The (un)Official Freetrack Users Q&A Thread

[Jorge.PT 10]

I tried that and the problem still persists. Annoying.

Does the PS3eye have the option to use I420 compression? In my webcam freetrack can't track if it uses RGB 24, but it tracks wonderfully in I420.

[Dead3yez 0]

Please, post pictures of your grand 'designs'. I'm thinking of investing in this myself, I would like to see some options on how I can go about making one of these first.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Please, post pictures of your grand 'designs'. I'm thinking of investing in this myself, I would like to see some options on how I can go about making one of these first.

Have a look at this thread, in particular, the handsome young buck in post #9. Another view of the construction in post 11.

http://forum.free-track.net/index.php?showtopic=466

[maddogx 13]

I've been wondering: is it possible to use Freetrack with an appropriate camera and a TrackClip Pro?

[Tankbuster 1733]

I've been wondering: is it possible to use Freetrack with an appropriate camera and a TrackClip Pro?

Yes, I remember some freetrack users having that working fine. You just need to measure the TCP accurately and input it's dimensions into the client.

[DrSnow 0]

I've been wondering: is it possible to use Freetrack with an appropriate camera and a TrackClip Pro?

Its possible, but what i've heard (correct if i'm wrong) it doesn't work well. This is probably because Trackclip's vertical positioning of leds is not a straight line and you can't adjust this in FT's clip model.

But if you buy a infrared camera and use vector clip, i think it would work just fine.

Snow

Edit:

That was quick ;)

Yes, I remember some freetrack users having that working fine. You just need to measure the TCP accurately and input it's dimensions into the client.

Really? I had a impression that Trackclip would cause the movement work incorrectly, for example side shifting on vertical axis

when turning your head.

Edited December 11, 2009 by DrSnow

[MehMan 0]

Tips anybody? This is really farking annoying....

[Dcope 10]

just finished my reflective clip, all seems to be working fine and a lot lighter:)

[tpw 2313]

Due to the expense, I'd been humming and hahing about getting a TrackIR 4 or 5, and via this thread got interested in Freetrack as a cheapo alternative.

I hooked up my crappy old Logitech Quickcam Express webcam, and simply strapped on a tiny camping headlight (Zebralight H50) with an 80 degree LED. No IR filter removal or visible light filter needed.

After about 3 minutes of tweaking I had a 2 degrees of freedom setup running beautifully in Arma2 and Xplane 9. It took me about 30 minutes to get used to it, and now I'm hooked.

Many thanks to all on this thread, and to BIS and Freetrack.

[Chunk3ym4n 10]

Has anyone tried the HP KQ246AA 8.0MP Deluxe Webcam? There's an EXTREMELY good deal on amazon for it and I really want to get it. I'm wondering whether it has a very strong IR filter though... Also is there any good way to make a 3 point clip? I was thinking about using a plastic clothes hanger and drilling holes in it for the IR LED lights.

Here is the link if anyone wants to know:

http://www.amazon.com/HP-KQ246AA-8-0MP-Deluxe-Webcam/dp/B001D8AGA2

Edited December 15, 2009 by Chunk3ym4n

[Jorge.PT 10]

As promised here goes the hat I made for freetrack. Just a quick note, if it was today I would have done a clip and not a hat, in the future I'll do one.

Stuff that I used:

- 3 Siemens Infra-red Leds 1,5 mm of diameter, max forward current 100 mA, voltage drop 1,7 V;

- 3 Resistances 27 Ohms;

- 2 junction boxes;

- Soldering iron and solder;

- 1 old TV remote control; (For the batteries only)

- 2 AA 1,2 V rechargeable batteries;

- Microsoft LifeCam VX 3000.

Check the FreeTrack website LED Assembly Wizard: Link

About the Leds: In FreeTrack website they recommend that you use SFH485P Led models, or equivalents, they weren't available in the store I went to, so I bought 3 standard Infra-red Leds.

