DIY Head Tracker For A Tenner

SentineI

SentineI
Just for fun, I decided to see how much it cost to buy all the above stuff for my "£10 head tracker" :-D
£ 5 for DIY PCB
£21 for DIY Head Tracker Bundle (inc MPU9150 & First Class delivery)
£ 6 for Maplin box (inc Standard delivery)
£ 1 for 8mm button
£ 1 for 1.8m USB cable
TOTAL = £34 (not too bad!)

But if you also had to buy all the tools needed to build it, then that would increase the real cost:
£34 brought-over (see above)
£23 for Antex soldering iron
£10 for Antex soldering iron stand
£ 7 for lead-free silver solder
£11 for Helping Hands with Magnifier (could be cheaper on Amazon)
TOTAL = £85
(and that's assuming you already have a Junior Hacksaw, Craft Knife, File, permanent marker, stickers, stick-on Velcro, etc...)

Suddenly not quite so cheap! So works out much better if you don't have to buy all those 'extras'. Maybe there would be a market for someone to sell pre-built (and tested + calibrated) EDTrackers.
 
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tooterfish

T
To be fair, the MPU9150 is a lot dearer anyway, and you really don't need most of that other stuff.

I did mine with a cheap and nasty £10 soldering iron I had lying around. Box and other tools not needed, the PCB is cable-tied straight to my headset.

It's secure and functional as is. I just look like a complete dilbert with flashing lights on my head, but I can live with that.

Total cost: parts + usb cable + soldering iron, something like £30.
 

Omegahunter

Omegahunter
ChrisH said:
I used the following box:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/hammond-m...se-abs-box-1551-series-black-50x35x17mm-n78bq (black)
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/hammond-m...ose-abs-box-1551-series-grey-50x35x17mm-sc78k (grey)
Beware the box & official EDTracker PCB need modifying, as described in the following guide:
http://www.edtracker.org.uk/index.p...ownload=18:edtracker-maplin-project-box-guide
(if the guide doesn't download then try looking for it on this page: http://www.edtracker.org.uk/index.php/downloads/category/1-hardware )

I bought myself a much taller (8mm high) button:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Quality-M...mponents_Supplies_ET&var=&hash=item2a147b03f1
But if you want to use this then you canNOT precisely follow the above guide. At the very least you need to drill a hole for the button BEFORE you try putting the board in the box & cutting a hole for the USB cable. I drilled a 3mm hole (using a 3mm 'spikey' wood drill), and then enlarged it to a 4mm hole (using a normal 4mm drill) once I had checked the 3mm hole lined-up.

Also, I strongly advise cutting the corner out of the official EDTracker board (PCB) before soldering it. Contrary to the guide, I cut a 3mm*4mm hole out of the corner (not 4mm*4mm), as that gave a tighter fit. I used a junior hacksaw, and then (IIRC) filed it down very slightly. As a result, I didn't need to put ANY padding inside the box :)

Make sure you have some medium-sized sticky labels & a permanent marker, as they were invaluable for marking where I needed to cut & drill the case! And a good craft knife will be VERY helpful for the plastic parts that a junior hacksaw cannot cut. A file is also very handy. As is a good ruler (with 1mm markings).

And as suggested by the guide, I did not cut ANY of the leads. That worked pretty nicely.

Once finished I used some stick-on Velcro to attach the box to my headset.

P.P.S. Once I am sure no more modifications are required, I plan to put a blob on Araldite over the board's USB socket, to prevent it from coming loose with repeated (un)plugging of the cable. (That is apparently a common problem.)
Click to expand...

As you might have guessed the guide only covers the basic parts as you would get if you bought the kit. There are a lot of possible variations from the kit, that you could make. Don't expect everyone to precisely follow it hence why its only a guide.

I tried to make it as simple as possible to follow, like with the 4mm x 4mm cut off on the PCB. Even with that much the movement isn't to great and it covers for people that might not have the tools like a file to do the fine adjustments afterwards for a tighter fit.

Of course the more tools you have to use the better and I don't think that any of your additions are any things that most people won't already have to hand.

At least the guide was able to point you in the right directions.

