Milopapa Posted November 22, 2015 Posted November 22, 2015 I finally mustered enough courage and determination to convert my TrackIR to wireless - here to show how I did it. TL:DR - I cut and soldered the USB cable of the TrackClip Pro unit to the internal battery pack of my wireless headset. Background: I have a wireless headset, so the extra cable needed for the TrackClip Pro has become a nuisance and a hazard. Since the cable is only needed for the +5V that the USB port can provide, I started looking for alternative power supply to drive the clip. I looked at various solutions (extra Li-ion battery strapped to the headset) but I didn't like the idea of having to charge the clip separately, plus not knowing how that battery's doing in terms of remaining charge. My headset has a standard micro-USB port for charging and it starts giving warning beeps when the battery is becoming low, so I decided I would use its internal battery to power the clip - with a bit if hacking and soldering Result: no cables at all coming to my head headset functionality completely intact switch on TrackClip unit to minimize battery usage cable flexes so headband can be adjusted freely headset warns me when battery's low charging headset also charges the TrackIR clip Materials needed: Wireless headset TrackClip Pro (somewhat broken already so I could sacrifice it without too much to worry about) inline DC switch (I salvaged it from one of those annoying plastic dolls that cries or laughs when you press on its tummy - my daughter basically forgot about this so no harm done) Total cost: $0 Solution steps: Cable routing and soldering: 1. removed the cushion from the left speaker cup to reveal screws and began disassembly 2. unscrewed 3 layers of components (including speakers) 3. found main PCB 4. measured various points with a multimeter to find +5V or similar - came to the conclusion that I need to use the battery output (4.2V) directly as none of the others were close enough (closest was 3.9V). This also meant I needed a switch to shut off the infra LEDs when not user, otherwise they'd be always on, even when the headset is switched off - and would drain the battery quickly. 5. drilled a hole to allow the USB/power cable to go into the speaker cup 6. inserted cable 7. removed cable, drilled an even bigger hole to enable tight assembly 8. fought hard to insert cable through the rotating axle alongside the original cabling 9. soldered cable to battery endpoints on the PCB 10. played with routing the cables for a while, decided the remove outer cable covering to save some space 11. re-assembled whole earcup only to find while testing that one of the speaker signal cables snapped from the PCB (no sound from left side) so I had to take it apart and re-do that soldering Adding the switch: 1. removed switch from the doll 2. found the right place it could go on the clip unit 3. cut, sawed, hacked, chipped and cursed for an hour to remove the appropriate amount of plastic to create a slot for the switch 4. inserted switch into the slot (needed some padding to make it tight) 5. cut and re-soldered red wire to the backside of the switch 6. tested the switch 7. rejoiced immensely to find it working 8. went to bed at 4am Attaching some photos: Removing the layers: The main PCB (connection points on the backside) Soldering completed (this was taken before I removed the rubber cover of the extra cable to make some space): Showing the new hole (I first drilled it too close to the joint, couldn't fit it back together with the cable inside): And here's the new switch: 1
Mewt Posted November 23, 2015 Posted November 23, 2015 Lovely! I've since moved over to the Elan Clip buts its good to see the Pro Clip repurposed.
Milopapa Posted November 23, 2015 Author Posted November 23, 2015 Lovely! I've since moved over to the Elan Clip buts its good to see the Pro Clip repurposed. What's an Elan Clip? Tried googling it but nothing relevant came back...
No_85_Gramps Posted November 23, 2015 Posted November 23, 2015 What's an Elan Clip? Tried googling it but nothing relevant came back... Think this is the one: http://www.delanengineering.com/
Mewt Posted November 23, 2015 Posted November 23, 2015 Sorry my typo. Delan Clip http://www.delanengineering.com/shop/ The track clip pro is a pretty crappy plastic thing for how expensive it is. I've broken two of them over the years. Moved over to the all metal Delan with some velcro on my headset and the whole thing feels way better than the pro.