About the resistances: Don't forget that the bigger the resistances are the less current will feed the Leds. As my intention is playing with some room light, I went with a froward current of 50 mA, so that the webcam can pick the Leds easily.

NOTE: Don't forget to weld the resistances to the positive side of the LEDS.

LED Assembly:

The Cap...

Good luck with your clips/hats.

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 PM ----------

Has anyone tried the HP KQ246AA 8.0MP Deluxe Webcam? There's an EXTREMELY good deal on amazon for it and I really want to get it. I'm wondering whether it has a very strong IR filter though... Also is there any good way to make a 3 point clip? I was thinking about using a plastic clothes hanger and drilling holes in it for the IR LED lights.

Here is the link if anyone wants to know:

http://www.amazon.com/HP-KQ246AA-8-0MP-Deluxe-Webcam/dp/B001D8AGA2

The wii remotes are cheap today, see if you can get a good deal on one plus a blue-tooth stack. I don't know about that HP, but the best thing is to see in the freetrack forums.

[tpw 2313]

One slightly annoying thing I have noticed. With beta 61062 (haven't tried earlier), Arma2 will crash about 30% of the time when starting with freeview.

AppName: arma2.exe AppVer: 1.4.0.61062 ModName: freetrackclient.dll

ModVer: 1.0.0.266 Offset: 000027dd

It will start fine when next loaded though.

Anyone else seen this?

[Chunk3ym4n 10]

As promised here goes the hat I made for freetrack. Just a quick note, if it was today I would have done a clip and not a hat, in the future I'll do one.

Stuff that I used:

- 3 Siemens Infra-red Leds 1,5 mm of diameter, max forward current 100 mA, voltage drop 1,7 V;

- 3 Resistances 27 Ohms;

- 2 junction boxes;

- Soldering iron and solder;

- 1 old TV remote control; (For the batteries only)

- 2 AA 1,2 V rechargeable batteries;

- Microsoft LifeCam VX 3000.

Check the FreeTrack website LED Assembly Wizard: Link

About the Leds: In FreeTrack website they recommend that you use SFH485P Led models, or equivalents, they weren't available in the store I went to, so I bought 3 standard Infra-red Leds.

About the resistances: Don't forget that the bigger the resistances are the less current will feed the Leds. As my intention is playing with some room light, I went with a froward current of 50 mA, so that the webcam can pick the Leds easily.

NOTE: Don't forget to weld the resistances to the positive side of the LEDS.

LED Assembly:

The Cap...

Good luck with your clips/hats.

---------- Post added at 12:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 PM ----------

The wii remotes are cheap today, see if you can get a good deal on one plus a blue-tooth stack. I don't know about that HP, but the best thing is to see in the freetrack forums.

Yeah but I would like the use of a webcam to as well. The freetrack forums are dead and theres like only 1 post every day.

[MehMan 0]

Righto, a bit of an update I suppose. I've tried my solution on a 32 bit system with winxp, I use XP64. There my setup with a ps3 eye cam works. It tracks the whole input and even better, works great! But it only works in 640x480 and 30FPS. I've found that it only works with the 2.0b81019 drivers and no other. That's with FT 2.2. Now it might've been hardware or just the OS, but it's hard to test. I'd need a Virtual PC like application where it can use USB ports. Only the latest virtual PC that only works on W7 uses USB ports, grrr.

More testing ahead!

[Chunk3ym4n 10]

Does anyone know whats the best make shift object for a three point clip?

[MehMan 0]

I used pens and a soldering iron

And also, this is really realyl really frustrating. Now freetrack won't even recognize the ps3 eye as a source. GAH.

[bushlurker 45]

quickest, cheapest and easiest clip I ever made - back in my early experimenting days - used one of these...

