Opentrack build

[Nicob]

Hellow fellow pilots, tomorrow i wil embark in the adventure of building my 2nd freetrack. i will leave all the info here, maybe someone will find it useful

 

First we will check the basic components that we will need 

 

 

 

Camera - 5$ used 

Pseye - 

 

 

Leds - 20 x 8 $ 

SFH 485 P  seems to be the standart for a freetrack build thanks to the wide angle it uses and the low voltage, unfortunately its not available in my country so i settled with a 8mm 100 dg IR led, i will test it and report back 

 

 

Trackclip - 13 $ 3d printed 

I used a cap in my first freetrack but the quality of my craftmanship was pretty terrible so i decided to invest a little more for a more polished product. 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2458689

 

 

 

 

26 Usd in total, i could go ultracheap and buy the cheapest leds and make my own trackclip, that would save 20 aprox and should not affect performance too much, when its all finished i will give a preview showing how it works.

 

Whats the next step regarding hardware? a big monitor or vk sim pedals? what do you think? 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Tes

[Nicob]

I present you the hobo mk1 a prototype for the real 3d printed one. Used mostly to test components and the skills of the pilot 

[SCG_ErwinP]

SFH 785P in eBay

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pcs-SFH485P-EMITTER-GAALAS-880NM-5MM-RADIAL-New/262163090391?hash=item3d0a234bd7:g:7wkAAOSwf-VWWCq9:rk:1:pf:0

Edited January 3, 2019 by 3./JG15_HansPhilipp

[Nicob]

On 1/3/2019 at 7:54 AM, 3./JG15_HansPhilipp said:

SFH 785P in eBay

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-pcs-SFH485P-EMITTER-GAALAS-880NM-5MM-RADIAL-New/262163090391?hash=item3d0a234bd7:g:7wkAAOSwf-VWWCq9:rk:1:pf:0

I will try them in 2 months aprox when they arrive, thanks for the link. 

In the meantime this is my current monster, it works pretty good, never lost track of the lights in the day or night and has a nice velcro for attaching it to the headphone 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Tes

[BP_Lizard]

Looking good, Tes.

I wish I’ve gone this route instead when I was in the market for a head tracking device. Would have saved me a lot of money.

I was happy with the reflective hat clip but still curious about infrared tracking. I decided to build one.

I put together a wireless one from materials that were laying around the garage as I didn't want an extra cable on an already wired headset.

Materials were a leftover guitar pickguard for the arm, a company giveaway power bank, USB cable from an old mouse, some paint, zip ties, and tube heatshrink. Only the IR emitters were bought.

[Nicob]

Great construct lizard, it look very sturdy, the only thing that worrys me about your build is the weight. i love the wirelessness tough. 

 

 

A question regarding camera position, its better to have the camera pointing to the middle of your face or is it better for the camera to be pointing a space aligned with the orientation of your monitor? (image attached for clarification of concepts) 

 

[BP_Lizard]

Thanks. The weight is not too bad. The Vive headset is still a lot heavier.  

About the camera placement. I had it up on the top of the monitor, in line with my face, when I was using the TrackIR hat clip and it was tracking withtout a problem. Then when I switched to IR, I couldn’t get the view to center. Somebody here suggested to bring it down and place it on the table. It worked.