As for the Arduino board's USB socket I add more solder to the side mounting point as i'm building the ED Trackers to reinforce them.
 
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marc_ely

M
marc_ely said:
Thanks for the info. I'd waded through pages and pages but not spotted that.
I have another PC to try that is near a clean install. Maybe that will work.
Click to expand...

Tried my fresh Win7 PC today. Installed 32bit java, installed arduino drivers from edracker site. Plugged in - PC finds Arduino Leonardo on COM4. All good.
Run up Edtracker GUI and just a white screen. Tried the latest version on website and the one on github. Same result.

Time to give up.
 

Commander Corvus

C
hello all
ok i gto mine built and tried to use it....no joy so i thought Ill put that to one side and just get some in game experience first...no problem found myself in game always looking around with the X52????
So thought ill break out the ED tracker and get it up and running. Now i don't play with headphones so thought ill sew it to the side of a cap and have the usb cable hanging down. Awesome and there is a configuration for RHS sub Down.

During this restart i found i was getting white screens, communication errors and all sorts....went and both myself a new usb data cable and hey presto straight away off it went.....i was using a small cable that was plugged into and extension USB so i think my small one was a better charging cable than data

now i have to work out how to get it nice and smooth while i turn my head etc. also need a bit of bias i think when turning to the left....

if anyone else is not using it on headset please let me know how your travelling with it.

thanks
 

Nervous Energy

N
Working fine with my Sennheiser PC 360 headset.

Make sure you have set the ed tracker to according USB exit and set it to exponential. Then ED clear everything in the options menu regarding headlook mode and hit apply. Go back into options and

Assign a button for on/off head tracking and bind look/up/down axis and look/left/right axis only.

Set head-look mode to accumulate hit apply and your good to go.

Also did a custom box for myself. (PM if you want a STEP file, but check your board size)

 

SnowImp

SnowImp
A note to everyone using a custom bindings setup that includes the use of the EDTracker - make sure that the USB connector has not worked loose!

I raised a bug report this morning because I just could not get my custom bindings for my X55 to be picked up. I replaced the custom.bindings file with my saved copy. I replaced the contents of the custom.bindings file with the contents of my saved copy.

It was only when I started remapping by hand that I found when I tried to map the EDTracker it was not being picked up. I checked the EDTracker GUI software - also not picking up EDTracker. I touched the connector where it was plugged in and it fell into my hand!

Once I plugged it back in the GUI software found it. Then when I overwrote the custom.bindings file with my saved copy and the game is just fine.

That's when I thought to check the Bindings error log - sure enough it said it couldn't find a particular GUID for a device. I think I'll try and remember to check that first if this happens again.
 

Voz

Voz
SnowImp said:
A note to everyone using a custom bindings setup that includes the use of the EDTracker - make sure that the USB connector has not worked loose!
Click to expand...

Yeah, the USB ports on my system are always powered (even if the PC is off) so I unplug it to put the lights out. I really should look into that.

Anyway, this means that I sometimes forget to plug it back in when firing up the game and unless it's found a standard bindings set is loaded. I quit the game, plug in the EDTracker and start again.
 

SnowImp

SnowImp
Voz said:
Yeah, the USB ports on my system are always powered (even if the PC is off) so I unplug it to put the lights out. I really should look into that.

Anyway, this means that I sometimes forget to plug it back in when firing up the game and unless it's found a standard bindings set is loaded. I quit the game, plug in the EDTracker and start again.
Click to expand...

I haven't had my EDTracker long so I hadn't got as far as thinking about unplugging it to turn the lights off, but maybe I should. Maybe then if I always have to plug it in I'll remember to do so.
 

NeilF

NeilF
SnowImp said:
I haven't had my EDTracker long so I hadn't got as far as thinking about unplugging it to turn the lights off, but maybe I should. Maybe then if I always have to plug it in I'll remember to do so.
Click to expand...

Sorry, why are people concerned about powering their EDTracker down?
 

NeilF

NeilF
SnowImp said:
I am worried about it overheating/burning out - bear in mind I know nothing about the tech used to build it so I don't know if that is possible/probably or not.
Click to expand...