Milopapa Posted December 4, 2015 Author Posted December 4, 2015 OK, so things were not as rosy as I thought. What other similar mods failed to mention is that the voltage provided by a LiPo battery is not enough for this setup to work reliably. I found that out the hard way - as soon as the voltage dropped below 4V, the lights would dim and the TrackIR image would start to flicker... moving closer to the camera and increasing the light filtering threshold would help (for a while), but it wasn't what I could call a working solution. Here's a little crash course on LiPo batteries and LED circuits for those of you interested: Even though the nominal voltage of a LiPo cell is 3.7V, in reality it is more of a range between 4.2V (fully charged) and 3.65V (almost discharged). This presents a problem for LED applications where there is a strong correlation between voltage, current and light intensity. In essence an LED is a diode (remember, Light Emitting Diode) which has a forward voltage (also called voltage drop), below which it will not let current through (or in other words, light up). There is an almost linear range of input voltage where the light intensity is directly proportional to current, this is the useful range. Anything above this range, and the LED will be damaged and eventually burn out. To avoid this, most LED circuits use in-line resistors to control the current. Here is a typical voltage-current diagram of an LED chip: And here is how the TrackClip Pro is built: I've been trying to find the exact specs of the LEDs used in the TrackClip Pro, but I haven't been able to get a definite answer. It looks like its forward voltage is either 1.45V or 1.5V. Since there are 3 of them in series, this translates to a total voltage need of 4.35-4.5V to reach the useful range. Now you can see why we have a problem with a LiPo power source which provides 3.65-4.2V. I've found a resistor in the clip (43 Ohms) which I tried replacing with lower and lower resistors (as low as 5 ohms) to increase the current and it kinda worked but again, as soon as the voltage started to drop, the lights would dim dramatically. Another trick I did was to replace the battery with a higher capacity one (670mAh to 2000mAh) to increase the time when it was above 4V, but again, this was just buying time. Oh, by the way, the headset had an original battery with a temperature sensor (to be precise, a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) thermistor). This is an extra wire on top of + and -, which regulates the charge/discharge cycle through a resistance reading. Without this, the built-in circuit thought the battery was disfunctional and refused to use it. I had to get one with the thermistor built in (see, 3 wires!): The ultimate solution was to use a voltage booster, which would not only boost the input voltage but also regulate it at a steady 5.2V. The one I used from Adafruit works in any LiPo to USB environment and fit perfectly into the earcup (just below the PCB). After connecting this between the power source and the clip's input lines, it worked like a charm. Strong, steady lights which remain operational throughout the entire discharge cycle of the battery - which incidentially is now 3 times as much since I upgraded the battery
KG200_Volker Posted December 12, 2015 Posted December 12, 2015 Maybe this will help, its an ugly solution the way i did it but it works It was done a while ago so I dont have any photos while i was doing the mod. It might also help other guys that have the G930 Logitech headset. I had 2 problems with it, first the mini usb connector died, I replaced it with an external one, i wont explain now how its done but if someone wants you can ask me. The second problem that arisen was the short life of the battery on the headset. So i decide to replace it with simple NiMh batteries. This solved the problem of life span but also made a wonderful wireless TrIr because the internal Lipo battery had the exact same problem as you, dimmed leds. The extra voltage of a 4 pack NiMh (4,8v) makes the leds very bright for long time between charges!
UNGumbie Posted May 5 Posted May 5 You guys do know they sell a Wireless Version of the Track Clip Pro on Ebay just putting that out there https://www.ebay.com/itm/306286594109?_skw=track+ir+5&itmmeta=01JTG8HY7P49XMCS4VDJS2WX8W&hash=item47501a883d:g:ZCMAAOSw719l31ho&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1fYM3VQC89v9toDDpkm8RP8NU4apPJl6aAajVI6vR542HKz5yRDpczL1gcghwo4e0jAN6JHPlsnWK7QcF1BvYFNe2zDHxeTBmjKtkxCGoQnbYwjXCiZUTM7Tc4rzFi5O5ApQLZpc%2BYulUjjaQ5AZevUspBx8DOr0%2FI29kU3zj8P2%2Ff4JDKxC6q4ZQrqD%2BHq8qrhRvG%2F7c%2BOo6G28BWREFkznPmJvlrd0YUmBPRrAODEiBXuAdkFXKZCJ1RN8Q3%2BNm0%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4Lkx4jUZQ here ya go
cardboard_killer Posted May 5 Posted May 5 2 hours ago, UNGumbie said: You guys do know they sell a Wireless Version of the Track Clip Pro on Ebay Is that wireless? I don't see anywhere in the ad that claims it is wireless.
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