A cheap 3-LED cyclelight. 3 for £1 - for your 33p you get a battery clip, 3 prewired and resistored LED's and an off/on/flash annoyingly switch... not bad

Use a red LED one if you can - though I used white and it worked OK too... file the fronts of the LED's flat - extend their wires appropriately - clip battery pack to back of hat or side of headphones...

A quick, cheap, easy (and splashproof) way of getting started at least...

B

Edited December 17, 2009 by Bushlurker

[MehMan 0]

I'm going to shit my pants. I've got it working! I've been installing my drivers incorrectly GAH! I relied on windows to install my latest drivers, and they ofcourse mucked up, as they didn't use the alexp drivers that I freshly installed, but the much newer ones. ofcourse, that led to a lot of trouble etc etc. After I manually selected which drivers to install it started working. That's with the default alexp drivers and not some 3rd party ones.

HOWEVER, now that I do have it working I see that there's still a ton of work ahead of me.

1.The LEDs are visible, but sometimes mess with freetrack. First thing I'm going to do is put a smaller resisitor in the circuit and build a better rig. This one has flaws. Plastic and boiling water it is. If that fails, I'll remove the IR filter.

2. FT wants to capture in 640x480 only. Doesn't want to support any other resolutions. It does capture at 640x480 @ 60 FPS, so we'll see how that works out. The problem with an increase in FPS is the decrease in image quality.

Well, I'll see how this works once I have it all setup.

EDIT:

Well, this sucks. The DLL in 2.0b81019 is a virus supposedly. And thus I can use it if I exclude it in nod32 BUT I'm not very comfortable doing that...

Edited December 19, 2009 by MehMan

[bushlurker 45]

.. might just be a false positive.... I had to exclude Arma2.exe from Avira! I also had a false positive with my fully-university-licensed ArcGIS package...

B

Edited December 19, 2009 by Bushlurker

[Wupjak 0]

One slightly annoying thing I have noticed. With beta 61062 (haven't tried earlier), Arma2 will crash about 30% of the time when starting with freeview.

AppName: arma2.exe AppVer: 1.4.0.61062 ModName: freetrackclient.dll

ModVer: 1.0.0.266 Offset: 000027dd

It will start fine when next loaded though.

Anyone else seen this?

Yes. Happens to me as well.

[boomboomer 0]

A quick, cheap, easy (and splashproof) way of getting started at least...

B

How exciting are you finding the freetrack system when splashproof is a bonus? lol

I wimped on the build and bought a hat from the guy on the freetrack forum, very nice and professional, looks like a normal baseball hat with the IR led's only just visible and a single AA battery by the rear fastner.

[Tankbuster 1733]

I've just found a handful of SFH485P emitters from my old FT project. 4 are still bagged and unused, 2 have a resistor of unknown resistance attached by solder. I would assume the bagged ones are good, but cannot vouch for the condition of the others. If they are good, you're lucky - if they're bad, nothing lost. :)

If anyone would like these, I'll gladly post them to UK users. :)

PM me.

[MehMan 0]

Does anybody know how to stop the jittering when you turn your head and hold it at a certain angle? If I want to look a bit left and keep staring left then the view jerks a bit...

[Chunk3ym4n 10]

Righto, a bit of an update I suppose. I've tried my solution on a 32 bit system with winxp, I use XP64. There my setup with a ps3 eye cam works. It tracks the whole input and even better, works great! But it only works in 640x480 and 30FPS. I've found that it only works with the 2.0b81019 drivers and no other. That's with FT 2.2. Now it might've been hardware or just the OS, but it's hard to test. I'd need a Virtual PC like application where it can use USB ports. Only the latest virtual PC that only works on W7 uses USB ports, grrr.

More testing ahead!

So wait mehman the PS3 Eye Camera worked with FT 2.2 with the 2.0b81019 drivers?

[MehMan 0]

So wait mehman the PS3 Eye Camera worked with FT 2.2 with the 2.0b81019 drivers?

Yes. It can track at 640x480 30 FPS and 60 FPS(well the only FPS' I tried).