis was allowed. Tilting your head to look around a corner by actually tilting your head would be cool. The roll axis's is already being outputted by the tracker but we have nothing to bind it to at the moment.
 

Juppstein

Juppstein
Lasse B. said:
I'm using Microsoft's own devcon.exe command line device manager to check if an Arduino device is using a COM port, and if so, which port it is. The rest is simply sending commands over that COM port, as pocketmoon has pointed out.

Here it is again: :p
http://lbsoftware.bplaced.net/EDTracker_2/reset_tracker.zip
Click to expand...

Repped for greatness! Perhaps it would also be a smart move to add such small but helpful tidbits to edtracker.org? Too bad EDtracker.org is not based on a wiki system, otherwise we could add such things on our own :)
 

Rog

Rog
Omegahunter said:
As other have said having the game recognize the ED Tracker and have the option to reset it with a key press would be great.

A default to "ON" option for head tracking mode PLEASE, would be so nice to set the axis's up in the control panel and never have to press a key to change the tracking state unless it went out of range and you just had to turn it off.

Not so much for the current space section of the game but when we get planetary landings and first person it would be nice if headlook mode roll axis was allowed. Tilting your head to look around a corner by actually tilting your head would be cool. The roll axis's is already being outputted by the tracker but we have nothing to bind it to at the moment.
Click to expand...

Would this allow a little leaning sideways and forwards/backwards using the accelerometers too?

That would be super awesome.

Kudos to Tom and FD for getting on board with this, and of course the intrepid EDtracker team for making it all possible.

It strikes me that a single board solution for this could be very commercial. Something to be considered perhaps?
 

brumster

brumster
Lasse B. said:
I have that already set up and running. I'm using a Logitech G300 mouse, and one of the buttons on the right side I use to recenter the tracker.

I'm using Microsoft's own devcon.exe command line device manager to check if an Arduino device is using a COM port, and if so, which port it is. The rest is simply sending commands over that COM port, as pocketmoon has pointed out.

Here it is again: :p
http://lbsoftware.bplaced.net/EDTracker_2/reset_tracker.zip

It's currently set to Numpad 1 and only works from within the game.



PS:
And now it even supports freely selectable hotkeys. Same download link.
Click to expand...

Lasse, is this link pretty solid? If so, and you don't mind, I'll link it from the EDTracker.org website (kudos given, naturally)...

Rog said:
It strikes me that a single board solution for this could be very commercial. Something to be considered perhaps?
Click to expand...

Next on my list after the software updater is done; time for some serious board design :)
 

Rog

Rog
brumster said:
Next on my list after the software updater is done; time for some serious board design :)
Click to expand...

Would that still be using an arduino, or your own design with a nekkid Atmega32u4, gyro and caps 'n stuff on an all new board?
pocketmoon said:
Dan, Dor and I will be at Lavecon to down a few beers and plan World Domination with a compact, cheap , EDTracker Pro :)
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I'm not sure if Dorian likes beer. You might have to twist his arm. :D

Hats off and good luck chaps!
 
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