Well, my PC is turned off and dust covered when not in use. I'll swear that's half the reason it has so few problems :)

I have it plugged in via a remote control plug, so I simply press a button on my desk when it's shotdown to turn the power switch off. (And of course the ED Tracker light then goes out too)
 

SentineI

SentineI
Omegahunter said:
At least the guide was able to point you in the right directions.
Click to expand...
If you took my post as a criticism of your guide... it certainly was not intended as such! It was a good guide that (as you said) pointed me in the right direction - and without it my case modifications would likely have been more complex & probably worse. Thanks for taking the time & trouble to create it :)
 

Bamse

B
Hey guys!
Sorry for going completely Off-Game but I've just built my first EDTracker and have some questions and this seemed to be as official as a post/forum get for the edtracker :)
I do not play ED (yet) but I do play a helluva lot of ArmA 3.

I ordered two Pro Micro 's along with one MPU6050 and one MPU9150 some time back and recently got everything home and I'm trying out some different options.
I fell for the EDTracker option due to the simplicity and solid performance when it comes to yaw drift so I built one and got everything up and running.
When using the EDTracker ingame I get a _very_ choppy "resolution" on the analog look. It's feels like your'e mashing your face against minecraft blocks and it's pretty much impossible to use it when flying. Looking around just makes you dizzy and disoriented and using zoom together with this is just not possible. The drift compensation worked like a charm and I could play for about an hour before even noticing it.

So, I uploaded one of the sketches found over at the Bohemia Interactive forums and the "Tenner"-threads there for use with FaceTrackNoIR and the plugin Hatire (tried both the latest mentioned spring_reset and SnowSky's) but I didn't become friends at all with the spring version and I had crazy drift with SnowSkys after just 10-15 minutes. Apart from yaw drift this worked quite well and the movement was very smooth and fluid. Still, I cannot use it during my 2-4 hour long sessions due to quite massive drift.

Two very crappy videos I made to show the difference:
FTNIR+Hatire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34JFGDhC2Vo

EDTracker Official:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8QmVRENZns


This ends up like a Sophie's Choice kinda situation; choppy "resolution" using EDTracker or crazy drift using FTNIR/Hatire.

I still like the simplicity of EDTracker and would prefer if I could get that running. Any recommendations on how solve either situation would be most appreciated :)
 

rascaluk

R
Can't flash the Leonardo

Hey hey, just playing around with my chips after they arrived today.

I can can get my Windows to recognise it as an Arduino Leonardo no problem but when I try to flash it with java -jar UpdateTool.jar -f EDTracker2Calib it goes through the motions and comes back with a WARNING: Device failed to respond to memory erase command......................................etc

then closes the port and reports DONE.

Is there anything I should be looking for? This is a 2 day old Windows 7 build, x64.

The chip has a permo red LED lit and when it runs the calib tool I get a second flashing amber one which goes off when the port closed msg arrives.

Any clues much appreciated...

Paul
 

brumster

brumster
You can ignore the warning. I wish I'd never put the bloody thing in now :D !

Run it with -d -q.... what do you get? Hopefully something like...

Code: 
java -jar UpdateTool.jar -d -q
EDTracker Update Tool v1.0.2
Available serial ports : COM1 COM7
Guessing EDTracker port as COM7
If this is wrong, override with the -c option
Opened port COM7
Closed port
Bootloader port : COM4
Opened port COM4
Connected to bootloader
Device code(s) reported : D. [44][00]

Select device : DONE
AVR Device Info
Software Version : 1.0
Software ID      : CATERIN
Buffer Size      : 128
AVR Device Code  : 44
Bootloader - clean exit
Closed port
DONE

You could try the flash again with the -v (verify) option, just to ensure it's writing it properly.
 

Tar Stone

Banned
Tar Stone
Quick question - can the tracker be mounted sideways, ie stuck onto the side of my headphones as opposed to on top? Can the software handle this?


Just finished building it but I'm in work so can't do anything else til tomorrow. A fiddly thing to solder but both boards powered on with my phone charger so I got that going for me.
 
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